AMONG THE ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19769, 17 October 1927, Page 6

AMONG THE ISLANDS.

ST JOHN CROSSLEV HARTLB. I 1

ADVENTUROUS CRUISE. • -v' ' " SEVEN MEN IN A YACHT. TINY' CRAFT ON LONG VOYAGE; ' ;;KT' VAVAU AND PAGO PAGO, . S

(Copyright. All Right" Reserved.) The following is the third of a series o{ articles to be published in the Herald describing the cruise of the 37-tpn yacht Utiakah 111., which began at. Melbourne and i 8 to include various por:s in both the iS'oxth and South Islands of hew Zealand an<i back to Melbourne. Since the last article was written we" have had many adventures among the jplands of the Pacific. We are now at Pago Pago, in American Samoa, which we reached via Nakualofa and Vavau. One of our number preferred to go- ; from Nukualofa to Vavau in the flagship of the Tongan Navy, the pride of the Queen's heari, a seventy-ton ketch, plus engine, just delivered from New Zealand. We saw her christened—the Queen, Prince Consort/ Ministers and nobles all being aboard. We dutifully dipped our ensign, to their great delight. On the morrow of our departure from Nukualofa we had covered 50 miles and then the weather changed. Heavy rain showers and faulty wind and at last, about noon, a dead calm. The engine refused duty, in spite of the caressing terms of endearment lavished on it by the engineer freely and without stint. . An Awkward Fix. Now here we were in a dilemma, being amongst a number of Islands and outlying reefs with tides cr currents setting us in toward them. Finally, we drifted until we were within 100 yards of tmß nasty-looking fellow. The surf was thundering on the reef and shipwreck looked imminent. We hoisted ail the sail we could stick on the masts, all working ia silence and swiftly withal, dispensing with the usual long-winded discussion. Then we resorted to the dinghy oars —four of them. We were by jthis time just clear of the sound of the breakers and possibly had managed to move her through the water a yard or so, when just in the nick of time a little gentle westerly air came along and wafted us slowly clear of trouble. Another ten minutes might have meant disaster, or, at the best, a long, back-breaking tug at tli<3 oars for several hours in the heat, The Beauty of Vavau. The breeze freshened and with it, on the quarter we sailed all night at about seven knots until 4 a.m., when we hoveto to wait for daylight. We entered Vavau at dawn and were enraptured with its beauty. It is impossible to do it justice. A dozen miles of it, all deep water and clear passages, with large bays and channels opening up on either hand, revealing vistas tempting us to explore The shores were a mass of green, luxuriant vegetation, varying from waterline. to 500 ft. in height, here almost sheer to tfce water's edge, strangely undercut, for several feet, and there gently shelving, with a house and a beat on tha beaches. Dozens of islands dotted about here and there, from an acre to 20 or more in extent; some tow, but most of them precipitous and apparently inaccessible, but all covered with a tangle of ver dure. Well sheltered, calm waters which no storm, save possibly a hurricane, could disturb, and enough of it to accommodate all the navies ever built. It must surely be one of the most beautiful harbours in the world. Unlike Tonga, which is flat, Vavau is of volcanic origin and the two cannot be compared. 'We picked np a mooring—second attempt —and prepared to receive visitors.': They came .and wanted to know who was. the millionaire owner. It is a widespread- r and weird belief that yachtsmen necessarily be rich. They are not,c though —not all of them. Indeed, even, on this boat there are several who are not millionaires, but it is difficult make some people believe it. i The Sam can Islands. = Ws left Vavau on Saturday morning, August 7, and when outside laid our course, north-east by north for Pago Pago, close-hauled on the starboartFtack, carrying all plarh sail. The wind freshening toward evening, we took in our topsail, but even so, by noon nextday the log read 196 knots. This was getting along too fast, so in the evening we took in the mizzen and at 2 a.m., on lights being reported ahead, we hcve-to until daylight. Our navigators took three sights the day before and having determined our position with great accuracy, solemnly, announced that we had run 200j miles in 24 hours. That extra half-mile looked suspicious, somehow; it would have been more convincing had they made it say 2044 miles. _ However, that left us about 130 miles to go before reaching Pago Pago(This name is best pronounced with a slight cold in the head, but if American, well, you just say it.) Hating run thi| off by 2.30 and sighted the lights, as recorded above, at daylight we ran in toward land, mightily; interested in this particular spot, but we soon discovered that we had run up against the rear of Apia instead —50 miles to leeward in 130 miles. This was really rather clever, but it almost led to a free fight on deck. The navigators looked cold and haughty, and suggested aloofly that the chronometer mieht be wrong, or the Nautical Almanac in error as to the date. This might well have been so. as we crossed the 180 th meridian and had two Saturdays to play tricks with. Still, this seems to throw serious doubt on the extra half-mile already referred to. Ah, well, it was lucky for us another island lay in our path, otherwise we might have landed up against the coast of China, all among th«i bold, bad pirates, who seem to be, by repufe, even more dangerous than navigators.