YACHT'S VOYAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22719, 4 May 1937, Page 8

YACHT'S VOYAGE

!|; [HO HO BEACHES LIMA II f j| ROUND THE WORLD TRIP t [ ill JOURNEY NEARING AN END ;'i jjrSDM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT J Hi VANCOUVER, April 15 One of the strangest voyages in •'; living memory is nearing completion by ' | ithe fifteen-ton Norwegian yacht Ho Ho, |; which is undergoing repair at Lima, :* Peru, prior to continuing to New York ■H on the second to last stage of a round ■ the world trip. The three members of I: the crew are masters, who undertook jU to, search for traces of the Danish " training ship Kobenhavn, which dis- ' appeared after leaving Buenos Aires for • Australia ten years ago. The yacht was if named Ho Ho because the projected || .voyage was regarded, in her home port if of Oslo, as a "big joke." || The Ho Ho is 38 feet long, 13 feet 11 beam, and draws seven feet. Leaving i;| Norway in November, 1933, she fought || for 22 days against a storm in the English Channel. At Lyme Regis the I fourth member .of her crew returned fi home. At Las Palmas, they were com- }? missioned to take the ex-Kaiser's yacht Iduna to South America. Five days before they intended to sail, she burned : ,i; to the water-line, with all their gear, when defective wiring caused a short T| circuit. Returning to the Ho Ho, the adventurers crossed the South Atlantic || in 38 days.

Crew's Ordeal Recalled [ From Buenos Aires tliey set forth to find some trace df the missing ship. ; Sailing southward, they entered the •|j "roaring forties," where favourable U westerly winds carried them along in H the old" sailing ship seaway to Austra;J lia. It was somewhere in these latitudes 'H that they shot their first albatross, to vary the menu of salt beef. Unlike the } retribution that visited the ancient • mariner, however,'their trouble was not :! f lack of wind, but too much wind. The yacht was flung about like a cork in |f terrific seas. On January 6, 1935, when south 11 of The Cape, , the crew went _ through ; an ordeal -ivhicli made their previous hazards pale in comparison. H A mountainous sea turned the boat • r over. For half a .minute, the Ho Ho ' j wallowed, with her mast downward, until her jballast asserted itself and she jj« resumed her normal position, haying jjj made a complete turn. Fortunately, all i> of the crew were below decks, with f; skylights battened down. One suffered . : two Droken ribs, another injured his neck, the third escaped. \ j Voyage from Auckland {\ f The damage was serious. The dinghy §f had disappeared, sails were torn away, i: main boom, gaff and deckhouse were 1 smashed. They' made Hobart 103 days if out from Buenos Aires, not having ■, * sighted a single vessel. s!' After refitting, they went to Sydney, J| and Norfolk Island, where the Ho Ho :U was damaged in drifting ashore after r!| the anchor Chain snapped. Here they remained eleven months. After a long K overhaul at Auckland, the adventurers had no further mishap in crossing the :jI Pacific, by way of Tahiti, Pitcairn and If Easter Island.