GUERNSEY TO AUSTRALIA

Patea Mail, 3 January 1940, Page 3

GUERNSEY TO AUSTRALIA

AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY ■ A family of sea rovers from the Channel Island of Guernsey arrived in - Sydney Harbour in an old beaten yard, Eeine d’Arvor (Queen of Brittany), which has been their homo for two and a half years. For sixteen months they have been wandering in the Atlantic -and the Pacific, and for the last six weeks they have been battling toward Sydney from Fiji. f 'The family consists of ' the owner of ’ the boat, Hr. Henry Brache, who grow tomatoes for 20 years on the island of Guernsey, his wife, and two children, Anne 16, and Noel 14. The navigator was Mr. Fred Eebell, who made a lone voyage in an 18-foot beat, the Elaine, from Sydney fa Los Angeles about eight years ago. The only other member of the crew on the (last part of the voyage was Hr. TV, J. Woodward, a professional photographer, of Guernsey. SHORTAGE OF FOOD The Eeine d’ Arvor is 50 feet long, ■ is of about 40 tons, and is 25 years old. She was formerly a French fishing bofct. Built to withstand the tempests of the Bay of Biscay, the sturdy little craft has since ridden out the storms of the Atlantic and .Pacific without a wave breaking over her. , The Brache family originally started off on their world tour two years ago, but bad weather sent them back ou their first attempt, and after waiting for six months they ventured forth again. Their leisurely course was along the French coast to Jersey, the . Canary Islands, Barbados, St. Vincent, Panama, the Marquesas, Tahiti,' Samoa, Suva, with their journey’s end at Sydney. There were ten in the party ■when tW voyage began, but one of the crew left at Barbados, another remained at Tahiti, and two more found .employment at Fiji. ’The two children took turns at the ti||er. Short of food, the party live# mostly on rice on -the last stage of their voyage. NO PASSPORT CARRIED “When wo came off the coast of New South Wales, near Sydney Heads, none of us could sleep because of excitement,” Mr. Brache said. “We had no wireless and had heard no news of the war since leaving Suva 89 ■ days ago. You have no idea what it - feels like to have come all this distance and' to find civilisation again; above all, to find a piece of Britain.” Fred Rebel], . the navigator, was not allowed to laud in Sydney because he had no passport. A SJ-year-oid Latvian, he* lived in Australia for 25 years before he made his open boat voyage from Sydney to America in 1931. Ho is the author of a recently published book “Escape to the Sea.” • When immigration officers boarded ■ ; i the yawl and asked to see Rebell’s • passport, he admitted that he had failed to obtain an Australian ' passport • when he sailed from here in 1931. ■Eebell now desires to settle in Australia, but as he has been absent for more than five years lie is considered to have lost Australian domicile. His /•' . case has been referred to the Minister of the Interior, and there is little doubt that he will be admitted.•