SEA ADVENTURES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19697, 1 August 1938, Page 5

SEA ADVENTURES

NELSON YACHTSMEN

FOLLOWED BY WHALES

BATTERED BY STORMS

ARRIVAL AT VAVAI

(Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, ths day

After an adventurous trip to various South Sea Islands, the Nelson auxiliary yacht Blue Seas, manned by Mr." J. Anstice, captain, Mr. G. A. Day and Mr. H. Lewis, arrived at Vavau from Papeete on July 22, according to advice received at Auckland.

The vessel left Nelson in May for Rarotonga, Tahiti and Vavau on a cruise that was expected to take from three to five months. Between Fiji and Tonga, the voyagers met with two whales about 45ft. long, with tails of about 16ft. and the two monsters followed the boat for about four hours. At times they swam right under the boat and twice the tail of one almost touched the stern.

The captain told his host at Vavau that he and the two others on board thought they never would see land again. They were without a gun or anything that might scare the whales away; so the captain kept to his course and trusted to luck. Luckily, the whales tired of their antics and, in due time, dived and were not seen again.

After the Blue Seas left Nelson, a direct course was set for Rarotonga, which was reached in comparatively good time. After remaining there for a few days, the three men left for Papeete, where they stayed a short while before sailing for Vavau.

Soon after they left Papeete the yacht ran into a bad storm. The wireless set refused to function. They could not get the correct time and they were almost exhausted through lack of sleep and anxiety at the battering the boat was receiving from the seas. At the height of the storm, they passed close to Fiji without sighting land and, according to the log, they were a long way from Vavau and apparently near Samoa. Some hours later, to their relief, they saw land which afterwards proved to be Vavau.

Although almost worn out from their experience, they were not injured in any way, and, after a good sleep, they were fit again. If was expected that they would leave Vavau toward the end of last week and take a direct course to Auckland.

ROUND-WORLD CRUISE

SOUTH AFRICAN YACHT

VISIT TO TONGAN GROUP

CAPTAIN'S INTENTIONS

(Per Preii Association.)

AUCKLAND, ths day

After undergoing some reconditioning and repairs, the South African ketch-rigged yacht, Land's End, which has been wintering in Auckland in the course of a world's voyage from Durban, is now at the Harbour Board's slip where the final preparations are in progress for her departure on Monday, August 8.

It is the intention of her owner, Captain Jeffery, to proceed to Whangarei and the Bay of Islands, whence a voyage will be made to the Tongan Group. It is anticipated that the yacht will return to Auckland from a cruise among the Tongan Islands about the second week in November. The craft will remain in Auckland for a part of the yachting season, after which she will circumnavigate New Zealand, including Stewart Island.

After that sail will be set for Sydney, proceeding up the Australian coast and visiting Brisbane. The yacht will then make for New Guinea and, after leisurely progress among those islands and the Dutch East Indies, she will cross the Indian Ocean and return to Durban.

She will then have circumnavigated the globe, having left Durban in September last and entered the Pacific through the Panama Canal.

Changes have been made in the crew in Auckland. Mr. D. Ashton, Whangarei, has joined the yacht and Mr. H. R. Jenkins, ex-M.P., who is building his own boat in the Bay of Islands for ocean cruising, will make the trip to Tonga and back to Auckland in order to gain experience and to practice navigation. "I have not the slightest intention of writing a book on the world cruise," said Captain Jeffrey, in reply to a question. "That sort of thing has been overdone, but I am making a pictorial record with a movie camera. I like to entertain the various yachting clubs at the different ports with moving picture views of the places I visit. It is some return for the hospitality I encounter."