PASSAGE DOWN COAST

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21210, 3 December 1938, Page 5

PASSAGE DOWN COAST

YACHT’S EXPERIENCES By Telegraph— Ptpsf Association WELLINGTON, December 2. The yacht Rover, which left Auckland on November 23, arrived at Wellington this morning. She was becalmed on several occasion, once for the better part of two days. She struck really rough weather only a few miles off Wellington Heads. Her best day's run was 150 miles, on the stretch from Gisborne to Cape Turnagain, but there the wind failed. The crew had made a spinnaker boom out of oars and a plank, and while improvising this, a member fell overboard. Off Turnagain, they caught an albicore —a rather rare fish, with unusual side fins. They always had plenty of fish, having only to put a line over the side when they wanted them. While fishing off the Palliser light, they signalled the keeper, and asked him to report them, but they were still there the next morning. Here a shark robbed them of some fish. They had two kahawai and two barracuda hanging over the side, and the shark got away with them. They drifted till they got a light south-easterly off Turakirae, but they struck a bad tide-rip, and it began to blow increasingly, so that they had to shorten sail till they were under the foresail alone. One big sea broke over them, putting six inches of water in the cabin, where crockery was broken. The harbour was beaten into under engine-power and sail. At no time did the craft give them the slightest anxiety.