YAWL’S LONG TRIP

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21304, 25 March 1939, Page 8

YAWL’S LONG TRIP

Thirty Days Across Tasman Blown Well Off Course -pplegruph — Press Association ° AUCKLAND, March 24 Flyng a tattered United States ensign a strange yawl slipped unexpectedly into Auckland harbour late this afternoon. She came from Sydney, and the voyage across the Tasman took 30 days. On board were two very hungry men, one a Netherlander and the other Swedish by birth, but a naturalised Australian. For the last eight or nine days they had been living on potatoes, fried onions and pancakes made of flour and water, all other supplies being exhausted. The owner is the Netherlander, Frank Dona, and the Aus-tralian-Swede is Oscar Strom. Each said that he had suffered from sickness through their restricted diet which was relieved only briefly when they put into Spirits Bay and found there a solitary camper who gave them a loaf of bread and a couple of apples Both also bore on their legs severe abrasions caused when they were flung about their small craft in heavy weather. That, together with irritating calms, prevented them from reaching Auckland on the date they planned, March 8. Dream Realised Captain Dona said that the depression caused him to put into realisation a dream he had already cherished and with his brother Pete he went to Seattle and began to build a boat. The task took him a year, and when his yawl was finally launched in 1935 he named her Marie after his mother and set sail for Alaska. A year ago the two brothers left Honolulu and sailed to Tahiti, going thence to Samoa, Fiji and finally to Sydney, where they stayed three months. On February 22 he set sail for Auckland. “Meanwhile,” he said, “my brother Pete had decided to stay in Sydney where he found work, so we parted after sailing for more than three years together, so I took on Oscar, and here I am, although it took so long to get round that devil of a North Cape that I began to despair of reaching here.” Head Winds and Calms Head winds and then calms were the Marie’s lot for the whole of the voyage, said Captain Dona. Good progress was made for the first few days, but then they ran into a storm and were hoveto for five days, in which time they were taken northward far off their course. Then for three day’s the Tasman was as peaceful as the Waitemata and they stayed almost where they were. After that there were more head winds, and they lost a greater distance than they had gained. The Marie sighted the New Zealand coast almost a week after they had hoped to be in Auckland. They tried to sail round the North Cape and were foiled by more head winds and calms. Finally they were forced to use the auxiliary engine with which the Marie is fitted.

Captain Dona said he had shipped 44 gallons of petrol when he left Sydney, and he had intended to reserve it for harbour work but the rapidly diminishing supplies of fresh food decided him to draw on the engine to get past the Cape. For the last few days they had rationed the watei' to a few “fingers” for drinking and to splash for w'ashing. The Marie is only 34 feet long, with a beam of 11 feet and a draught of 6 feet.