ADVENTUROUS FLING

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 493, 30 June 1932, Page 5

ADVENTUROUS FLING

Sloop Sails on Two Years’ Cruise. GROOM AND BRIDE AS CREW. (Special to the “ Star.”) HAMILTON (Bermuda), May 26. A 36ft sloop tacked bravely out of the harbour yesterday and headed across the Atlantic for Europe. Aboard are only two persons, a young Harvard graduate and his»South American bride. The commander is J. Edward Crowley, Brookline, Mass., an architect graduated from Harvard in 1925; and all the other officers and crew are combined in the attractive person of the former Miss Carmen Stella Fernandez de Cornejo, of Buenos Aires, who became Mrs Crowley last September. She is twenty-one; her husband is twentyeight. This gallant undertaking represents a young couple’s one big fling at adventure before they settle down to life in its more serious aspects, and both the captain and his shipmate are gaily confident of success. Dodging the Depression. “ And it’s a good time to go,” laughed the skipper, as he put aboard the final stores. “ When we get back perhaps the depression will be over. Our expenses on this trip will be about £2 a week.” The chief burden of the navigating will be Mr Crowley’s, but his wife will be an efficient aide. “ I can handle the tiller,” she explained, “ and I can read the compass and I can furl sail.” “And cook,” exclaimed her husband with anticipation. It is 2061 land miles from Hamilton to the Azores, where the Crowleys ex- > pect-to drop anchor at Horta. They believe this leg of the voyage will take about a month, and they are carrying double the amount of supplies—potatoes. onions, tinned goods, fruit and water—that this time would require. The distance from Horta to Gibraltar is 1305 land miles. 1 Both skipper and crew of the little doop. the Ochito, have been tested at 1 ;ea. Last fall they sailed from their j iome port, Gloucester, Mass., for Ber- 1

muda, intending at that time to pause 1 only briefly at the islands and continue on then to Europe. But they had a tough voyage to Ber--1 muda, with nine days of continuous gale, which proved the seaworthiness of their craft; and they liked Bermuda so much that they decided to spend the winter there, living aboard their boat. The sloop is of the Friendship type, with an auxiliary engine. There is no wireless, but a rubber life raft is an essential part of the equipment. The Crowleys expect to be away two years. They will cruise leisurely along the Mediterranean, and hope then to cross the South Atlantic to Buenos Aires, there to visit Mrs Crowley’s home.— (N.A.N.A.)