AMONG THE ISLANDS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19140, 25 October 1927, Page 8

AMONG THE ISLANDS.

ADVENTUROUS CRUISE. SEVEN MEN IN A YACHT. (By John Crossley Hartle.) (Copyright. All Eights Reserved.) The following is the third of a series of articles to be published describing the cruise of the 37-ton N yacht Utiakah 111., which began at Melbourne and is to include various ports in both the North and South Islands of New Zealand and back to Melbourne. Since the last article was written wo have had many adventures among the islands of the Pacific. We are now at Pago Pago, in American Samoa, which we readied via Nukualofa and Vavau. One of our number preferred to go from Nukualofa to Vavau in the flagship of the Tongaii Navy, the pride of the Queen's heart, a seventy-ton ketch, plus engine, just delivered from New Zealand. We saw her christened —the Queen, Prince Consort, Ministers, and nobles all being aboard. We dutifully dipped our ensign, to their great delight. On the morrow of our departure from Nukualofa we had covered 50 miles and then the weather changed. Heavy rain showers and faulty wind and at last, about noon, a dead calm. The engine refused duty, iu spite of the caressing icrms of endearment lavished on it by the engineer freely and without stint. Now here we were in a dilemma/ being amongst a number of islands and outlying reefs with tides or currents setling us in toward them. Finally, we drifted until we were within 100 yards of one nasty-looking fellow. The surf was thundering on the reef and shipwreck looked imminent. . We hoisted all the sail we could stick on the masts, aIL working in silence and swiftly withal, dispensing with the 'usual longwinded discussion. -

Then wo. resorted to the dinghy oars —four of them. We were by this time just clear of the sound of the breakers and possibly had managed to move her through the water a yard or so, when just in the nick of time a little gentle westerly air came along and wafted'us slowly clear of trouble. Another ten minutes might haive meant disaster, or, at the best, a long, back-breaking tug at the oars for several hours in the heat.

The Beauty of Vavau. The breeze freshened and with it on the quarter wo sailed all night at about, seven knots until 4 a.m., when : we' have to wait for daylight. We ontered Vavau at dawn and were enraptured with its heauty. It is impossible to do it justice. A dozen miles of it, all deep water and clear passages, with large bays and channels opening up on either hand, revealing vistas tempting us to explore. The shores were a mass of green, luxuriant vegetation ( varying from water-line to 500 ft' in height,- here almost sheer to the water's edge._ strangely underout for several feet, and there gently shelving, with a house and •a boat on the beaches. Dozens of islands dotted about here and there, from an acre to 20 or more in extent; some low, but most of them precipitous and apparently inaccessible, but all covered with a tangle of verdure.

Well sheltered, calm waters which no storm, save possibly a hurricane, could disturb, and enough of it to accommodate all the navies ever built. It must surely be one of/the most beauti'fuj harbours in the world. ..Unlike '. Tonga, which is flat, Vavau is of volcanic origin and the two cannot be compared. We picked up a mooring—second attempt—and prepared to receive visitors. They came and wanted to know who was the millionaire owner. It is a widespread and weird belief that yachtsmen must necessarily be rich. They are not, though—not all of them. : Indeed, even on .this, boat there are several who are. not rr> ! llionaires, but it is difficult to hi.ai-" • miic people believe it. AVe left Vavau on Saturday morning, August 7th, and when outside laid our course north-east by north for Pago Pago, close-hauled on the starboard tack, carrying all plain sail. The wind freshening toward evening, we took in our topsail, but even so, by noon next day the log read 196 knots. This was getting along too fast, so in the evening we took in the mizzen and at;2 a.m., on lights being reported ahead; we hove to until daylight. '■■'"' Our navigators took three sights the day before, and having determined our position with great accuracy, solemnly announced that wo had run 200} miles in 24 hours. That extra half-mile looked suspicious, somehow; it would have been more convincing had they made it say 204} miles.

However, that left us about 130 miles to go before reaching Pago Pago. (This name is best pronounced with a slight cold in the head, but if American, well, you just say : it.) •Having run this off by 2:30 and sighted tfie lights, as.recorded above, at daylight we ran in toward land, mightily interested in this particular spot,' but we soon discovered that we had rim, up against the rear of Apia instead—3o miles to leeward in 130 miles.

This was really rather clever, but it almost led to a free fight on deck. The navigators looked cold and haughty, and suggestedly aloofly that the chronometer might be wrong, or the .Nautical Almanac in error as to the date. This might well have been so, as we crossed the 180 th meridian and had two Saturdays to play tricks with. Still, this seems to throw serious doubt on the extra half-mile already referred to.

Ah, wellj it was lucky for us another island lay in our path, otherwise we might have landed up against the coast of China, all among the bold, bad pirates, who seem to be, by repute, even more dangerous 'than navigators.