Woman repeats 23-month journey in 23 hours

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 48

Woman repeats 23-month journey in 23 hours

By

DAVID JONES,

NZPA staff reporter Wellington

Almost half a century ago, a young Englishwoman and her father set sail in a tiny boat on a perilous 20,000-mile sea journey to New Zealand.

It was nearly two years before the pair sailed into Auckland Harbour after more adventures than most people experience in a lifetime.

Now Marguerite Roberts, aged in her 70s, is back in New Zealand to be reunited with Caplin, the 10.6 m yawl in which she made the crossing. The craft was later sold to a family in Oamaru. Speaking after flying into Wellington Airport, Mrs Roberts said, “The last time I came to New Zealand it took 23 months. This time it took 23 hours!”

She was aged 24 when her father, Commander Douglas Graham, a retired Royal Navy officer, had the idea of sailing round the world in his own boat.

He had previously sailed single-handed to Newfoundland and written a book, “Rough Pas-

sage,” about his experiences.

For his round-the-world trip, Commander Graham had the yawl built in a yard near Cardiff. One day, said Mrs Roberts, he suddenly asked her if she would like to go with him. “I had no previous sailing experience, but it sounded like a good adventure, so I said ‘Yes’.” The yacht was fitted out at Bridgwater, Somerset, and the two set sail in April, 1938. Today, round-the-world sailing trips are as common as transatlantic flights, but in the late 1930 s those who dared undertake such ventures were usually considered mad or foolhardy, or both. Modern navigational aids such as radar or selfsteering gear were then unknown. “We just had our sextant and the stars,” said Mrs Roberts. The pair sailed to Ireland, and then across the Bay of Biscay to Madeira. From Madeira they took 31 days to cross the Atlantic to Bermuda.

“We had a few days becalmed in the Sargasso

Sea but no real adventure on the crossing,” she said.

Their first trouble came while sailing to Antigua in the West Indies.

"We got into the tail end of a hurricane. I sat in the cockpit at the tiller and the seas loomed up astern 30 to 40 feet high.

“I was sure we would be drowned by them but no, the little boat rose up each time and got us safely to port.” After Antigua they visited several islands on the way to Trinidad before sailing west along the north coast of Venezuela, on to Jamaica and down to the Panama Canal.

“I remember my father saying that it might be quite pricey going through the canal and perhaps we should go round Cape Horn!

“Fortunately it was quite cheap so we went through the canal, where we saw a lot of alligators. “It was thrilling getting into the Pacific. We went to the Galapagos Islands then Tahiti, Rarotonga, and Tonga. “In Tonga we met the Prince Tungi, Queen Salote’s son, who honoured us by coming

aboard and having tea. “He presented me with a ‘History of Tonga’ which he signed and I still have.”

With the outbreak of World War 11, the pair set sail for Auckland where Commander Graham, who was on the Naval Reserve list, reported to the British authorities. They then sailed down to Nelson, and finally to Wellington.

It was there that Commander Graham decided to return to England to fight for his country.

He sold the boat to the Gillies family of Oamaru and returned home. His daughter stayed in Wellington for the duration of the war, working in a photographic studio in Lambton Quay. “I always dreamt of returning to New Zealand one day to see Caplin again,” she said. So she recently wrote to the Gillies family. They told her the yacht was still in seaworthy condition, and invited her over for a sail. “That was all I needed. It will be a thrill to take the tiller again after nearly 50 years ashore,” Mrs Roberts said.