IONA’S ROUGH TRIP

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 25 November 1927, Page 6

IONA’S ROUGH TRIP

BATTERED BY STORMS INTREPID VOYAGERS REACH QUEENSLAND. AUCKLAND MEN. Auckland, November 25. Battered by gales and seas, the 35foot yawl lona sailed resolutely from lona to the Queensland coast. For about a month her crew of two Auckland men did not see land and they confess to haying been “played in” when the 2000-mile voyage ended. With the idea of shell-fishing and trading in New Guinea, two Auckland men, Roy Tange and Leslie Eide, left Auckland in the lona, a 30-foot yawl, formerly known as the Gallant, on Saturday. September 3. Nothing was heard of them after they left Monognui on September 13 until a cable was received from Mackay, Queensland, DARING VOYAGE. In letters to ills mother. Eide has described the daring voyage. After “hitting the trail” to the North Cape from Mongoniii. the yawl ran into a gale and had to put into Whatuphiwhi for five days. There the crew cut each other’s hair, did the washing, and was entertained by the local schoolmaster. On September 21- the lona headed for Norfolk Island, but she met hea. winds. “For two days we punched on in a howling gale,” says Eide, “but after that we had a great sail with the wind free.” The idea of going to Norfolk was given up. and a course was steered for the Queensland coast. “We sighted land last Sunday, the first we had seen since we left New Zealand,” he says in a letter dated Mackay, October 17. “Both of us were played out, and ran for the nearest bay. which proved to be 115 miles from any port. We struck a great anchorage, a small sandy beach and trees beyond, filled with all kinds of birds and butterflies. We found two turtles on the beach.” UP THE COAST. Contrary winds kept the voyagers in the bay for a few days. They explored the country afoot. Eide says that he has not worn shirt oi shoes for 20 days, and he is «s brown and tough as a salamander. When the wind changed the lona ran up the coast, logging 45 miles on a Saturday afternoon and 70 miles on the Sunday. At Mackay, reached on October 17. the ship was visited by the doctor. Customs officials, and a police sergeant, whose uniform of “khaki, with the hat turned up at the side” appealed to Eide. Mackay he describes as “a great village full of dust, pubs, motor-cars, and snappy-looking houses built on stilts.”

The voyagers profited by Queensland hospitality, visiting a sugai plantation, wht re they were loaded with raspeberries, strawberries, pawpaws, oranges, greens, jam and sugar. TROPIC ISLANDS. With the sail spread again Eide was fascinated by many islands “with white sandy beaches and coconut palms, and all kinds of trees holding queer-looking birds.” They took on a load of coconuts, the milk of which Eide predicts is to become the main drink, and some fishing. Two green parrot-fish were caught. Calling at the Lindeman Islands they were presented with a shoulder of mutton by the owner. Bowen, which was reached on October 28. is described as “the rottenest, most miserable one-eyed dufnp of a farmyard, with a dozen palms along a beach covered with beer bottles and dirty kids.” Cows, horses, goats fowls, children, drunks and two motor-cars were gathered on the wide grass-grown main street. Rats iiaa been caught from a barge at Townsville, which reminded Eide of New Plymouth. At Palm Islands, a home for aborigines, thev were shown round and given supplies. The lona arrived at Cairns on November 9. and the crew is thinking of laying the ship up at Mossman until the hurricane season i s over, in two months’ time, and getting jobs in a sugar mill.