ADVENTUROUS CRUISE

Hokitika Guardian, 8 January 1931, Page 4

ADVENTUROUS CRUISE

ON SMALL YACHT. AUCKLAND, January 6. A small, strange craft worked her way up to the Rangitoto channel this morning, and amidst speculation as to her identity, broke out the Norwegian Hag. The visitor proved to he the yacht Teddy. or Larivk. on which are Mr Erl mg Tambs, his wife and child, who are making a trip round the world. | This morning when the Teddy dropped anchor across tlie harbour under Stanley Bay it looked little different from the other yachts which sail in and out of the Waitematn, but instead of returning from a Christinas cruise it had come from Samoa. Two years and four months ago it left . Oslo. Erlring Tombs and his wife, both of whom speak good English, just left the life they lived, and, to use their own words to-day “here we are.”

A Leisurely Progress. When they left Oslo they crossed to the Canary Islands, where their son was born. Perhaps because of his birthplace they called him Antonio, He is the treasure of the ship. “Then we camei across the Atlantic,” said the skipper, much in the same way as a trans-harbour dweller would speak of a trip across to town "to the West Indies,” There in the manner of those who do not own time as a master they idled away laisy days until they decid. ed to come through the Panama Canal to Pupeete, another nonchallnnt gesture, and most of the Pacific was, passed Through the various island groups they made a leisurely way until they looked into Suva and came on to Pago Pago in Samoa. ’There they ran into had weather. "It blew,” said the captain in his careful, clipped English, “to beat the hand.” From there they crossed without the aid of a chart to Auckland in twenty-four days.

Both Sick

This part of the trip, according to Mrs Tambs, was the most trying, because her husband was sick, she horse It did not feel well, and there was nobody to navigate the crait properly. “When we left the islands my husband poisoned his finger, and it was very bad,” she added. "He was too ill to leave his bunk, except to look at the sun at mid-day. After setting a storm jib he let the boat, take hex own course. For fourteen days not one of us touched the tiller, yet here we are safe and sound. That is the advantage of having an old pilot vessel to rely on.” ”

Adventure With a Shark.

Mrs Tambs could see nothing very unusual about the long trip that they had made, and the prospect of crossing the Tasman to Australia left her undismayed, but of one incident, an accident which almost befell her little son, she spoke with agitation. When the Teddy was just clear of Samoa the boy was playing on deck. He had a small fishing line over the side with a piece of rag instead of a hook. Mrs Tambs suddenly missed the noise of his playing, and on going up found him gazing intently over the side into the cold, small eyes of a huge shark. She drove the monster away, but. all that it did was to sink and then com© up on the other side of the boat. The shark followed them for days.