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Sailing and flying
sparklove of travel
By Yvonne Reynold
Leigh Rose has developed ato
for travel. It was acquired. is
summer. The 15 -year-old Grade 11
SHDHS student was away from
home for four months. She spent
three-quarters of that time as pan
of a crew of seven on her uncle's
63 -foot -Wooden sailboat, and Aus-
tralia was her address for the last
few weeks.
Leigh's uncle received publicity
earlier this year while gathering a
crew to help sail the 50 -year-old
Noidvag (North wave) he purchased
in Sweden in 1980 around the
Leigh Rose
world, on a two-year trip. His
niece became more and more inter-
ested in applying for the job. She
finally decided to take the plunge,
and joined the ship in San Diego
on June 25.
The four -man, three woman crcw
was composed of Canadians, an
American and a New Zealander.
(Among them was Steve Lippin-
cott,. 1.9, who recently moved to.
Stratford from Clinton.)
"You feel so sick
you want to die"
Leigh immediately became a stu-
dent of two arts - sailing and cook-
ing. Each crew member was re-
quired to prepare a big meal, and to
clean one room aboard ship, once
every seven days. The neophyte
sailor was put to work varnishing
railings, painting the anchor, and
doing the never-ending cleaning
and fixing jobs that abound on a
sailing vessel:
Many modern amenities were
missing on the Nordvag. A lack
of refrigeration capacity limited the
variety of dishes on the menu.
The ship had a well -stocked li-
brary, but Leigh compared trying to
read oil a sailing ship to attempting
the same thing in. a moving car.
She did often dig into. the extensive
collection of cook books to add va-
riety on her days to cook.
The crew snorkled off Molohine
for a day before heading on to the
big island of Hawaii for a week of
sightseeing, which included a hike
through a volcano.
Thirty days of sailing covered the
2,000 nautical miles to the next
stop, Funafuti, one of the largest is-
lands in the Fiji chain. Leigh saw
p.er first dolphins`and pilot whales
on this leg of the trip. The dol-
phins would play in the water in
front of the Nordvag for a couple of
hours each day.
The roughest seas were encoun-
tered on the trip to Fiji. Leigh also
The crew became
part of the local
attraction
had her only scarey experience here.
A coral reef that should have been
five miles away suddenly loomed
two miles dead ahead during her turn
on watch.
"I kept my wits, and turned the
ship. I panicked later", Leigh con-
fessed. She never found out who
had made the navigational mistake,
or what had gone wrong. No one
wanted to discuss the matter after-
ward.
The Nordvag crew became part of
the local attractions during their
week-long stay in Funafuti, a third -
world country that sees no more
than 100 tourists a year. The seven
awoke from a night spent on the
deck because of the heat to discover
they were surrounded by dozens of
natives, all staring at them.
"We were treated like animals in a
zoo", Leigh said.
Leigh left the ship in Fiji to fly
to Sydney, Australia, for a week's
stay with friends of her mother be-
fore crossing to Perth on the west
coast to meet a penpal. She and her
friend headed south down the coast,
taking about three weeks to reach
the tip of the land down under.
Much of the geography reminded.
Leigh of Canada. She compared the
bustling metropolis of Sydney with
Toronto, and said Perth, though
larger, was much like London. In
the only nasty incident, her friends
were hassled by aboriginal street
kids in Perth.
"That was different from what you
hear about Australia", Leigh com-
mented..
Leigh flew back to Canada on
THE ROMANCE OF SAIL - Leigh Rose learned to sailin the Nordvag.
Fresh water was in limited supply.
The crew atc a lot of canned goods
and rice. Homemade bread was a
frequent treat:
Bathing was accomplished by
bucket bath, or .hooking up the
hose in the privacy afforded behind
the wheelhouse. Everyone wove
rope nets to keep themselves from
falling out of one of the eight
bunks in the bows •
Leigh was seasick .three times.
Each bout succeeded a stay on land,
as her body readjusted to the sway
of the ship.
"You feel so sick you want to
die", she recalled.
On the 28 -day journey to Ha-
waii, Leigh was taught how to'
handle thc_many different• ropes
used to raise and lower each sail
She•also took charge in the wheel-
house for her regular two-hour
watch, two-hour standby duces.
September 15. -She was ready to
comc home, after living out of a
suitcase for four months. But she
wouldn't have missed her adventure
for anything.
"It was a great experience. 1
"I learned to get
along with others"
learned a lot about the world, and
about myself. I . learned patience,
and I learned to get along with oth-
ers. The last few days before we
reached port were strenuous -'we
were on each other's backs", Leigh
said.
Leigh also realized she really likes
travelling, and would recommend it
to anyone. She has decided that
whatever career she chooses in the
future will have to involve travel.
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Times -Advocate, October 12, 1988
Page 9
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