Crew Log 204 – The History of Yachting

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March 15, 2010 – At Sea, 12º 00’S, 077º 13’W
By Herb McCormick

The last thing we did was sign the book. And what a volume it was. Entitled Libro de Visitantes, it’s the de facto guest book for the Yacht Club Peruano (YCP), the clean, tidy establishment in Callao, Peru – an hour’s drive from the sprawling, searing city of Lima – that the crew of Ocean Watch has had the privilege of calling home and using as a base of operations since arriving in Peruvian waters over a week ago.

The YCP, with a great restaurant; a nice bar; 24-hour launch service; free WiFi; a fuel dock; and a courteous, friendly staff managed with a wink and a smile by our new amigo, Jaime Ackerman, is a remarkable place, an oasis not far from the Peruvian desert. So it’s fitting that the Libro de Visitantes is also something incredible. With signatures, notes, drawings, photos, maps and entries from some of the most noteworthy sailors of the last fifty-odd years – Tristan Jones, anybody? – as well as from “ordinary” cruising sailors from all over the planet, in the midst of extraordinary voyages in their own right, the pages of the Libro are in many ways an abridged history of yachting.

This afternoon, the 64-foot cutter Ocean Watch resumed its travels after a refreshing layover in Peru, and is now en route to one of the most anticipated stops on the entire expedition Around the Americas: the famous Ecuadorian archipelago known as the Galápagos Islands. The roughly thousand nautical-mile leg will take the crew north to the equator, which they expect to reach in about a week’s time. We’re leaving Peru with a slew of fresh memories, not the least of which is the Libro de Vistantes.

It started with a bang, at least for me. Though many of the notes go back to the 1950s, the very first entry I saw when I opened the book, penned on “21 April 1973” bears the signature of the legendary Dutch yachtsman, Willy de Roos, who four years later, aboard his sturdy ketch, Williwaw, became the first “modern” cruising sailor to successfully negotiate the Northwest Passage. De Roos continued on, and eventually sailed a route “around the Americas” as well (though over a longer period, and in a different direction, than Ocean Watch). To say we were startled to see de Roos’s autograph and accompanying note (unfortunately, in Dutch) would be an understatement.

We had no trouble, however, reading the message directly under Willy’s: In clear, strong penmanship, that famed Welsh wanderer, author and rascal, the one-and-only Tristan Jones, crafted it.

Jones’s most famous book is called The Incredible Voyage, which is actually a bit of understatement. In it, he describes hauling a boat across the Andes to the high-altitude waters of Lake Titicaca, a journey so arduous, in fact, that many of the salient details seem too incredible to believe. But clearly, Jones was in Peru in 1973, and if he was indeed trying to manufacture a tale of adventure, playing fast and loose with the facts, you wouldn’t know it from his message in the Libro.

Under the heading, ‘Yate Sea Dart,’ Jones writes: “Arrived here on voyage from Antilles to Lake Titicaca in an attempt to grasp the world’s vertical sailing record and perhaps cross over to River Plate. Thanks to YCP for a wonderful reception and much help and good advice. Any members coming to Titicaca until May 1974 are cordially invited to a sail on ‘Dardo Del Mar.’

“Across the Oceans – Across the Mountains,
“Home is the sailor, home from the sea…
“And the hunter, home from the hill.”

It is signed, in bold script: “Tristan Jones.”

A few pages later, there are notes from two sailors who were famous for sinking after collisions with whales; both Maurice Bailey and Bill Butler spent long days in rafts with their wives, lived to tell their tales, and wrote powerful books about the experience. Butler’s marriage, sadly, did not survive, and later, even more tragically, he was lost at sea while trying to round Cape Horn alone

Oh, for those days in Peru.

A sailor by the name of Jimmy Cornell, one of the more prolific cruising authors of our time, tells a happier story. Here’s his entry from “21/2/78”:

“S/Y Aventura (Victory 36). Homeport: London, England. Arrived in time to spend a pleasant Christmas here from Panama direct. We left England May 1975, spent 1 ½ years in the Mediterranean – then Canaries, West Indies, Bahamas, USA, Panama and then Callao. Thank you for your hospitality, Gwenda and Jimmy Cornell and children Doina (10) and Ivan (8).”

I got a special kick out of that one. I know Jimmy a bit, and his wonderful family. Doina and Ivan, most assuredly, are no longer ten and eight.

On the book goes, through generations and voyages, with boat names upon boat names upon boat names: Macumba and Arakis and Blizzard II and War Baby and Windchild and Tirangog and on and on. The hailing ports are equally endless: Sydney and Auckland and Hamburg and Annapolis and Barcelona. Here’s the story of the West family, from Maine, on their 50-footer, Westri. And there’s the tale of the Martin family, from Pt. Hadlock, Washington, on their Crealock 37, Teresa J.

“Hey, I know of those guys!” said Dave Logan, our first mate, no stranger to the waters of the Pacific Northwest.

Just before bidding the fine folks of the YCP farewell and leaving Callao, we turned the pages until at last there was a fresh one. On it, we pasted in a picture of Ocean Watch, passed the pen around, and each signed our own names in turn. We were humbled to be included in such fine company.

With that, grateful for the gracious hospitality, yet eager to carry onward, we hauled the anchor and closed the book on Peru.

-Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson

*This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos

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