MARSHALLESE MODEL SAILING CANOES RACE

These intricately modeled canoes are raced from one island on the atoll to another that may be several miles away. No radios, no gps, no electronics. Just "set it and forget it" and hope it reaches its destination. Most don't. Sometimes all it takes to win is to arrive. Kind of like life.

ONE TOUGH OLD BOAT

I was in Hawaii and Carol was in bed in our apartment in the Marshall Islands when she received a call every sailor dreads:

"YOUR BOAT IS ON THE ROCKS!"

It seems the mooring had parted and MORNING WINGS had drifted onto the beach during the night. Competent, as always, Carol got a crew of guys together and they floated it off the shore at the next high tide.

The old explorers used to put their ships on the beach to clean the bottoms. The maneuver was called "careening" and it was quite commonly employed. However, they planned their beachings and ours was very unplanned.

We know of two other boats that were beached. Both were 30 foot Catalinas and both were destroyed.

A Hans Christian is a heavy, forgiving, comfortable cruising boat. It will not win many races but it is built to take it. Carol told me that everything was fine. The only damage was some broken fiberglass on the rudder. I guess we can still do the rest of our cruising - to Tonga, Fiji, Australia, and beyond.

UNDERWAY TO THE MARSHALL ISLANDS

Our boat is a 1975 Hans Christian. It is 36 feet long on deck and was probably one of the last 36 footers made by Hans Christian. The molds were then sold and used for the hulls of the cheaper "Union" brand boats. We have checked with Bob Perry the designer of the boat and he agreed that it was a genuine Hans Christian, not one of the later, inferior models.

This photo was taken by the Saunders from the deck of their boat "Swan". This is the departure of "Morning Wings" from Keehi Lagoon near Honolulu as we left for the Marshall Islands. We are sporting all new chain plates, stanchions and rigging that was added during our Hawaii stay. We also had the Volvo Diesel repaired and a new mainsail made. In all, about $40,000 in upgrades.

The lady, her dream, the boat

In 1989 our kids were grown, retirement was near, and I asked my wife what her wish was for our lives from this point on. Carol replied, "I've always had a dream of sailing to wonderful islands and countries. To explore, Scuba, and relax."
"Done" I replied, " All we need to do is get a boat, learn to sail, learn to scuba, learn to navigate, and we're on our way. That shouldn't be too hard."