Thus the men left Durban without Lorette, but in the Cape they met Mary Clayton, a lady from New Zeeland, that joined them with the departing words: "I hope I don't fall in love".

But this hope was short-lived, for when the men on Sandefjord crossed paths at sea with a luxury yacht, the Dante Deo, Mary fell in love with one of Dante Deo's crew members, Jack Hargreaves, and it was expected that she will continue her journey with Dante Deo. The two ships are currently in Tahiti.

Again the Sandefjord crew was without a woman on board, but Fanie Louw met a cute girl in the Cape. Whilst exchanging letters, it was decided that Jennifer will join the crew in Australia as the only girl among five men on a yacht. The Sandefjord hopes to be in South Africa by October and Jennifer will join the five in June, in Sydney.

"That is what I know of the Sandefjord" says Lorette. She will also go to Australia where she will help the crew with the filming of the Barrier reef. But that will be by plane, because by sea, there's no chance.

For this reason the crew has been chosen for (among other qualities) looks and personality. Mary Clayton left her home-town Havelock, north New Zealand, four years ago. She worked as a waitress at a luxurious tourist resort on a small Barrier Reef island and as a barmaid in a select hotel in Townsville, North Queensland.

Hitch-hike

In Durban's recent school holidays she visited Rhodesia with friends, hitch-hiking back and seeing the Zimbabwe Ruins, Kariba and the Victoria Falls on the way - all in ten days, 

Does she not anticipate any difficulties from her trip around the world with five men and a cat?
Said Mary: "Many people might think there would be trouble, but I don't think so. Not with such a nice crew.
"I am not romantically involved with any of them. They are only too pleased to have a cook and bottle-washer. For the sake of the trip I hope I don't fall in love with any of them." 

Private bunk

Mary added: "My bunk is very private. It is curtained off and behind a large water tank. "Has she no plans to marry and settle down? There is someone in Australia I think about all the time."

By Bianca Lavies.   In a few weeks a true adventure story will end in Durban. For the crew of the 47-ft. ketch Sandefjord it will be the completion of a 21-month cruise round the world.

When the yacht ties up at the Durban yacht harbour it might be the end of real life adventure, but it will be the start of the arduous task for the crew to put together16,000 feet of colour film taken on the trip. The film, when completed, will no doubt be of great interest to anyone who loves the sea and adventure.

The cast of the film is the crew of the Sandefjord; the owners (brothers Pat and Barry Cullen); Wally Stright, of the USA; Fanie Louw, of Johannesburg; Tim Magennis, of Ireland, and Mary Clayton, a New Zealand schoolteacher.

Tahiti

They left Durban in February last year and visited Cape Town, St. Helena, Ascension, the West Indies, Galapagos, Tahiti, Sydney, Thursday Island and Christmas Island. Mary left them in the Pacific and in Sydney they were joined by 22-year-old Jennifer de Wet from Johannesburg, who is still on board. Much has happened since they left. Mary fell overboard off Ascension while asleep on deck and was rescued by the crew. In Galapagos they sold their fridge for 300lb. of potatoes and other items. They had a rendezvous with a millionaire's yacht, the 87ft. Dante Deo, in Galapagos, and here they were also joined by the 105ft. three-masted top sail schooner New Endeavour, carrying a British BBC TV crew, who interviewed and filmed them.

A Race

The three yachts had a race across the Pacific to Nuku-Hiva, in the Marquesas. They met the New Endeavour half-way and swapped crews along a line at sea. Here Sandefjord's youngest crew member, 22-year-old Fanie Louw of Johannesburg, performed a heroic deed, rescuing a youngster of the New Endeavour who had fallen in during the transfer and was in danger of being dragged under.

Fanie jumped in and grabbed the youngster just before he let go. In a scissors-like grip Fanie locked him between his legs while working his way via the line to the ladder and safety. 

Hurricane

Sandefjord was chartered by an American scientist on an expedition to the Austral islands, a tough and wet trip in which the yacht was battered by mountainous seas kicked up by the wake of a 100 m.p.h. hurricane. Toughest of all was their trip through the Tasman Sea, where they survived a severe storm.

During this storm a New Zealand collier went down and a yacht in the Auckland-Suva race was lost with all hands. With an exhausted and hungry crew, Sandefjord limped into port without a mizzen mast and with three of her sails ripped to pieces.
At present, Sandefjord is making a dash for home, trying to beat the hurricane season in the Indian Ocean from November till May.

Mauritius

She left Christmas Island on September 20 and is expected to arrive in Mauritius within a few days. Sandefjord is a 53-year-old ex-Norwegian lifeboat which has saved many ships and lives. Once she survived a somersault in the North Atlantic. The Cullen brothers bought her in 1964 and completely refitted her as well as restoring her original gaff rig.

When they get back to Durban, they are planning to move to Johannesburg  for six months, where the entire film will be put together. They hope to have it ready for screening in October next year. In the meantime, Durban yachtsmen who gave the yacht the greatest send-off to any yacht ever when she sailed, are planning an equally great welcome. Many of the cruising craft will be sailing out to meet her at sea.

The skipper is 29-year-old South African Barry Cullen, of Durban. The crew are his brother, Patrick, 25, Fanie Louw, 23, from Johannesburg, Tim Magennis, 29, a former Johannesburg journalist, and American Walter Stright, 25.

The Sandefjord, a 54-year-old former Norwegian lifeboat, left Durban in February last year.

Jennifer is the third guest who traveled with the yacht: When they left Durban, Miss Lorette Walder was on board, but she had to stop the trip in Port Elizabeth because she became terribly seasick. In Cape Town, a New Zealander, Mary Clayton, joined them joined. She traveled together as far as Galapagos in the Pacific Ocean, where she boarded another yacht on her way back to New Zealand.

When the men arrived at Tahiti, they wrote to Jennifer to join them. "The crew also wrote a few letters to my parents, assuring them that their daughter would be in safe hands", says Jennifer. 

After Jennifer arrives in Sydney, the yacht will depart for the Great Coral Reef on the Queensland coast, then the journey continues to the Cocos Islands on its way back to the Republic. The crew is well equipped with expensive equipment for filming, because a complete documentary picture is made of all their exploits and the beautiful natural scenes.

They hope to arrive in Durban in mid-October. Fanie Louw, one of the crew, whose twin sister is a flight attendant, has arranged it so that she will be on the flight on which Jennifer leaves for Australia on Friday. When asked why most of the letters in her album are from Fanie Louw, Jennifer smiled shyly: "I go to satisfy my appetite for adventure and to see the beautiful natural scenes that await us." Jennifer's father, Mr. J. S. de Wet , is deputy secretary of Bantu administration in Pretoria

Sandefjord survives a killer storm

SIXTEEN months ago the 47ft. Durban ketch Sandefjord rounded the Bluff and headed for the seven seas with 1,700 square feet of creamy-white canvas straining in the wind.

Last week, with an exhausted and hungry crew, her sails hanging in shreds and one mast missing, Sandefjord limped into Sydney, Australia. She had survived one of the worst storms ever experienced in the Tasman Sea. During the storm a New Zealand collier went to the bottom killing 30 people, and a yacht in the Auckland to Suva race was lost with all hands.

"In one terrible night we blew out our jib, then our staysail, and later, when taking down our mainsail in a full gale, it fouled up with the port side navigation light and the result was a rip four inches long near the foot," writes Tim Magennis, ex-Durban journalist who is a member of the Sandefjord crew.

The yacht set off on the 50-day passage from Bora Bora, in French Polynesia, to Sydney, with a shortage of provisions. For the last days the five-man crew lived on a diet of tinned beans and a drink made by boiling water with strawberry jam.

CRACK!

Magennis writes: "We left Bora Bora on April 14 and were immediately becalmed. In seven days we covered a miserable 350 miles. What a pathetic start to a 3,500-mile passage.

Then we got the trades that saw us up the first 1,000 miles in 13 days. It was during the first week in May, when we were just south of Fiji, that the westerlies came - foul weather in which we made no more than 35 miles in seven days". 

Just before midnight on May 20, it happened. With a great resounding crack like a mortar shell exploding, the boom crash-ed over to port, snapping the stout preventer rope like a thread."

"Two hours later we gybed again. Incredibly all our gear survived this one too, but we took the main down and carried only staysail."

"On May 22, at 3 a.m., all hell broke loose with the wind piping up up to Force 6. The working gib ripped completely. Sande was pitching like a mad beast. Then we saw that the staysail had gone too." 

"Holding on to anything we could, we managed to reef the staysail and carried on the rest of the night with only it and the mizzen up." Just after midnight on May 30 we made our Australian land-fall, just south of Brisbane. "Thank God we were coming to the end of this frightful passage. At least I thought we were coming to the end of it. I had no idea we would almost write ourselves off a few nightslater. "On May 31 at 10 p.m., the wind was blowing full gale and we were running with only mizzen and staysail up and making with current 10 knots. Fanie Louw, 21-year-old baby of the crew, had just taken over the helm when Sandefjord gybed viciously.

"The mizzen crashed over with such force that the 32 foot high mizzen mast snapped at the foot. It was all hands on deck as she pitched and rolled in high seas and we wrestled with the smitten mizzen until we had it leaning 45 degrees fer'ard with the top pointing almost to the middle of the main mast. We secured it safely for the night in spite of the violent rolling of the ketch." 

For 36 hours, Sandefjord wallowed with bare poles. Then, with winds abating and under a jury rig, the little yacht started on the last 50 miles.

"We arrived two weeks overdue and looking very much the worse for wear." But after 3,500 miles of hell there was consolation. Skipper Barry Cullen found his fiancee, Lorette Walder, of Johannesburg, waiting for him on the Sydney quayside. For Tom Magennis there was the girl he had met in the West Indies, and for young Fanie Louw, girl friend Jennifer de Wet, of Johannesburg. Jennifer will return to South Africa aboard the yacht.

She met the five-man crew of the Sandefjord while on holiday in Cape Town last year. Since then she has corresponded with them, and was invited to join the yacht in Tahiti. 

The skipper of the Sandefjord is Barry Cullen, 29, of Durban, his brother Patrick,25, is also on board. The other members of the crew are Tim Magennis, 29, a former SUNDAY TIMES reporter, Fanie Louw, 23, also of Johannesburg, and an American, Wally Stright, 25. Jennifer will be the third woman to sail with the men. 

The first was Lorette Wal-der. She left with the yacht from Durban but gave up at Port Elizabeth because she could not get over her seasickness. 

Mary Clayton, a New Zealander, joined the Sandefjord at Cape Town and sailed with the men to the Galapagos in the Pacific, where she changed to another yacht heading for New Zealand. 

Jennifer will leave from Jan Smuts on Friday, and expects to be in Sydney next Sunday. From there she will travel to Mackay on the Queensland coast and will join the Sandefjord at the Great Barrier Reef. 

The Sandefjord is on its way back to South Africa. 

Jennifer expects to be back teaching in Pretoria at the nursery school by the end of the year. 

She said the yacht was scheduled to return to South Africa via the Cocos Islands. The last report she received was that the yacht had reached Sydney after being battered by storms in the Pacific. 

The Sandefjord arrived in Sydney 20 days behind schedule, and for five days the men had to eat baked beans and tinned peas.

A young Pretoria nursery school teacher will soon make her first sea trip - in a 50-year-old Norwegian ketch on the last leg of its round the world cruise. But for 22-year-old Jenny de wet the trip holds no fears: "It is the dream of a lifetime come true she says".

On Friday, Jenny leaves by air for Sydney, where the South African manned Sandefjord is anchored. From Sydney, the ketch will return to Durban via the Coco Islands and Mauritius.

Jenny met the crew while she was on holiday in Cape Town in April last year and kept up a correspondence with them. While the Ketch was in Tahiti, the crew wrote to her, inviting her to join them on the last leg of the trip. Before leaving the Australian coast, Jenny will help the men film underwater shots of the Great Barrier Reef - they have made a documentary film of their entire trip.

The skipper of the ketch is 29 year old Barry Cullen, of Durban. With him are Tim Magennis, a former Johannesburg journalist, Fanie Louw, an American, Wally Stright and his brother, Pat Cullen.

Miss de Wet wrote to the Louws, describing Thursday Island: "It's quite a peculiar little spot," she wrote, "and amazingly different from the Australia I've seen so far. Where we are anchored, we're almost surrounded by a host of Tarres Island pearling luggers, creating quite an atmosphere and a pretty picture.

PITCH, PITCH BLACK 

Here, for the first time, I've seen a lot of black people. They are broadly built, with broad faces and with a fierce, savage stare in their eyes. They are pitch black. They are quiet and friendly, however, and seem to take life very easily."

"Last night, after an early supper - my cook day, alas - we weren't ashore and, after capsizing the dinghy, much to Fanie's disgust and the amusement of a jetty crowded with spectators, we went aboard another cruising boat. Fanie wasn't amused as he was wearing his best off-white jeans. (I thought it was hilariously funny).

"All the fellows are disgusted with me for not bringing any clippings of myself and those in the "Advertiser' with me. Could you please save me a copy of each of them every week and, if possible, send them to Mauritius? They'd appreciate it very much. 

"We went to an old hotel which looks like an old Wild West inn and had quite a party - beer being the one thing that makes these chaps happy and full of the Joys of life. I played the piano and we had quite a riotious sing-song. plenty of others joining in. Me being one of the handful of White girls on the island, I was made a great fuss of"

There was a Polynesian girl who did the tammare.

"She controlled her hips into a flowing, graceful sway, and then suddenly jerked and shook them while the top half of her body remained motionless. Her arms and hands waved invitingly - wish I could do it.

FRIENDLY FISHER

"There is a Japanese hang-line trawler or tunny boat here and its skipper has given me a beautiful Geisha doll in a glass case. We can't even understand each other though. All the Japanese have been most friendly and generous towards all of us."

Sandefjord will be back on schedule towards the end of October despite the fresh trouble, writes former Durban journalist Tim Magennis, who is aboard her, in a letter to local newspapermen. Meanwhile, Durban yachtsmen are planning a great reception for the famous cruise yacht. It is hoped that several boats will be able to sail out to rendezvous with her at sea. 

Sandefjord captured national interest early last year when she set out from Durban with a crew of five men and a lone blonde girl on board.
Recently dismasted and damaged in a severe Pacific storm, the ketch again made headlines. Now she has caused a stir "Down Under" by threading the perilous coral and shoals of Australia's Great Barrier Reef without the aid of an auxiliary engine. "Thanks to a tremendous feat of physical endurance by skipper Barry Cullen, we came through without a hitch," writes Magennis. 

"Some old salts down the coast had gulped with surprise when we told them we intended going through the reef without power."

"You'll never do it,' they said. 'What if you get caught up in a current off a lee shore??" Well, we could only shrug in answer, for our faithful old engine had finally come to the end of its days when the gearbox packed in. "It was beyond repair, and in any case we were on the rocks financially. An expensive job 

would have been out the question. "After two glorious days on lovely Green Island, a 15 to20 knot wind came up and we had to get a tow to pull us away from a nearby reef. 

MARATHON

"Our stern was practically on the reef and if we had dragged our anchors at all in the wind, it would have been the end. It was then that Barry's navigational marathon began. He did one stretch of 24 hours, during which I think he managed only one hour's sleep." 

"Night and day he was taking sights, plotting every half mile of our course through the reef. We all did watches of two hours on and six off, but he was at it all the time."

"We made tremendous times, with strong trade winds all the time. After four days we were through the reef and safely at anchor in the windy bay of Thursday Island, with its dozens of old pearling luggers straining at their moorings."

"On the financial rocks, we decided to flog the engine and, after spreading the word around, next day clinched the deal for two hundred pounds sterling manna from heaven." 

Sandefjord is now again at sea, headed for Christmas Island, in the teeth of a strong trade wind. Next port of call will be Port Louis, Mauritius, and then Durban, where a hero's welcome awaits the crew.

Durban yachtsmen are preparing a big welcome for the Sandefjord, the 53-year-old converted ex-Norwegian lifeboat.

When the yacht left Durban 21 months ago, with the biggest send-off given any yacht, on board were the owners, Patrick and Barry Cullen, an American Wally Straight, Fanie Louw of Johannesburg, Tim Magennis, a journalist from Ireland, and Mary Clayton, a New Zealand schoolteacher.

A Daily News photographer and I went out to sea aboard Mr. Gerry van Weers's yacht Ingwe to join the craft escorting Sandefjord home after her triumphal two-year trip across the oceans of the world. We found her about a mile from the harbour entrance a magnificent sight with all hercanvas up, clean and glinting in the slight breeze as she forged through the sea. Her crew, under skipper Barry Cullen, had obviously taken great pains to ensure that Sandefjord looked her best for her home-coming. She shone from stem to stern.

HILARITY

The atmosphere aboard the Sandefjord and the welcoming yachts was one of hilarity and Barry Cullen and his crew wasted no time in splicing the main-brace and drinking a toast to everyone in sight. The yachts made a magnificent spectacle as they sailed close inshore to Durban's beaches, their soft, sweeping lines in contrast to the soaring skyscrapers along the beachfront. The Sandefjord was met by the Ingwe, the Trimaran Gay Jock, the Snow Goose, Emerald Isle and the sleek Tamure  -the New Zealand yacht which sailed into Durban harbour last Saturday on its own round-the-world voyage.

WELCOMING SALUTE

To complete the picture, two light aircraft swooped low over .the Sandefjord in a welcoming salute. One of the planes banked, circled and came in lower than before and released a cloud of confetti which enveloped the yacht in a shimmering cascade. The crew waved and cheered and drank a toast to the pilot. Barry Cullen seemed to sum up the mood of his crew with his shouted response to an inquiry as we sailed alongside "Wee still don't really believe that this is all true." 

But in spite of the excitement, he didn't forget to make a cine record of the welcome to complete the film which he and his crew have been shooting dur-ng their travels.

CHEERS

As we sailed past the break-water, hundreds of people lining the Point burst into spontaneous cheers and exchanged greetings with the crew. The voyagers sold the Sandefjord's engine in Australia in order to stock provisions for the rest of their trip, so they still had to rely on their sails for power once they had entered the sheltered area of the harbour. They made slow progress tacking to obtain the full benefit of the light breeze.

We found her about a mile from the harbour entrance - a magnificent sight with all her canvas up, clean and glinting in the slight breeze as she forged through the sea. Her crew, under skipper Barry Cullen, had obviously taken great pains to ensure that Sandefjord looked her best for her home-coming. She shone from stem to stern.

HILARITY

The atmosphere aboard the Sandefjord and the welcoming yachts was one of hilarity and Barry Cullen and his crew wasted no time in splicing the main-brace and drinking a toast to everyone in sight. 

The yachts made a magnificent spectacle as they sailed close in-shore to Durban's beaches, their soft, sweeping lines in contrast to the soaring skyscrapers along the beach front. 

Sandefjord was met by the Ingwe, the Trimaran Gay Jock, the Snow Goose, the Emerald Isle and the sleek Tamure - the New Zealand yacht which sailed into Durban harbour last Saturday on its own round-the world voyage.

After a nine-day holiday romance in Cape Town before the yacht left South Africa 21 months ago, Fanie wrote to Jenny in Pretoria (she is a nursery school teacher) and asked her to join the yacht. She flew to Australia to meet it.

Down below on the yacht today, she told the story of her adventure. 

"I shared watch like the boys (two hours on, 10 off) and did everything but the heaviest work. I only cooked once in six days. We each had a cook-and-scrub day in turn. The whole yacht was scrubbed down every day."

Crewman Wally Stright (26) leaned down from a bunk "Tell the story of your spaghetti."

Jenny wouldn't. So Wally did while she laughed and blushed: "She cooked it in sea water. It was her first cook day - and it was ghastly.' But he consoled her with: "She did improve - in fact she was pretty good as a cook."

TIDYING

Owner-skipper Barry Cullen (29) was tidying up, Sandefjord arrived back in Durban yesterday and "there are a few things to straighten out."He said: "Jenny was magnificent. She did everything but handle the sails and pump - I wouldn't let her. It was really heavy work."

Jenny was kissing Tim Magennis (29) goodbye with tears in her eyes. And she was slapping in mock anger at Wally Stright as he jibed at her cooking and seamanship. "I was never seasick,' she retorted proudly.

"And the only thing I did wrong was to almost miss Christmas Island while I was on watch 

.ISLAND

With a giggle she said: "Barry came up on deck. I asked him when we would sight the island. He said: 'Look behind you.' It was already clear on the horizon. Jenny said it was "marvellous being with the boys. We kept our spirits up the `whole time.

They let me help with just about everything there was to do - I always felt one of them, never 'on the outside' because I was a woman. 

How did she like the men's cooking? "Well, they'd had enough practice by the time Sandefjord reached Australia. Reluctantly, I must admit they did well."

COMPETITION

The men gave her "close competition in the kitchen - and I gave them close competition in everything outside it." Then Fanie's father came down below to say the car was packed and it was time to go.

Final farewells with tears from Jenny. She is going back to Pretoria. Fanie is leaving South Africa to work in Australia or Christmas Island. "I am in mining, and the money in those places is so much better. And they are grand places to live in, too."

There are no definite wedding plans yet. "We are both saving first. The trip cost us a lot of money."

But more than this, and more than. many films I have seen, this one rapidly establishes an intimate rapport between audience and crew. Clearly, the Cullen brothers have achieved their object of taking people, who through force of circumstances cannot do it any other way, around the world with them on a yacht.

We have seen technically better films and we have seen more interesting films, but bearing in mind how this film was made, it must stand as a unique contribution to contemporary entertainment.

Note: Musical arrangements by Sam Sklair are excellent.

TRIUMPH

I doubt seriously whether any member of Saturday night's premiere audience did not share the triumph of the little ship's return to Durban harbour after 22 months and 30,279 miles of sailing.

If the photography is not sophisticated it is certainly highly skilled. Mr. Cullen has sought primarily a photographic record but there are sequences-in the Galapagos for instance - where his colour and his whole approach have become cinema art I refer here to some wonderful wild life photography, and sea and water photography, different from any I have seen. 

SEQUENCES

He has not hesitated to function as a newsreel man and some of these sequences are extremely interesting, although I found the lengthy political celebration in Panama rather trite - the sole such example.

In all other respects Sandefjord has unique value in that it covers scenes and places normally never brought into the cinema. I could `have spent many hours more with Sandefjord at such fascinating places as Barrington, Moorea, and many other islands.

Of the crew, Barry and Pat Cullen, Fanie Louw, Jenny de Wet and Wally Stright, who had come from America for the occasion, were in the audience on Saturday.

IRELAND

The two other members, Tim Magennis and Mary Clayton, were in Ireland and New Zealand respectively. This premiere was sponsored by Port Natal Lions Club and was attended by a large number of yachtsmen.

Sandefjord will be shown nightly at the Lyric and is one of the very few films that  I want to see again. I recommend it strongly as an evening of absorbing entertainment with special interest for the people of Durban.

Tim Aitchison.