doldrums

From Mart Falarski, longtime Matthew Turner volunteer and supporter. It was late 1972 or early 1973, Jock Walker and Yuriko Doi had just gotten married in Acapulco and his boat partner had returned to the Bay Area to get married. So the three of us, the newlyweds and I were sailing from Acapulco to

From Ray Dito, Matthew Turner volunteer and supporter. The Doldrums of 1963  I was just 20 years of age, at sea, on my 2nd cruise as a merchant marine.  We were outbound from San Francisco for Bangkok, Thailand, to deliver surplus  military supplies to the government. Our first stop was in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, followed

From Bonnie MacGregor, longtime Matthew Turner volunteer and supporter.In 1970, I crewed on a Yawl-rigged Vanguard 32 in the Victoria-Maui race.  We were a crew of 5, 2 ladies and 3 men.  There were 12 Canadian yachts and 12 American.  We were the only boat with 2 women aboard. That was a daily topic on the Ship-to-Shore.

From Alan Olson, co founder, Call of the Sea. In 1981, we left the Lahaina anchorage bound for Micronesia on Stone Witch,  a two thousand mile passage.  There were eight of us aboard,  a motley crew with a range of ages, sailing experience and backgrounds. We were happy to leave Maui when local authorities began taking

From Conor McGowan,  volunteer rigger on Matthew Turner and  Seaward relief crew. I’m sure being becalmed once is enough for a sailor, but I would go further and say: once is necessary for anyone. I had three days of it I’ll never forget.  The fall of ’17 I was aboard the 37-meter wooden brigantine Tres Hombres as second mate on

From Sylvia Stewart Stompe,  Call of the Sea. We had a lot of trepidation about crossing the doldrums on the way to the Marquesas from Mexico in 2015, wondering how long the calms would last and if we would be plagued by the violent squalls and lightning storms that we heard about from other