A life together on the ocean waves

BY GEMMA REDDELL

Kawau Island-based sailors Lin and Larry Pardey have been awarded the 2009 Far Horizons Award by the Cruising Club of America.

The couple, aged 65 and 70 respectively, are being recognised for their lifetime of cruising and voyaging.

Lin and Larry have spent most of their lives on the water, and they hold the record for the smallest boat to have circumnavigated the world, contrary to the prevailing winds, around all the great southern capes.

They are also the only couple to have circumnavigated both east-about and west-about on boats they built themselves, using traditional means of navigation and having no engine or sponsorship.

The Pardeys have shared their sailing and cruising experiences with people around the world through their 10 published books, five DVDs and their popular website blogs, as well as appearing in numerous yachting publications worldwide.

They have been back at their home base at Kawau Island since they completed their latest circumnavigation in December 2008, and they are currently fixing up a trailer sailor to explore the inland waters of New Zealand.

Lin says they both feel truly honoured to receive the award.

"We will be going to New York as guests of the Cruising Club of America for the awards dinner," she says.

The award includes transport and a stay at the New York Yacht Club.

She says sailing has provided them freedom and adventure beyond their imagination.

"There is no other way we know about that would let two people from very average backgrounds and with average earning power visit over 70 countries to explore, get to know the people and customs and work along the way in 17 of those countries too.

"Besides, sailing a simple boat is really fun, a sport so to speak. We enjoyed entering local handicap races and that helped us get to know local people quickly."

"The wind is magic. It’s a way we can sail affordably because we love sailing and love the water, and it allows us to use our partnership in a way."

Lin says in 25 years they have been home at Kawau Island for about 10 of those.

"It’s our home base and we love it."

Larry was born in Victoria, Canada, in 1939, and his first boat was an Indian dugout canoe at age nine. He has sailed 205,000 sea miles.

Lin was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1944, and raised in Los Angeles.

She has studied accounting and music and first sailed on the lakes of Michigan at age five.

Lin has sailed 198,000 sea miles.

The couple were married in 1968 at Newport Beach in California and on the same day launched Seraffyn, a 7.3-metre Lyle Hess design that they built themselves.

The boat, which had no engine, started their trip eastward through the Panama Canal and Europe.

They cruised the Mediterranean and Baltic seas for 11 years before heading south through the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and around Japan.

They then travelled to Canada and back to Newport Beach for their first circumnavigation of 47,000 miles.

In 1983, 15 years later, they launched the 8.8-
metre Taleisin, also with no engine, and they sailed westward from California through the Pacific to New Zealand.

They continued westward to South Africa, Brazil, Ireland, the British Isles, Norway, and then to the east coast of the United States before going south to Argentina and Cape Horn.

This completed their circumnavigation in 2003.

After spending three seasons exploring the Pacific Northwest, they eventually sailed west across the Pacific to New Zealand to finish their third circumnavigation.

The couple has many awards, including the Seven Seas Cruising Club Service Award for their lifetime voyaging achievements in 2004.

Lin received the Ocean Cruising Club Award in 1996 for seamanship for small boat sailing, and
Larry was awarded the Mauritanian Legion of Honour, as captain of the first American team to sail across the Sahara Desert in a land yacht in 1966, and the International Oceanic Award in recognition of his voyaging using traditional methods of navigation.

The couple were also promoted to the Cruising World Hall of Fame in 2000.

Lin and Larry will travel to New York for the awards ceremony on March 5.

- © Fairfax NZ News