Leon Smith - Karma around the world

Yachting New Zealand
Leon Smith, first New Zealander to sail single handed around the world. 1972-75
In 1972 Leon Smith purchased the fibreglass sloop Karma which had been built in Germany in 1968. Karma is 9 metres long with a 3 metre beam and a draught of 1.5 metres.
After a complete overhaul at Westhaven Mr Smith set out for Sydney on the first leg of his trip on November 25, 1972. Though confident of his own ability to complete the circumnavigation, his optimism was by no means shared by other yachties. Many people considered Mr Smith was crazy to go alone, having had no previous deep water experience or practical celestial navigational skills.
Leaving Auckland in November meant that Mr Smith arrived in Australia during the cyclone season further north so until March of 1973 he stayed around the Sydney area, spending a lot of time in Broken Bay. At the beginning of April, I set off up the coast for Port Stephens. From Port Stephens he sailed direct to Gladstone which is just inside the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.
On 5th May, Karma left Gladstone, bound for Heron Island.
After seven weeks cruising up the inside of the Barrier Reef. After a few days at Thursday Island Mr Smith set off for Darwin where he waited over three weeks in the hopes of receiving a cruising permit for the islands of Indonesia. Eventually leaving without it, going first to Dili in Portuguese Timor then sailing non-stop through the Indonesian Islands to Bali.
The usual stops across the Indian Ocean were made at Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling Islands. After a quick nineteen day passage for the 2,400 miles to Mauritius, and meeting up once again with the fleet of circumnavigating yachts. The Suez Canelwas closed at the time so the yachts sailing the world were forced to pass around the Cape of Good Hope. Without counting the around the world races there are only about twenty yachts completing a circumnavigation each year.
On the next stage of the journey to Durban Mr Smith's worst fears had been realised about 300 miles out from the Natal coast when the rudder sheared off, crippling Karma. Losing radio contact with the other boats in the convoy Mr Smith hastily fitted a jury rudder using a spinnaker pole and the plywood panel off the windvane. With this setup Karma was able to slowly make its way to the entrance to Durban harbour where other yachts had arranged a tow. Fortunately Karma was able to sail herself on the wind, even without a rudder.
Whilst in Durban Mr Smith was fortunate to make many trips inland visiting the game reserves near the Mozambique border and spending a wonderful few days over christmas on a cattle ranch 2000 metres up in the Drakensberg Mountains.
Durban to Capetown can be a rough trip but Karma only experienced one blow which lasted about 12 hours The rest of the time was fair winds with the Cape of Good Hope being rounded in calm seas under motor.
In 1974, after a considerable break Mr Smith sailed Karma up the placid Atlantic to the island of St. Helena.After St. Helena the next stop was Ascension Island. The Atlantic swell was so high it was not safe to leave Karma unattended and to get ashore would have been perilous as the landing was inundated with crashing waves. Unfortunately Mr Smith anchored amongst coral and could not retrieve the anchor, having to cut loose the CQR anchor and fifty metres of chain. After a stop of only twelve hours Karma set off for Barbados. The trip across the equator and up the coast of South America to the West Indies took 35 days.
June to early October was spent cruising in the West Indies from Martinique to Grenada. During the height of the hurricane season Karma stayed close the hurricane holes around the south of Grenada. On two occasions hurricane warnings were received but fortunately one went south of Grenada and the other north. When the threat of hurricanes was over Karma set off for Isla Margarita, Venezuela and many of the islands off the coast.
Next stop was the Netherland Antilles, San Blas Islands was an overnight sail across the Gulf of Uruba. The San Blas Islands stretch for ninety miles along the coast of Panama and must surely be the most idyllic cruising grounds in the world, with plenty of fish, fantastic snorkelling, smooth waters, steady tradewinds and the Kuna Indians are very friendly. Five weeks later that Karma left for Cristobal and the Panama Canal, having possibly the longest Canal transit for a yacht as the motor broke down in Lake Gatun sitting at anchor, 30 metres above sea-level for six days whilst waiting for new parts to arrive.
By the end of March 1975 Karma had crossed the Pacific to the Marquesas Islands. This was the longest period at sea having taken forty-one days to sail 4,000 miles.
Then followed the beautiful islands of the Pacific; Takaroa, Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Bora Bora, Rarotonga and Fiji.
After leaving Fiji on Saturday August 23, experiencing relatively plain sailing until Tuesday 2 September when all hell broke loose off North Cape.
The centre of a vicious storm, which created havoc during the Capitaine Bougainville fire, passed directly over Karma. The wind was raging at about 60 knots and the waves were coming on like express trains. Karma handled the conditions with just the tiny storm jib up and although the rudder suffered another problem was able to complete the epic journey almost exactly to schedule. In 34 months Karma had covered 27,000 miles and visited 21 countries.
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