Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific , Thor Heyerdahl's, Kon-Tiki expedition and the well reported stories of yachtsman, Vic Meyer who sailed the Pacific with his all-female crews, were all stories that were part of an adventure-genre which captured the hearts and minds of young men who lived around Sydney Harbour in t he nineteen-sixties and seventies. This is a story about one of those young men, who having never sailed before, bought a battered 60ft pedigree Ketch, a proven passage maker, restored her and set off on the adventure of his life with a bunch of mates Valhalla a classic ketch , a racing splinter of a yacht was launched in 1952. She was built for racing for the millionaire cornflower-baron, Nigel Love, who named her South Winds and raced her successfully on the NSW coast, winning many races and honours. She was one of the last of her kind, built in Sydney from Tasmanian Huon-pine, now a protected species. Sixty-one feet in length, laid up on spotted gum frames,

The lifeboat style craft was anchored astern and to port of us. We were hunkered down in Valhalla’s cockpit and into our second or third coldie, watching the gale tear at the canvas cover of the Ranger’s boat, exposing the small single piston engine of the 18ft dory. Suddenly we heard yelling, carried on the wind from behind us, from the direction of our bow. My mate Rastas and I were sheltering from the 25-knot northeaster. Our 60ft ketch securely anchored in Pittwater, off  The Basin Campground, a popular weekend destination in the early 70s. With anchor chain taught, she hung parallel to the shore and adjacent to a great big yellow sign, warning of a submarine cable. If you’re a Sydney-boatie, you’ll know the spot. We stood up, turned and peered over our cabin roof to see what the fuss was about, to discover a forty-foot fly-bridge-cruiser, a Hawksbury Halvorsen rental, sprinting into The Basin at about the same speed as the northeaster, 25-knots.     For those readers who know