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Remarkable tale behind 2016 Yachting New Zealand Cruising award recipient.
This year an exceptional story of self reliance and personal responsibility surrounds the recipient of Yachting New Zealand’s Cruising award.
Accomplished sailor and Kerikeri local Simon Willis was sailing from Punta del Este in Uruguay to Grenada in the Caribbean following six months of cruising on his yacht Sagitta II when he found himself paralysed down the right hand side of his body having suffered a stroke while on delivery single-handed.
Simon has completed thousands of offshore miles both cruising and racing, and is a well known sail maker and experienced seaman in the far north. It was when he was unable to properly communicate following the stroke that the level of his experience and capability in handling extreme situations was truly shown.
“Things fell out of my hands. I fell over a lot, and could not do the daily maintenance necessary. I still knew what I needed to do, just couldn’t really do it. So I sailed three thousand miles under main only, and made it to St George about three weeks after the stroke,” he explains.
In the months prior to Simon’s stroke he had travelled with a crew of three from New Zealand to Chatham Islands, on to Chile and eventually onto the most southernmost town in the world – Puerto Williams.
The crew had sailed through some harsh conditions, with a blizzard covering the boat in four feet of snow while in Puerto Williams, and 10 metre seas in the Falklands causing the tiller to break shortly after the boat had pitch poled during the night. A sound knowledge of his boat and vast experience at sea saw them get through these testing conditions and get to Port Stanley to carry out repairs and clean and dry the boat. Carrying on the journey to Argentina and then Uruguay was where Simon found himself single handed for the next stage heading for the Caribbean.
When he docked into Granada friends took Simon to hospital, with the neurologist suggesting that a month of occupational therapy was probably the best thing he could have done and it was likely he would make a full recovery.
Speaking to YNZ safety inspector Angus Willison just a few months after he had returned to New Zealand Simon had commented on his handling of the experience as like “any Kiwi yachtsman would”.
His attitude of “what else could I do, and plenty of other people would have done the same thing” epitomises the reason for which he is so worthy of recognition by Yachting New Zealand this year.
In an age where communication is instant anywhere on the globe, it can’t always be relied on to be the ‘cavalry’ when disaster strikes. As Simon Willis’s remarkable story so perfectly depicts, it takes preparation, experience, and seamanship among many other things to be truly self reliant on the ocean.
