Rite of ‘Passage’

Sue Doyle

NEWPORT BEACH -- What began many years ago as a retirement dream turned

into a two-year, 30,000-mile lifetime adventure for two Balboa Yacht Club

members.

Don and Joan Anderson set sail aboard their yacht, Summer Passage, in

June 1998 and tooled around the South Pacific, South America and Mexico.

Sometimes alone. Other times, friends joined them.

The pair returned home last week, a little tired and weary, but with an

avalanche of stories that they can’t help but spill into their day-to-day

conversations.

“I’ve always wanted to do this. The best I could do was plan back-to-back

vacations when I worked. I had to retire to do some serious traveling one

day,” said Don Anderson.

The former Chevron research scientist made good on his plans. His wife,

an administrative assistant, retired a year before he did just to get a

head start on their voyage.

A series of flags hung down the side of the yacht and flapped in the wind

as the captain pointed to them. Each one stirred a memory.

The flags represented every country they visited. Whenever they entered a

new land, the Andersons hung the country’s flag, known as a courtesy

flag, on the starboard side of the yacht. The practice is a tradition on

the sea, Don Anderson said.

His eyes suddenly lit up as he remembered an adventure near Christmas

Island, where they found giant coconut crabs that stood 6 feet across.

“I had no idea those things existed,” he said. “I thought crabs were only

the size we see here.”

His honey-colored tan gleamed in the sunlight as he gazed at the ocean.

He rubbed at his scruffy beard, which reminded him of another story. He

opened his mouth to recite it, but his wife beat him to the punch.

They’ve obviously been together for so long that they can read each

other’s mind.

“He let his beard grow so long that children in Chile thought he was

Santa Claus,” Joan Anderson said with a laugh.

But the trip was not always a breezy ride. Someone had to man the boat at

all times, so the two had to sleep in different shifts. They typically

sailed 160 miles each day.

For six hours a day, they poured over weather maps that would dictate how

far they could travel.

One time, winds were so strong that the two closed everything up and hid

inside the boat for 48 hours. All they could do was hold on and wait for

the weather to pass. The Andersons now laugh about the harrowing

experience.

Although the memories are great, they said there’s still no place like

home. Especially missed was their dog and their gardening.

“I missed my washing machine and other creature comforts,” Joan Anderson

said. “We did OK. We were never hungry.”

Club members greeted their long-lost friends with a fireworks show as

they sailed back into the familiar harbor last week.

“Their welcome made us cry a little bit,” Don Anderson said. “It was

spectacular. I’ve never seen anything like it.”