ACROSS THE SEVEN SEAS

good evening ladies and gentlemen this is Jack Douglas and this is the 17 foot outboard christened the searcher which took part in one of the most daring sea voyages of the past year the first circumnavigation of the Baja California peninsula in a small boat of this size a journey incidentally of some 2,500 miles and here's the two-man crew of the searcher men who literally risked their lives in accomplishing this incredible feat milk Farney of Santa Ana California and Larry Fogg Leno of Temple City California tonight ladies and gentlemen the voyage of the searcher this is true television Jack Douglas presents across the seven seas your television tour of the world we live in now ladies and gentlemen here at his home in Santa Ana California to describe and show us the actual films of this adventurous voyage is the young man who conceived the idea of circumnavigating the Baja Peninsula mr. milk Barney as a native Californian I've always been intrigued by Baja and the idea of taking a small outboard clear around this rugged Peninsula it was an idea that just sort of grew over the years I kept wanting to do it and putting it off until finally I ran out of reasons why I shouldn't do it I talked about the idea with my buddy Larry Fogg we know he said he'd be free for a few months so we shook hands on it bought the 17-footer and before we knew it we were on our way well this is a big day after all of our weeks of planning in preparation we're finally ready to launch and christen the searcher we invited a few of our friends who live in the Los Angeles area to help out with launching the christening now I don't suppose the fact that we mentioned that we had a couple of extra bottles of champagne leftover had anything to do with well they did and we were glad to have them many many good wishes later we're ready for a shakedown cruise now gas is going to be one of our major problems along the Baron and Baja California coast but we've prepared for this thanks to my good friend Bob Jim Hart who agreed to fly down the coast in his airplane and make contact with us at various prearranged spots and in the event that we can't secure enough gasoline he will supply us with Ariel gas drops such as were demonstrating here this will give you an idea of a large amount of supplies necessary for a voyage of this type you may wonder where we're going to put it all well believe me we wondered too for a while but we did manage to get it all in and finally the day arrived for our departure again we had a few friends and some of the family to see us off and wishes good luck on our journey it was a beautiful day as we left Newport Beach California and headed down the California coastline for our first stop at the port of San Diego which is near the Mexican border we spent our first night in San Diego harbor and the following day we were in Mexican waters our first stop was a port town of Ensenada some 70 miles below the border this will give you a bird's-eye view of the harbor and breakwater in Sedona [Music] like any vessel regardless of size we had to check into the brokers office where we received our clearest papers and Mexican port permits at the brokers here we heard of an interesting sidelight in Ensenada one that we decided we must investigate you've probably heard of severe Baker and the famously high rafts that made so many ill-fated attempts to drift from the California mainland to the Hawaiian Islands well Lehi too was abandoned off the California coast after the Coast Guard had rescued the crew members it was left to drift in the ocean and several months later it drifted into Mexican waters just off shore from Ensenada a couple of local fishermen went out tied on to it and towed it into port hoping to make a tourist attraction out of it but their venture didn't pay off so they just mantled the raft for the use of the lumber and all it remains today is a cabin section resting in a vacant lot on the outskirts of town this was a particular interest to my partner Larry for you see he was the first mate and navigator on Lehi v which finally completed a successful voyage from the California mainland to Hawaii the whole coastline is dotted with grim reminders of what can happen to the unlucky Voyager caught in the sudden storms in these waters the squalls are called Shabazz goes here's a clever way the Mexican fishermen have of storing their small Dory's or fishing boats when not in use they drag them up high in the beach and encase them in mounds of sand this not only prevents the dories from being blown away in violent storms but they told us that the damp sand helps retain the shape of the boat and keeps the wood from drying out or splitting we stopped the main little villages and ports along the way the natives was very friendly and very curious as to what we were doing they turned out in large numbers to welcome us or wishes goodbye and you know I think they found it hard to believe that these tubed wrinkles were actually trying to circumnavigate Baja California is such a tiny boat at times we went four days without seeing a living thing except for possibly a creature of the sea or once in a while a large bird perched his nest high in the cliffs but we enjoyed these days of leisure and relaxation just catching up on our sleep and soaking in a little sunshine and enjoying the beauties of the rugged coast it was always a thrill when bob was picked up with us and give us an unexpected buzz job and sometimes making contact via our two-way radio we would learned there's a beat to head where he could land and meet us and in some cases like this he dropped us some cold drinks which was very much appreciated a little while later Bob had landed and joined us for a few hours of relaxation and fishing the fishing wasn't so good so Bob fell fast asleep we thought this would be a good joke to cast him loose and wouldn't he be surprised when he woke up and found himself drifting aimlessly out in the middle of the ocean in a rubber raft but as often happens jokes backfire after casting loose a couple of large whales appear to half miles away I don't think these whales would harm us or many harm to Bob but just the sight of these huge mammals so close by when you're in a small boat scare you out of your skin we revved up and Bob was a mighty happy hitchhiker when we hope to that same afternoon a large shark kept making fast is at the searcher trying for some of the fish that we had tied over the side so I grabbed a harpoon and with a lucky first shot I got him right below the dorsal fin I turned the line over to Bob so I could take a few films for a while it looked like the shark was going to win and then it looked like it might be a draw and finally Larry being experienced from his lehigh days got into the act he just reached down in the water and grabbed the shark by his tail and proceeded to pull it aboard [Music] this particular stretch of the coast has more than his share of sharks the very next morning while fishing off the beach another large shark kept making passes at my line and stealing my bait finally he succeeded in taking the whole hook line sinker and all this time Larry played the part of the harpooner this one didn't offer much of a struggle just a slow steady pull it was also a hammerhead incidentally getting immature and up on the beach we discovered the remains of my broken off fishing line still in his mouth which proved to us that this was the one that had been stealing the bait we had quite an argument as to which shark was the biggest but to be perfectly honest I must admit the larry's is about a foot longer than mine but that's not what I told him now here was one of the eerie highlights the whole voyage whales that had apparently committed suicide at least this is a story that the natives tell us this happens at this particular section of the coast every few years these swells swim ashore in the shallow water as if found to destroy themselves the fisherman told us that they had even hooked on to their tails with ropes while some of the whales were still alive and tried tying them back out into deeper water but immediately upon turning them loose they swim back to shore where they eventually died at low tide there must be a reason for the strange behavior but whatever it was we couldn't find out [Music] a little farther along on a particularly fine stretch of the beach Bob landed and picked us up and we went out for a little aerial survey trip and here was a colorful sight it's a Mendes herd of seals roughly two or three hundred more than I had ever seen at any one time earlier on the voyage at Ensenada some yachtsman had told us about catching baby seals and what wonderful pets they made they claimed that the seals were very easy to tame and if caught at a young age they were easy to train well we decided that we would give it a try sneaking down behind these sand dunes Larry prepares for action and charges of herd expecting to grab a young seal but apparently the seals didn't know how to play this game because Larry never got closer than 20 yards and here's a site no sailor ever tired of schools of graceful leaping fortress porpoise by the hundreds the legend of sea has it that is bad luck to kill a porpoise as superstition to the sea are not to be taken lightly especially among fishermen now almost the halfway point of our voyage we made another contact with Bob via the two-way radio we learned there was a cold just ahead where he could make a landing so anchoring the search offshore we arrived at the beach just in time to see Bob digging in for the night and sitting around that cozy campfire the tall tales grew taller and taller and taller we were now nearing the halfway point of our voyage and by this time we felt that our multitude of daily problems would be behind us once we rounded the Cape and reached the Gulf of California which separates Baja from the mainland of Mexico but in plain fact the most hazardous and most dangerous part of our voyage was still ahead as we'll see in just a few moments having been weathered in for several days at Magdalena Bay we were now facing our longest stretch of open water without harbor or shelter of any kind some 180 miles of coastline before rounding the Cape and the shelter of the Gulf of California anxious to get the stretch behind us we decided to make a night run Larry's catching up on a few last-minute notes in his log and I give my camera's a quick once-over and here's Larry preparing is Pearlie a smile for the señoritas at cape san lucas taking the necessary precautions we pumped a little life wrap up with air and fix it to the back of the searcher here larry is putting the police whistle around his neck we found early in the voyage that our yells could not be heard above the noise of the wind and the motors so we got these police whistles and wear them as an extra precaution in case one of us should fall overboard you know for all the trouble I went to cleaning my camera I might just as well save my time we got one shot of the twin motors and take off then Larry got a shot at me and I took one of him sprawled in the bow peering out into the darkness and that was it because by 1:00 a.m. the sea begins to boil like nothing I've ever seen and we had all what you do to stay afloat let alone worry about taking film [Music] ideally we were still in choppy water some five miles from the Cape [Music] but then once around these rocks the sea was as smooth as a glass tabletop for these are the last rock formations it's a southernmost point of Baja separating the Pacific from the Gulf of California you know although we hadn't been at all seasick during the wild sea the night before I'll have to admit the sudden change of smooth sailing made Larry and me feel a little queasy rounding the Cape we pulled into the beach just off San Lucas and dropped our anchor to catch up on some much-needed sleep the following morning we continued our voyage northward up the Gulf and our first stop is its little fishing camp of las cruces we're anxious to go ashore here for was at this spot that Hernando Cortez made his first landing in Baja California a mere 34 years after Columbus discovered America landing here his band of explorers encountered some of the local natives and in the skirmish several of Cortez men were killed so he erected three wooden crosses in honor of their dead comrades and in later years these have been replaced by three stone crosses to commemorate the lining of Cortez in Baja California the next stop on our journey northward is the port town of La pause the pause is largest town in the southern part of Baja upon pulling up to the dock here we were greeted by a quite a large crowd we found out later that this was due to the grapevine rumors that we had been reported lost to sea [Music] the official greeter of la paz mr. bill Escudero was on hand and they immediately whisked us uptown along the palm lined waterfront and we checked in at one of the local hotels because of the advance publicity erroneous thought was we found ourselves local celebrities the local radio station was on hand to interview us and talk about our experiences we bragged a little but not too much well we spruced up a bit to do the town Larry Sims is beard and I trim my mustache which certainly needed it after our weeks of see and where did we end up of all places at the local ice cream parlor for a banana split and a shoeshine it's funny of all the things you think you'd miss on a voyage of this kind the thing we really missed the most was ice cream especially in the form of banana splits we spent several wonderful days at la paws just soaking up the Sun and playing it up like tourists and here's a typical gorgeous la paz sunset leaving the pause now and heading northward again our next stop is this little town called mula hey here we're entering the mouth of the river which empties into the Gulf and a few miles inland the river leads us to the town of muje itself we immediately found ourselves on a sandbar the river is very narrow and the water Shou we hadn't been warned about this but with a great deal of pulling and Larry spark and pushing to my part we finally had the searcher back afloat Mulla hay is truly the gardens part of the peninsula with this lazy river thick green foliage and date-palms it really has a South Seas atmosphere back aboard the searcher Larry is using his art poon to take depth soundings picking out a deeper channel [Music] it usually happens the grapevine had preceded us and when we arrived at the upper portion of the river we find mr. Otto vo Salazar and his wife on hand to grievous mr. mrs. Salazar are the owners and operators of the club mula hay which is well known to many North American sportsman [Music] as if by planning we arrived to moola hey just in time for one of Salazar's famous Mexican lunches [Music] and after lunch we took a tour of town mula hay is a beautiful quiet little town nestled between two mountains in a deep valley is typically Mexican and has a small Adobe Church a little dusty lane leading down to the river and here we see one of the ChaCha's doing his daily chores of bringing fresh water to his home this might be called a moola hey door-to-door salesman he sells chickens [Music] Mulla hey his famous first fishing and we decided to try our luck so accompanied by Salazar in his right hand man we boarded the searcher and headed down the coast to Conception Bay Conception Bay is 28 miles long and only 3 miles wide and is sometimes called the fish trap of the Gulf this could very well be true there's just about every variety that you could think of here cargos white fish like fish sea bass Sierra's Rupa dolphin Brewster fish you name it it's here Salizar turned out to be the hero of the day he caught the largest fish of the entire trip it was a black sea bass and put up quite a struggle with everybody on board taking turns helping we finally got him aboard [Music] getting back to the club and waiting out our prize it turned out to be well over a hundred pounds you know there's one nice thing about fishing here at mula hey not only do you have the sport of fishing but none of your catch goes to waste they have a very nice custom of taking only what the club needs and turning the rest over to the townspeople who welcome the free fish [Music] this little old lady here was so happy it having been given to fish then all she could do was keep turning around and saying muchas gracias Senora muchas gracias the next morning we were faced with near tragedy the searcher at swamp during the night at first glance we thought this would be the end of our voyage apparently what had happened was the third line had come loose and a searcher had blown sideways and got caught under the heavy brush that grows along the river the following morning when the tide came in the brush was holding down the stern of the searcher and didn't allow her to rise with a tide so consequently the water poured in over the rear transom and fluttered our cockpit and a forward cabin luckily most of our cameras in film were up in the Clubman haze of time one of our large gas tanks was half filled with saltwater which necessitated cleaning it out before we use most of the equipment that got sold was our emergency rations extra parts of the motors and bedding as for mechanical troubles we were quite fortunate only the electrical system was badly damaged which meant that we would not be able to use our starters for generators for the rest of the trip it just meant a little extra effort for luring me to start the motors by hand well all good things have to come to an end so after a couple of weeks fishing and enjoying the scenery mula hay is finally time to head northward for the last lap of our voyage here the Salazar's are presenting us with a couple of hats off the walls of the club mula hay with promises that they bring good luck for the balance of our voyage we really hated to say goodbye to our two friends here and they're lovely oasis but continuing on northward our next stop is at the famous fishing camp of Bahia Los Angeles very well known to American sportsman who are lucky enough to own their own airplanes there are many little bays and islands off the shores here the water is crystal clear and abounds with fish a real skin divers paradise one of the major means of livelihood hereabouts is turtle fishing and here we see several other natives trying to get their catch aboard the dugout these are large sea turtle variety and they go upwards of 100 250 pounds they have a clever way of keeping the turtles alive here and by here until they can be shipped to the restaurants and marketplaces in the north in the background you will see turtle sheds which are built close to the water in a high tide the water floods into the turtle shed giving the turtles a somewhat natural environment our next stop is a San philippi not just another port but the last port and the end of our sea voyage [Music] we pulled the searcher out of the water and hooked her up for the land journey home it was a sad day and a happy day we were sad to leave behind the many wonderful people who had treated us so graciously and a memorable days of weeks that we had spent exploring but I'll have to admit that we were happy to be returning home after our long absence we had accomplished what had never been done before we had circumnavigated the Baja Peninsula in a small outboard some 2,500 miles of open water in 85 days by contrast the journey home took away seven hours by car cutting diagonally across the California border to Newport Beach thus ending the voyage of the searcher a lot of our friends have asked me what was the real highlight of the voyage and I guess most of them expect me to say the highlight came about when we completed the circumnavigation but actually I think the real highlight was discovering the oasis of moola hey I know I've already mentioned how beautiful it is but it's a kind of place that you really have to see for yourself in order to believe it I've enjoyed showing you these films of our voyage and now back to the studio here's Jack next week the most unusual voyages in store for us when we join mr. Clifford caiman to search for and find the seven splendors of Persia we sincerely hope you'll be with us until then worth thanks again to mr. milk Barney and mr. Larry for Glen Oh for a fascinating sea voyage mrs. Jack Douglas saying thank you so much and good night ladies and gentlemen boys and girls [Music]