THE SEMANGAT

APPROACHING SINGAPORE ANCHORAGE

BOTTOM CLEAN JUST PRIOR TO DEPARTURE FOR GUAM
LOW TIDE AT THE CHANGI SAILING CLUB DOCK IN SINGAPORE

SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

THE "DINGY" -- A MALAY SAMPAN

SAILING HERSELF, ME BEING TOWED IN DINGY

THE HOMEMAKER IN THE GALLEY

SON, JIM, & DAUGHTER, LILIA, IN HAMMOCK

SUNSET AT SEA ON THE SEMANGAT

AT ANCHOR IN THE KUCHING RIVER, SARAWAK

I WAS FASCINATED WITH MAT-MAKING IN SARAWAK

STANDING INTO MANILA BAY IN A NICE BLOW

SON, JIM, IN BOSUN CHAIR -- GUAM

LILIA AND JIM. OFF OROTE POINT, GUAM

They didn't in the least mind being boat people. In fact they reveled in it, even though Jim did tend to become seasick at times. It was a great life, but my wife had other ideas about what life ought to be in the land of the "big ice-cream cone." Of course, she changed her mind when we got to the farm in Southern Illinois and found out what ice was really all about.

PACIFIC DAILY NEWS
17 FEB. 1977

"...Bill Carr has been on Guam since Jun 10 when he arrived from Singapore in his 35-foot wooden-hull endurance design sailboat.
He single handedly sailed his vessel, making the journey in three months and three days, 40 days of which were spent on the voyage from Manila to Guam. Carr is a ship’s officer second mate and had been working as a
master on tow boats out of Singapore before his departure. But he had never made a long voyage in a sailboat prior to his trip here. He had his boat for a year before and practiced along the coast. Although Carr says that the
voyage was not a difficult one until he was caught in Tropical Storm Olga, veteran sailors say that because of many dangerous areas along the route he took, it is not an easy one to make with a crew, much less alone. “I stayed clear of the dangerous areas, says Carr smiling. “No telling how many
near-misses I had when I slept.”
   His voyage took him to the south coast of Vietnam and then down to Manila. After departing Manila his voyage became tougher. Because he was sailing a beat, tacking back and forth due to an easterly wind, he took a
long time to reach Guam. He has no self- steering device aboard but would adjust his tiller and keep it set so he could sleep. “I didn’t worry about whether I was off course a bit,” he says. Then he was caught in the
tropical storm. For 48 hours he stayed below deck as waves swept over his boat. “My sea anchor kept me broadside, but I didn’t want to cut it away. I thought I would just ride it
out,” he recalls. He also lost his steering during the storm at 3 o’clock one morning but managed to fix it. Although he has a 25 hp diesel engine, he only motored 72 hours on the entire trip. After arriving on Guam he moored in inner Apra Harbor where he and his family still live aboard his boat.
    He has been working as a tug boat operator here, but is thinking in terms of moving on, perhaps back to Singapore."

GUAM

Guam is a beautiful island, and might even have been a wonderful place to live before World War Two. It retained a good deal of charm until at least the late '60s. But now -- like Oahu -- it is a perfect example of what should never be allowed to happen to an island. It has four lane highways, rush-hour traffic jams, chain stores, fast food, shopping malls, high-rise apartment buildings and hotels, and its share of urban-style crime. There is no local agriculture to speak of, precious little local culture (and the Guamanians hold it against us) and people with coconut trees in their back yards take their food stamps or government paychecks to the supermarket and purchase tropical produce imported from the Philippines and Central America.

SEMANGAT ANCHORED IN CETTI BAY, GUAM

ANOTHER SOUTHEAST ASIAN BEAUTY

...But she didn't much like being a boat person. Is there any wonder that I made that most difficult choice a sailor ever has to make -- between wife and boat? So we sold the Semangat and migrated to a farm I owned in Southern Illinois. We arrived on Possum Ridge in September of 1977, and have been there ever since. The winter of 1977-78 was one of the worst on record. Soon my dearest one pined for the Semangat and tropical shores. But, the boat was history and, next to the boat, the farm is paradise to me, so here we've remained for 23 chilly winters. The kids are grown and I'm nearing retirement age, so I am once again thinking of boats and tropical shores myself. I might just build a boat here and float it down the Ohio and Mississippi some day.

Building a Dreamboat from Scratch