Anonymous wrote:

I randomly stumbled upon this thread and decided to look up his current whereabouts. Unfortunately it looks like he hasn't been heard from since November 2023:

https://7news.com.au/news/legendary-sailor-missing-after-embarking-on-a-sailing-trip-from-darwin-to-mexico-with-his-cat-last-year-c-15695619

That's sad, he's been a great inspiration. Perhaps this would be a good time to re-read Monsoon Dervish.

I think it beyond doubt now that Kris has perished at sea.  He was in very poor health when he left Rabaul, suffering from serious heart problems.  He stated that he was planning to return to Darwin, though that would have been a very difficult passage for engineless Kehaar in November, at the beginning of the wet season.  I was becalmed in that are in October 1976 for 15 days.  If he had been in good health, the NW monsoon would have eventually arrived, as it did for us, and taken Kehaar wherever Kris wanted to go, as it had for so many years.  But he was so weak he could not even hoist the mainsail or his anchor without assistance.  Rabaul was in the midst of civil unrest and the hospital there was closed, which is why he left.  There has been no sight of Kehaar since, though it is a remote area and the boat could have drifted up onto a reef somewhere.  I got to know Kris somewhat after writing my HOF article about him, and could not imagine him in a nursing home, but he could have lived quietly aboard in Darwin, with the support of his many friends, so it remains a tragedy.

Iain Grigor wrote:

Yes, indeed, one of the great voyagers.  I wonder if he ships (and uses at times) any sort of drogue (to link into another thread on this forum) (if these are the appropriate techno-babble terms).

I am not aware that Kris has ever used a drogue, but I will ask him before the final edit of my Hall of Fame article about him which will be published in the June issue of the JRA magazine.  A drogue may have been of benefit to him in the typhoons he survived in Asia some years ago, but he may have a different opinion about that.  Read the details in the article!

Thanks for the update. I've been waiting for an opportunity to buy some of his books. I really enjoyed Monsoon Dervish.