Above: Donald Mundy, left, and Captain Tony Wall on deck. Left: from left: Harold Kernodle, Gij van Staveren, Alex Alexander, and Captain Tony Wall.

by Jim Rogalski

“They who would go to sea for pleasure would go to hell for pastime.”

That 18th-century proverb may seem unduly respectful of Greek sea god Triton in today’s safety-conscious boating world of on-board storm-tracking electronics and navigational techno-gadgets that can even steer the boat for you.

But for anyone who has hoisted canvas and set sail for an off-shore voyage—like Harold B. Kernodle, Jr., MD’69; Gijsbertus van Staveren, MD, HS’82-’85; and Donald Mundy, MD, HS’75-‘79, did together last summer—that salty phrase is still poignantly relevant for its intimation of the menacing power of the open sea.

Ocean sailing “is like third-class travel,” says Kernodle, 63, an orthopedic surgeon in Burlington, N.C. “You can get banged around, and it’s not the most omfortable.”

That’s so even on a new fully-loaded sailboat like the 40-foot Pacific Seacraft named Azure that Kernodle and Burlington-based anesthesiologist friends van Staveren and Mundy teamed up to sail 3,700 miles last summer from the Grand Bahamas across the Atlantic to Gibraltar on the eastern coast of Spain.

Luckily for the trio, who often can be found in the operating room together, the overwhelming majority of the five-week adventure was smooth sailing.

“While we were out there we were listening to the SSB (single side band) radio about other boats that were experiencing severe gale weather. We never got into anything treacherous,” Kernodle says. “We had a few mechanical problems along the way, but you always will have those.”

The pathology of sailing dictates that a prudent sailor not jump from lake-sailing a 10-foot Sunfish to captaining a 40-footer across the Atlantic. Kernodle says all three Duke-affiliated skippers had honed their skills over decades. Kernodle and Mundy have co-owned several boats together over the years, and Azure is co-owned by Kernodle and van Staveren.

Prior to last summer’s trans-Atlantic trip, the longest off-shore voyage for any of them was a 650-mile sail from Beaufort, N.C., to Bermuda.

“You evolve into it gradually,” Kernodle says. “You start sailing on lakes and sounds, then coastal cruises. There is nothing better than a sailboat quietly but forcefully moving through the water being pulled along by the wind.”

It took 18 months to plan the trip and provision Azure for the long haul, and despite their collective experience and accompanying confidence, they hired licensed Captain Tony Wall to join them.

Kernodle, Mundy, and Wall sailed Azure from the Bahamas to Bermuda, where Mundy flew back home and van Staveren and Alex Alexander—a local entist—joined the crew.

“The most exhilarating experience was the initial sighting of the volcanic mountains of the Azores after having not seen land for about two weeks.” Harold B. Kernodle, Jr., MD’69

The next leg was from Bermuda to the Azores, where they spent a few days re-supplying and working on the boat. Alexander returned to North Carolina, and Justin—van Staveren’s son—joined the crew.

The final leg took them from the Azores through the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Africa to Gibraltar.

“The most exhilarating experience was the initial sighting of the volcanic mountains of the Azores after having not seen land for about two weeks. Also, the harbor at Horta, Faial—our landfall—was filled with colorful sailboats from all over the world.

There was such an incredible diversity of individuals,” Kernodle says.

When under sail at night the crew took three-hour shifts at the helm to watch for approaching ships, obstructions such as discarded ship containers, or significant weather changes. During the day there were porpoises to marvel at, books to read, and DVDs to watch.

“(Dolphins) would appear out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere,” van Staveren marvels. “How did they know we were there? They would surf across 10-foot waves, effortlessly.”

Every day the crew gathered in the cockpit about an hour before sundown to have a drink, “so we could communicate and share thoughts,” Kernodle says. “At night if there was a full moon it was absolutely gorgeous. It was like a moonlit highway.”
Mundy is particularly enamored with night sailing. “On a moonlit night the waves have a silvery tinge to them,” he says. “It’s spellbinding. There’s nothing like it in the world.”

Van Staveren says the beauty of the moon gave them “something to focus on during those lonely night watches.”

While the weather gods shone on them for the majority of the trip, there still were occasions when 25-knot winds churned up the sea and sailing was more like a wet and bouncy carnival ride.

But as van Staveren notes, the rewards and memories were more than worth the effort as he tells about his favorite moment on the trip:

Harold Kernodle enjoys the view on deck.

“After four weeks at sea I knew we were close to land,” he says. “We were sailing the same waters that Columbus, Magellan, and their crews sailed so many centuries before. Even though we were still quite far from land, there was the smell of dried wild herbs and flowers. Hours later, with the mountains of Northern Morocco on our far distant right, coastal southern Spain on our left, and the Rock of Gibraltar straight ahead, we sailed into Gibraltar Harbor. We had accomplished what had been a dream for such a long time.”

Kernodle considers the journey “a huge accomplishment. The number of people in this fraternity (of trans-Atlantic sailors) is not that big. It’s exciting and challenging.”
It also takes a certain mindset to endure days on end of seeing only water. “You have to overcome that. For some people it’s hard,” Kernodle says.

Not for these friends. In fact, Azure currently is still in the Mediterranean, where they plan to take more sailing trips to move it from Barcelona to Corsica to Turkey and eventually back to the Caribbean and finally to Florida.

“We’ll go over three times a year for a couple of years, then eventually take six weeks off to bring it back,” Kernodle says.

Mundy says he has already started planning so he can be on that return trip for the entire journey.