Family of 3 Takes to Life on the Seas in a Rowboat

An adventurous couple and their 2-year-old son will leave San Pedro today to circumnavigate North America in a rowboat, an expedition they expect to take two years.

Kathleen and Curtis Saville, who describe themselves as “modern-day explorers,” have already rowed across two oceans in their 25-foot boat, the Excalibur Pacific. They spent 83 days in 1981 rowing across the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco to the West Indies, and 392 days beginning in 1984 crossing the Pacific from Peru to Australia.

They make the trips, they said, to learn more about marine life, oceanography, geography and the various people and cultures of the world.

“The hardest thing was the psychological aspect of it,” Curtis said of the Pacific trip. Seeing nothing but the ocean for weeks at a time, the couple got exhausted easily, had trouble making the right decisions and found it difficult to continue believing in themselves, he said.

Retraced Thoreau’s Route

The couple’s first extended boat trip was several years ago, when they spent a week rowing across lakes and rivers in Maine, retracing the route that Henry David Thoreau took about 100 years earlier before writing “The Maine Woods.”

Kathleen said that at the time “what we were sort of thinking about is that maybe we didn’t want a 9-to-5 life.”

They took the same trip last fall to see how their son would handle an extended trip. “He really takes to the boat quite well,” Curtis said.

Christopher was scared the first time he went on the boat, his mother said, but he soon learned to compensate for the rocking.

“I think (a hardship) tends to strengthen you,” said Curtis. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with learning to cope with hardships of any kind. It makes you tougher, more adaptable.”

The Savilles--he is 40 and she is 31--have been staying at the Cabrillo Beach Boat Yard and Yacht Basin while preparing for the trip, but their home base is Holland, Vt. They earn money by lecturing about their expeditions, appearing at boat and sports shows and writing and publishing their own books about their journeys and studies. In exchange for donated materials, they write detailed reports to companies about how their products withstand an expedition. They also advertise sponsors’ names on their boat or their clothing and provide photos for advertising.

The Savilles built the boat in a barn in Rhode Island. They estimate that it would cost at least $100,000 to have such a boat built but many of the materials they used were donated.

2 Small Cabins

The orange, 800-pound vessel has sliding rowing seats in the center, which at 5 feet 3 inches is the boat’s widest point. Two small cabins, one for storage and the other for sleeping, are at either end.

The sleeping cabin is just long enough for the Savilles to lie down. Christopher sleeps above their feet on a shelf originally used for the radio. Christopher can stand up in the sleeping quarters, but the best his parents can manage is sitting with their necks bent. “The boat’s really sized for (Christopher),” Kathleen said. The adults maneuver around the cabin by grasping ceiling straps.

“That is probably the most seaworthy boat in the whole L.A. Harbor area,” Curtis said the other day at the boat yard, preparing for the expedition. The boat is unsinkable, self-righting, self-draining, small and well-shaped to take storms and waves, he said.

During a rough storm off Australia, the boat was capsized by 35-foot waves but righted itself.

“It’s scary,” Curtis admitted. “. . . . I think you just develop a greater intuition about what actions to take and when, to better your chance of survival.”

They expect weather conditions--which tend to be more changeable near the coastline--to make the coming expedition even more trying than past trips.

Before setting out on an expedition, the Savilles research the climates, marine life, ocean conditions, governments and political situations of the places they will visit, as well as talk to people who have been there.

As in past expeditions, they plan to row six hours a day each, which gives them some time “alone” on the boat. They usually anchor the boat at night at sea. To get information about changing weather conditions and political situations, they listen to the radio, their only means of communication.

The unrest in Panama, for example, may affect their plans.

The Savilles originally planned to leave Los Angeles Harbor, spend some time whale watching in Mexico’s Gulf of California--also known as the Sea of Cortez--and then row south along the Central American coast and through the Panama Canal.

Now, Curtis said, they may wait for things to settle down in Panama.

“We’re just going to take advantage (of the unrest) and spend a little more time in the Sea of Cortez and study the whales in a little more depth than we otherwise would have,” he said.

“It’s unfortunate when you have these political situations that get in the way,” he said. “. . . . They’re in the middle of a revolution, and it’s not the time to go down there in a rowboat.”

After whale watching, the Savilles may take their boat to the eastern shoreline of the United States and do the northern part of their journey first. Another possibility is to continue down the Mexican coast and take the boat across Mexico in a trailer rather than use the canal. Some other adjustments may be necessary, they said.

For example, if the Canadian and Alaska waterways are frozen, they will cross by dog sled and arrange to have the boat brought around by trailer or other means to meet them.

The Savilles said they will continue to travel the world by boat as long as they can support themselves. Their goal is to sail around the world, retracing the paths of early explorers and comparing their observations with those who first made those expeditions.

If Christopher is of school age and the family is traveling, Kathleen and Curtis said they will teach him themselves or enroll him in a correspondence school.

The Savilles said their rowing trips are more fun with the toddler along--and more challenging. Christopher insists on participating in nearly everything his parents do, whether cleaning the boat or taking pictures, they said.

He also insists on helping row the boat--at least he thinks he’s helping. And as his parents recently prepared the boat for a short trip on the Los Angeles Harbor, Christopher was there to lend a tiny hand.

As Kathleen untied the boat, Curtis and his son placed the movable rowing seats on their tracks. Although Curtis used two oars, Christopher could manage just one. When Kathleen got into the boat, she was relegated to the bow, standing behind Christopher as he rowed from his mother’s seat.

The positions soon changed and Christopher was banished, crying, to the cabin.

What she is looking forward to most about the trip, Kathleen said, is “just being on the ocean again, the sea again and being on the boat again, going to a new place and doing it with the baby.”

While in San Pedro preparing for the expedition, the Savilles have spoken to several organizations, such as the San Pedro Rotary, the Adventurers and the Explorers clubs. Many local people, including John Olguin, former co-director of the Cabrillo Marine Museum, have donated food and helped with boat repairs and modifications.

The Savilles have been corresponding with Olguin and his wife, Muriel, since 1982 when they read an article about the Olguins’ boating adventures. The Olguins have undertaken rowboat expeditions from Monterey to San Diego, around the Virgin Islands and near the Fiji Islands.

“After talking to them and hearing their stories and reading their book, I feel like I’ve been rowing in a bathtub,” Olguin said. “. . . . I think it’s fantastic. I don’t think you’ll find anybody in the world with the adventures and spirit of these people.”