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 Charlie Peet was a Sausalito, Calif., restaurateur who had adventure in his blood. In 1971 he and his wife, Marty, bought Santana to sail the around the world. Sailing with them was Jim Leech as crew, now of the sail making firm Leech & Rudiger. Leech recalls that everywhere they went they found people who knew Santana. While in Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands, they ran into a photographer whose mother ran a store there and who purportedly lost her virginity on the Santana in Avalon (Catalina Island), in 1945. While Santana was built for racing and was constructed out of the best materials of the time, the trip took its toll. She had lost her mizzenmast during a storm with winds to 85 knots. She had sailed 40,000 miles in two years, and it was the last leg from Cabo San Lucas to San Francisco that was the worst. The winds blew so hard that the boat couldn’t move to windward. Three times she set out from Cabo and three times Santana was beaten back. Finally Marty Peet flew home in tears, friends say, unable to bear any longer the beating the old boat was taking. |
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