VP2VB Sails (the Airwaves) Again! — Part II

Correction: In our introduction to Part I of this article last month, we wrote that the 2020 VP2VB operators sailed from New York to the British Virgin Islands to operate. That was incorrect. They flew … in an airplane! – ed.

In the 1950s, going to faraway places just for the purpose of operating amateur radio was practically unheard of. Traveling during those years was difficult and expensive, and reaching out-of-the-way and rare DX entities was even harder, because it usually involved sailing.

A Watchmaker Turned Adventurer

It was in 1947 that a young British watchmaker and former Royal Air Force officer named Danny Weil was inspired by his reading of Thor Heyerdahl’s book about sailing across the Pacific on the raft named Kon-Tiki. Danny then spent innumerable hours restoring and making seaworthy the wreck of a 40-foot sailing boat that he had found. At the suggestion of a friend, he named the boat “Yasme” from the Japanese word “yasume,” which means “to rest, to be free,” a name which would definitely reflect the adventures that were about to happen.

In August 1954, Danny left England aboard his restored sailboat with the goal of traveling the world alone. He made a stopover in Gibraltar for boat repairs and met the famous French explorer and filmmaker Jacques-Yves Cousteau. It was the start of a long-lasting friendship. Cousteau helped Danny replace Yasme’s damaged propeller and, in turn, Danny repaired Jacques-Yves’s chronometer, using his watchmaking skills.

Danny then crossed the Atlantic in just three weeks, arriving in Antigua (V2). In nearby St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands (KP2), he looked for some help from local hams with his problematic radio equipment. At that point, Danny did not have an amateur license and was using an “informal” call while at sea. He was fortunate to make friends with Dick Spenceley, KV4AA, who’s DX Editor at the time — was to become an integral part of the Danny Weil and Yasme story.