THE grandson of a Mary Tavy couple, who stayed with them and worked in Tavistock to get started on his sailing enterprise, has just sailed the Atlantic single-handed. Kai Weeks, 22, is the grandson of Barbara and John Weeks. During his nine month stay with them a couple of years ago he worked at a residential home in Tavistock and at the plastics factory to earn enough money to embark on his ambition of sailing the Atlantic single- handed. He earned enough to fly to Cape Town, from where he sailed to Brazil as a crew member, then took a river steamer up the River Amazon for five days before going to the Carribean and finding work cleaning the bottoms of boats and similar tasks. Having accumulated a sufficient amount to buy a yacht of his own, he then sailed the Atlantic, once more as a crew member, to Falmouth via the Azores, then on to Sweden. He flew back out to the Carribean, sold his yacht and bought another — this time he set out to do the crossing single-handed. Barbara said that 'with the minimum of fuss and no desire for publicity' Kai had arrived in Falmouth on Saturday, June 21 having sailed the Atlantic from St Martin's in the Carribean, via the Azores, to Falmouth. 'I thought a few people might remember him and be interested to hear of his achievement,' said Barbara. Kai's ambition is to sail to the Mediterranean.
