Harold La Borde
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Harold La Borde is a famous Trinidadian sailor and adventurer who in 1969 to 1973 circumnavigated the world in his 40ft ketch, 'Hummingbird II'. He was accompanied by his wife, Kwailan, and his five year old son Pierre. As the first known Trinidadian sailors to cross the Atlantic and later to circumnavigate, Harold and Kwailan were awarded the nation's highest honour - the Gold Trinity Cross.
Harold was born in Trinidad, West Indies, in 1933, of parents with a rich mixture of blood in their veins - French, African, Spanish and Amerindian (Carib). He was educated at a local Roman Catholic school and began his sailing career by building dinghies, in which he taught himself the rudiments of seamanship, and reading any book about deep sea sailing that he could lay his hands on. Harold La Borde was determined to get a suitable boat, opting to build one himself.
In his first book, An Ocean to Ourselves (1962), La Borde tells how he built a 26' ketch 'Humming Bird'. Harold and Kwailan, who were married in 1959, made their maiden voyage in the 26-foot vessel, 'Humming Bird', to England in 1960, together with a friend, Buck Wong Chong. The 'Hummingbird' was subsequently sold, and says Harold "is somewhere in Europe."
The La Bordes, always working as a team, took jobs at an Outward Bound school in Nigeria in 1961, after the voyage, but the call of the sea was too strong for the young couple and they returned to Trinidad in 1963, when they started to build the 40' ketch 'Humming Bird II'. Their first-born son, Pierre, arrived while work was in progress.
The boat was completed in three years and, after chartering her out to Americans for a further three years in order to raise sufficient funds, the family set out on the 2nd of February 1969 on the, now historic, voyage that took them around the world. Harold and Kwailan were both awarded their nations highest award, the Trinity Cross for their seafaring adventure. Their second son, Andre, was born in Auckland, New Zealand, during the voyage.
Upon the return home the 40ft Humming Bird II was purchased by the Trinidad and Tobago government in 1973, and can be seen from the lighthouse on South Quay. And according to Harold "is rotting away there. It is a sad thing, especially when you talk about taking care of historical things."
The La Bordes went on to another circumnavigation voyage in the 2000's in the 'Hummingbird III'.
Harold La Borde T.C. also wrote a further two books with input from his family, wife Kwailan and sons Pierre and André, All Oceans Blue (1977), and Lonely Oceans South.
Documentary films of their travels were made which were also very professionally put together and today the La Bordes run a small family marina in Trinidad's busiest yachting bay.
