Local brothers dock after 6 week sail from Japan to Mexico

The sailboat that the Simis brothers just docked in Mexico after sailing from Japan. Photo: Simis family

HEBER CITY, Utah — Two local teenage brothers departed on their sailboat from Osaka, Japan in April, and successfully arrived in Ensenada, Mexico on Monday.

“We are pleased to announce the arrival of SV Love Song after six weeks at sea,” Mom Kathy Simis told TownLift.

The two boys were students at the Soldier Hollow School, and at Weilenmann School where Kathy was a teacher.

R Morgan Simis, a 2022 graduate from Wasatch High School, started the voyage in Langkawi, Malaysia, back in April after a two month re-fit. He joined a multi national crew there; a Mexican skipper and his Italian wife, his 13 year old son, and their infant, as well as the skipper’s uncle.

Upon their immediate departure from Kuah, they had a rocky start hitting an uncharted rock pile. They continued down the Malacca Straits dodging commercial fishing vessels and cargo ships to cross the world’s busiest shipping channels uneventfully. After a brief stint in Indonesia, they crossed the South China Sea with additional stops in Borneo and the Philippines before heading north to Japan. En route to Okinawa, a much desired historical destination, they were followed too closely by Super Typhoon Mawar and had to head to open sea where they reached the safe harbor of Osaka just in time.

It was there that crew changes were made, and the Skipper’s Uncle, wife, and baby departed.

16-year-old W Wyatt Simis, rising senior at Wasatch High, joined the crew June 4 and preparations were made for the huge undertaking of the North Pacific high crossing to Mexico. Thus, an enormous circuitous route has been completed by the stout 42 year old Canadian built vessel.

The Simis family bought their boat, Love Song, in San Diego in 2000, taking her to Ensenada where they spent two years living aboard before they sailed to Puerto Vallarta. Morgan was born there in 2004, and his brother Wyatt was born in La Paz, BCS in 2006. By 2009, the family crossed Mexico to the Marquesas, touring the South Pacific; French Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Solomons, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

In 2015 they packed their two dogs, and Thai cat, returning to the U.S., choosing the exquisite mountains of landlocked Utah to prove the American dream. Meanwhile, Love Song awaited her family for several years in Langkawi, Malaysia, from whence she has now returned to the shores of Ensenada.

The profundity of the six weeks at sea can be glimpsed by this quote from 31-year-old Marko Bulajich who was on the journey, “The dry air almost brings the smell of the shore to us, the confine between the two worlds, one where we belong, and the one we long for and for some time now have ventured within. We were sucked upon the horizon and for many weeks spent time between the clouds soaking on the moist air we were traveling by.”

“Now it is our time to come back and we gladly await the time when the officer on watch will convey our attention with the so longed for ‘LAND HO!’ Still much to recount but as a blacksmith turning off the furnace, only ashes to account for – salt in this case, the product of our trade. We can only say that we have abided by the truth we know and for that be pleased to greet you all.”

“This endeavor was a massive team effort back home for the parents/owners to orchestrate such an expedition of flights, locating and shipping boat parts, sending provisions, arranging airfare, weather routing and route planning,” Kathy said.