“The night was dark and stormy” as we raced across the Bass Strait and into Sydney Harbour

HOBART TO SYDNEY

The day that the new voyage crew joined was wonderfully sunny and I was thrilled to show lots of visitors around the ship including the pastor of the Hobart Cathedral and his wife, one of the gentlemen from the Seaman’s mission and the cutest guide dog puppy! (I may have squealed in delight when I heard the announcement over the tannoy “Tam, there is a puppy in the chart room to see you”.

Guide dog puppy "Tony" on the helm

Unfortunately, the list of jobs didn’t reflect the happiness of the sun and we were soon battling with a faulty generator that required an outside electrician. After spending nearly all day poured over electronic diagrams, checking voltages and replacing switches we discovered poor quality batteries were the root of it all and hastened to order new ones before we left Hobart at 0930hrs the following morning. 

When we left Hobart the wind was blowing us onto the berth so we had to use the local support boat to pull our bow off. By the time all the tall ships had pulled away from the dock the wind was all over the place, a steady 25 knots at one point followed by gusts of up to 40 knots and lulls where any sails flapped helplessly. We tentatively readied our sails and set them as we rounded the mark near the Tasman Bridge. By the time we passed the Commanders yacht and sounded the salute we had all our Outer Gibb and Mizzen sail up (two of our lower, triangular sails) as well as our foremast top sail and course and our main mast top sail…Not bad considering the wind!

The wind got back up and the sea swell grew as we sailed north along the Western coast of Tasmania and there were a number of very green faces by lunch time. I had a busy day dealing with lots of little problems that always show themselves when we leave a berth including a last minute panic when the oven door came off in Cookies hand as he was cooking our evening meal! I worked until 2000hrs trying to fix it, but I was too tired to finish what ended up being an involved job. We sailed until the early evening when we handed sail and turned the engines back on. 

I was woken early to carry out pre-arrival checks so that we could go to anchor in Wine Glass Bay at 0800hrs. The bay was gorgeous: A long sandy beach in front of us (with the only disadvantage being that its low profile was poor protection from Westerly winds) and beautiful cliffs and rocky shores either side. When we arrived there was a seal playing with a fish and a man fishing of the rocks. This inspired our 2^nd officer who caught a couple of flat head fish which the captain and I had for our dinner. (Thanks Kev!)

After a day at anchor in Wine Glass Bay all the voyage crew had recovered from their seasickness and the engineering department had completed a number of jobs that are much less unpleasant when the ship isn’t rolling (i.e. emptying and cleaning the grey water tank). It was a chilly evening but we woke to beautiful sun and the sound of the SV Tecla (one of the dutch tall ships who had anchored in the bay with us) motoring out. We had our breakfast and prepared the yards and sails so that we sailed off the anchor. This was a little awkward as the tides in the bay were strong and the wind dropped off to nearly nothing so we had to use a bit of engine power to help us pivot around the anchor and stay at a safe distance from the rocky shores. 

As soon as we sailed past the protection of the bay the wind filled the sails and we shot north until the wind dropped again and we were forced to do some more motoring. The swell got up a bit again and there were some more green faces, but Cookie made an amazing curry that filled the ship with lovely smells before dinner! We continued to motor-sail close to the land throughout the night so that we have a gorgeous view to our port all the time. Tasmania is truly wild and reminds me of the West coast of Scotland- an area that I absolutely love. I really hope that I can visit here again and do some trekking in the mountains.

We left Hobart knowing that we were sailing into gale force winds, but as we sailed North, the forecasts became worse until we were sailing into a storm. The winds were already high as we entered for the Bass Strait (the piece of water that separates Tasmania from Australia) where we were hit by high swells and squalls of rain and high wind. We had most of our sails up but (because of the wind and sea state) it would have been dangerous for us to hand them down so we just had to hold on!

 

Our rolls went off the scale during the storm in the Bass Strait!

The angle recorder stops at 45 degrees of heel- but we were taking water over our rails at some points during the afternoon. We recorded over 50 knot winds (the limit of our annometer) but the meteorological reports stated 75knot gusts in some areas. We shut all the doors and stopped people from going on deck (not that anyone wanted to).  

The engineering alarm was going off every 10 minutes so I spent the best part of the day running up and down the steps to mute and accept the alarm. The alarms were caused by our high angle of heel which meant that the low oil level alarm kept being set of in the steering gear and bilge alarms were being set off all over the ship due to moving “stuff” (sails, pots and pans, water). Poor old Dave (our cook) had to confess to the captain that she couldn’t have any vegetables as he gestured to her feet where the vegetables had just been sent flying. Although, he still managed to bake a wonderful looking Banoffee Pie (although most of it ended up on the inside of the lift shaft after the volunteers failed to secure it properly)….Poor Dave.

To try and stop the steering gear alarm I had to climb onto the chart house roof (in the middle of the storm) and poor more hydraulic oil into the tank. After dinner the white knuckle ride continued. I walked into the bar to see one of our voyage crew walking down in a daze covered in blood. He had fallen when he came off the helm and had hit his head, both his hands and cut down the side of his leg. Our on board doctor and one of the voyage crew (who happened to be a nurse in the “real world”) lept into action and within minutes they were (literally) stitching him up in the bar.

Then we heard a tremendous roar and a sudden change in course and went outside to find that the main course sail (the lowest and largest sail on the main mast) had been teared when a gust had come through. By now it was dark, raining and the wind was blowing so hard that it made it difficult to hear anything when you were outside. The captain gave a call out over the tannoy for volunteers to put on harnesses to help with the torn sail. About ten of us turned up and went outside where we quickly clipped onto the ship for fear of being thrown into the deep blue on the next big wave. The wind was howling wind and rain was lashing down almost as hard as the sea water was crashing over the side so that we were all quickly drenched. It was all very surreal and took a good half an hour and a lot of pulling before the main course was pulled up onto the yard to stop it from flapping around and potentially causing more damage or injuring someone.

Bad day at the office- the main course after the storms

Not soon after we came in when another tear was heard, this time on the outer gibb. There was no way that we could have sent anyone to the bow to pull this in, so we just had to leave it where it was, flapping helplessly in the wind. 

“The night was dark and stormy, and the rain came down in torrents, and the Captain on the bridge said to the Mate down below “Tell me a story”. And, thus, it began.

“The night was dark and stormy, and the rain came down in torrents, and the Captain on the bridge said to the Mate down below “Tell me a story”. And, thus, it began.

“The night was dark and stormy, and the rain came down in torrents, and the Captain on the bridge said to the Mate down below “Tell me a story”. And, thus, it began…”””

The last engineering alarm went off just after midnight and the storm calmed down by about 0300hrs. The next morning we surveyed the damage….Considering the wind speed and age of the ship we did extremely well. The injured voyage crew was looking much better now that the concussion had worn off and apart from some very sea sick voyage crew (and chief engineer) we were all looking ok…..just very tired. Needless to say, we were all very happy when we motored into Eden and had two nights ashore where we enjoyed some of the local beer and the lovely fresh fish that the little fishing village provided. 

Eden....enough said

 The interesting thing about Eden is there history with Killer Whales (Orcinus Orca)where the Orcas used to heard whales into the Bay and slap their flippers on the surface of the water to attract the attention of the local whalers. The whalers could then row out and catch the whales and "repay" the Orcas by floating the carcasses back out to sea for the Orcas to eat.

I went for a lovely run before we left Eden alongside the SV Lady Nelson. Not far out of the bay we were entertained by a pod of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) who were displaying by jumping out of the water and flapping their pectoral fins on the surface. It was great to see them in the bay famous for its whales.

By the afternoon, the wind turned to the north to head us off, so we had to hand our sails and turn on the engines to keep to our schedule. I managed to find time just before dinner to climb to main mast and out onto the t’gallant yard to help stow the sails. 

The next morning we woke up surrounded by War ships….We had entered Jervis Bay where half of the Australian Navy as well as ships from Navy’s all over the world had gathered to prepare for the fleet review. The fleet review is a celebration of 100 years of the Australian Navy and will see hundreds of ships in Sydney harbour (including Nelly!)

We anchored in Jervis Bay for a few hours before sailing out of the bay and towards Sydney. It was the quiet before the storm…As we arrived in the entrance to Sydney harbour. Around 20 tall ships were vying for space as the wind whipped up to 25 knots, the clouds darkened and the rain and squalls began to hit. We had timed our entrance to arrive at the “Zulu line” in procession with the other ships. However, with the wind and photo shoots, the timings didn’t match up and we ended up with sails backed, wallowing across the headlands that made the Zulu line (and the entrance to Sydney Harbour) with a fleet of tall ships coming down on us! It was lashing with rain and the wind was up and in the wrong direction. We were desperate to keep as much sail up as possible and we gave a great show to the cameras that were all over the place, in helicopters, yachts, other tall ships etc.. We have some great coverage on channel 7 news!

All the ships eventually manoeuvred into “marching order” and paraded into the harbour dodging yachts and other pleasure craft that had entered the skirmish. The skies eventually calmed down as we squeezed into our berth outside Sydney Maritime Museum. 

The rain cleared just as we past the Opera house and headed under Sydney Harbour Bridge