Australia Day Sail to Kingston

January 2009

On Australia Day 2009 we set off to provide a backdrop to Kingston's “Day on the Beach” festivities.

The day was glorious, lots of sunshine and a good strong breeze blowing. We quickly had the fore and aft sails set but as happens frequently the wind was not blowing in quite the right direction. We made progress by tacking between the eastern shore and the northern shore, eventually dropping sail and motoring towards Kingston. Just before our arrival we set the fisherman and sailed into Kingston.

Once at Kinston beach we dropped anchor and prepared to have a leisurely lunch.

Before we had time to finish our lunch the wind once more sprang up and we started to drag our anchor. The decision was made to raise the anchor, sail further down the river and then sail back into the bay with all squares set. Again things do not go quite as planned, as the wind was blowing at 35 knots and the crew would have difficulty bracing the yards to bring the ship back out of the bay. We decided to sail past the bay with the five square sails set and must have looked lovely as went past.

The sail back to Hobart was great fun, the ship took some handling in the strong wind but we were moving at over 6 n/hr without even trying to get the best out of her.

The passengers had a lovely time and were interested in the mechanics of sailing the ship in strong winds, asking lots of questions about the original voyage and the current Lady Nelson.

Arriving back at home port and the passengers disembarked we set about making the ship “ship shape” no easy task with so many sails to be put away. Finally the crew were able to have a well earned snack and something to drink.

Once more a lovely days sailing with good weather and best of all good company.

By Fleur Malcolm