Remote Island Missions on the Crystal Jane

If you are interested in learning how sail a little tall ship, or learn how to navigate, do watches, have adventure, the Crystal Jane is preparing to go to Fiji.  . The next trip is planned for the end of July 2011 and could take us to Lord Howe Island, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji. We need the trade wind to help us, and will be sailing with this track in mind.

If you are interested you need to pay your own way. You can come along for the whole trip, or take one of the legs, it’s up to you.

Keeping in mind where ever you land, you need to make your own way back.

There is a lot said about sailing on a Tall Ship and  without a doubt it is a great experience and the Crystal Jane  is no exception.

There have been many exiting adventures some of which I will mention and some I would like to forget. Of Course you get the beautiful sunsets, and the dolphins,and the whales that seem to make a habit surfacing just in front of the bow with their slow motion and majestic size, but we have never hit them.

Then there are the mishaps like dragging the anchor in Coffs Harbour in a 50 knot dust storm, with only myself and Yoka on board.

We had dragged anchor there three years before, after we had anchored there for three nights just after turning in late at night.  Yoka could not get to sleep because she had a notion that something was wrong.

The wind had struck up, and all hands on deck were required, we had to wake up the weary crew to relay the anchor.

So for those sailors who might want to anchor in the outer harbour of Coffs Harbour you might want to take note from our experiences, that the holding ground is not so good. (Two in-line anchors are suggested)

Then there were the problems with the engine and one of those situations happened in Lord Howe Island, where we had to postpone our trip to Fiji.

 Above you see a picture of the Sydney Police boat towing us to Sydney the engine made a bad noise in Lord Howe so we had to sail back to Pittwater.

The winds were blowing towards Fiji, and not in the direction of Sydney, so we had a hard time getting back. When we were only 130 nautical miles from Sydney, a storm warning came eight hours early. We had the full sails up; we took a beating and broke the mizzen gaff, without the

mizzen you can’t point  into the wind to any degree, that’s when the police boat came to tow us.  

Capt Willem

The Crystal Jane is getting ready to go into boat ministry to the Islands in the South Pacific.

Do you have a passion for the Gospel, have a call from God to reach out to the needy,  like adventure, like to sail or learn, well this might be what you are looking for.

I would like to say come on an adventure trip, with beautiful sunsets and pleasant sailing, and meet lots of interesting people, but that’s only half the fun.

What it really amounts to is, have you got what it takes to make it happen, there will be training, big seas, cold and wet days, endless nights, non stop sailing, well if you still want to come call “”Captain Willem”"

P.s every one who came so far had all of the above and a really good time.