The mountains at Lord Howe Island
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; the first ones were on Port Philip Bay in Melbourne. We had some beautiful days, with just a gentle breeze, and then we had the days where a sudden wind would strike up and the seas got really choppy.
Our first trip through the heads was in June 2003, when the Crystal Jane and a crew of eleven took their first trip on Bass Straight to Sydney. We had a few teething problems but they were rectified when we arrived in Pittwater, Sydney.
Over the past eight years we have travelled extensively up and down the East coast of Australia; we visited Lord Howe Island, had some fun getting wet going ashore with the dinghy in the surf at Byron Bay, stayed in Gladstone Queensland, visited the beautiful Jewel of the Great Barrier Reef, Lady Musgrave Island a number of times. We stayed in the lovely Port of Mooloolaba, and went further North through the back of Frazer Island. That’s where we were introduced to the sandflies!!! Bill had about 300 midge bites on his legs. We also captured a wild dingo on video, and the crew thought Yoka was kidding when she warned them with a message that a dingo was sighted near the dinghy!
Of course you get the beautiful sunsets, the dolphins and the whales; they 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 the Captain and Yoka on board; just as the crew came back from shore, and we managed to get them on board in just a nick of time to relay the anchor.
On one of our trips we lost a couple of sails, and had problems with the engine, and ended being towed into Sydney harbour. We have had the engine rebuild since then; and the mechanic made a comment that it should outlast us, our kids and our grandkids!!
While we spend some time in Queensland, we realised that the Crystal Jane was suitable for the tropics; we have to get the cooling pipes extended and the refridgeration needs to be modified (this will happen when the boat goes up on the slip) as the average temperature inside the boat was in the thirties! We have had two air conditioners installed to make life a little bit more bearable in the tropics.
