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| Day 335 |
08 March 2001 |
| Sydney |
| "Dutch Sail Duyfken" |
| Since our arrival we have had a busy
time here at the National Maritime Museum. The staff here have
been great, doing their utmost to ensure our stay is trouble free.
Visitor numbers have started off really well, the coverage we
have got in the local media has helped that along no end - our
arrival last Saturday made it on to the news broadcasts of all
5 TV channels which is a great win, and even if I do say so myself,
we looked bloody good coming in. On Monday we had the honour of
Admiral Roth Swan coming aboard - he is the head of the Australian
Sail Training Association and he presented 2 awards to members
of our crew. These awards are for young people,between the ages
of 16 and 23 who have shown outstanding personal achievment while
undertaking a voyage and Greg O'Byrne, 2nd Mate, and Nicole Gardner,
Leading Hand, were the first recipients of these awards. Well
done to both, the awards were thoroughly deserved for their part
in our voyage. It is pleasing to have the 2 VOC ships together
in one port, and already there is a cameraderie building between
the crews of Duyfken and Batavia. They invited us aboard the other
night for a barbeque aboard, the fire being lit in their traditional
galley in the tween decks. A pleasant night being had by all,
our crew being in awe a little of the massive size of Batavia
compared to our little ship. We were taken down into the forepeak
and shown an area known as "hell", right up in bow, but to us
it seemed incredibly spacious. The breasthook that we were sitting
on was in fact wider than my bunk. We were able to reciprocate
the hospitality a little last night when the Batavia crew joined
ours to help sail the ship up to the Royal Moter Yacht Club at
Point Piper. We had aboard a group of distinguished guests eager
to see the ship in action including Ed Reitsma, the Consul General
of the Netherlands, Albert Nooij, the Netherlands Ambassador in
Canberra, Joost Dirkzwager, Ambasaderaad from Canberra, Baron
Schelto van Heemstra, the Dutch Ambassador from Jakarta and Ambassadors
from various Asean countries - many of which with links to our
projects because of the Dutch ships that used to trade there.
They got a good view of the ship under sail as we tacked a few
times amongst the harbour traffic and then with a few yacht club
guests aboard, we had a great downwind sail back under 2 topsails
only, easily keeping pace with Windeward Bound under topsails
and t'gallant. As always the work goes on, Andrea the Mate has
left the ship here after doing a great job over the past few months,
she will be missed by all aboard, Greg now will keep the maintenance
going during the next few weeks. The ship will remain at the Australian
National Maritime Museum on display each day while we get her
ready for the next voyage. I will be taking some leave for a week
or two but will update this journal again when I get back to bring
up to date our progress and future plans. |
Gary Wilson
Master
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