Monday, March 9, 2009

She made it!


Regular readers will recall that I blogged about the voyage of the Spirit of Mystery back in October last year. She's a replica of a 19th-century English fishing lugger, and was attempting to re-enact the trip from England to Australia originally made by her namesake in 1854. I posted a mid-course report about her in December.

I'm delighted to report that Spirit of Mystery arrived safely in Williamstown, near Melbourne, Australia, early this morning, to complete her remarkable voyage.




It wasn't all plain sailing. A severe storm last week knocked the boat on her side, and broke the leg of one crew member, who had to be lifted off the ship by helicopter for hospital treatment. The video clip below shows the start of that storm. The tapping sound you hear is of frozen raindrops striking the sails and deck of the ship.





Happily, the injured man is recovering satisfactorily, and was at the quayside in a wheelchair to greet his shipmates this morning. To add to the excitement, some of the descendants of the original Mystery's crew were there to greet the crew of her modern replica. Read all about it at the link.

Well done to all concerned!

Peter

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the report, Peter. "Well done" to the crew, indeed!

Old NFO said...

Well done to the crew, and thank God for a safe arrival of all. Thanks too for the report!