Saturday, December 28, 2013

FIRST FLEET RESCUES SYDNEY- HOBART YACHT IN DISTRESS


From our  ephemera collection comes this January 12, 1988  postcard from the brigantine  Eye of the Storm , built in 1911, part of the First  Fleet Re-enactment . It  comes  from  a  dashing doctor  friend , Ced Bullard,  at  times seen riding  a bicycle  about  the  Darwin  waterfront  while organising  cruise ships . Ced was  travelling  as  an  official doctor aboard the vessel , with a  sail area of  8000 square feet , when  it  pulled  into  Twofold Bay, Eden, NSW, on  its  way to   Sydney for  the big  official  arrival. His  message  reads : We settled in here last night after rescuing a Sydney Hobart  yacht   returning to Sydney when struck by  lightning  and stranded at sea for  three days. The  fleet will re-assemble here for  the home  run via Jervis Bay and  Botany  Bay . We spent Friday night  at Oberon Bay on Wilson’s Promontory where we   took  refuge  from a gale. We have been visited by trawlers, helicopter, sharks, seals, whales  and  dolphins. He points out the  sails of the  brigantine  are  now  brown.