Jessica Watson Welcome Home

Day 3 - The next day we sailed Lion Rampant back down the coast to Manly in 20 to 25 knot SW winds. This trip took 12 hours as we were beating into it most of the way. The crew for this trip was Sally, Martin and Jacqui Valk. It was freezing cold even with mutiple layers under wet weather gear so I will be buying some thermals before next weekend!! Jacqui seems to love extremely windy sailing and had me laughing till I cried at one stage.

Ella's Pink Lady outside Mooloolaba Yacht Club

Indigenous welcome!

Lady Margaret

Ella's Pink Lady coming into the Marina

Ella's Pink Lady surrounded by the welcoming flotilla!

Jacqui Valk

Trevor Hill on his boat Apriori in which he recently completed the Solo Trans Tasman Race placing first monohull. With Trevor are Jen Wilks and Chris Spurgeon.

Martin showing his pink bits! All crews and welcoming crowds made a huge effort to wear something pink to welcome Jessica.

Jessica's secret rig?

Police escort! I have only ever been offered one of these twice when pulled over for misdemeanours!!

Kate Greenwood

Jessica and Ella's Pink Lady sailing up the coast from Caloundra.

Day 2 - On the Sunday Jessica was due to arrive in her yacht Ella's Pink Lady at around 12:30 so we set off at around 9am to sail down the coast towards Caloundra to meet her. The wind was SW at around 20 to 30 knots. We joined a large flotilla of around 50 boats to sail with Jessica up the coast. She was also accompanied by police boats and helicopters. Large groups of people lined the shore to see her sail past. It was a stunning spectacle to see all the boats zipping around Jessica's yacht. Our crew for this day was Sally and Martin plus Kate Greenwood, Lady Margaret and Jacqui Valk.

Lady Margaret, Chris Spurgeon and Kate Greenwood.

Glasshouse Mountains between Bribie and Caloundra!

Kate's extraordinary Duck salad and necessary accompaniments!
Photo Chris Spurgeon

Sally, Lady Margaret and Martin.
Photo Chris Spurgeon

Early morning departure from the marina at Manly for the sail up to Mooloolaba on the first day. Photo Chris Spurgeon

Lion Rampant and her crew have just had a wonderful weekend. Friday evening we stayed on the boat in the marina so that we could set off at first light to sail up from Bisbane to Mooloolaba. We had NW to SW winds of 10 to 20 knots which made it a fabulous spinnaker ride for a lot of the way up the coast. The trip took us 9 hours. Our crew for the trip up to Mooloolaba were Sally, Martin, Margaret (Lady Margaret), Kate Greenwood and Chris Spurgeon.