Windeward Bound Slips Back for Duyfken.
March 2001.

By Peter Andrews, © 2001.
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On the second day Windeward Bound was up on Wollongong Harbour Slipway, this amazing storm front rolled in from the southwest. Despite its appearance and velocity, there was little behind it as it moved on scare the hell out of Sydney.

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The Hobart registered Brigantine, Windeward Bound arrived in Wollongong after an overnight voyage from Sydney on Tuesday February 27. With the morning tide, the ship went up onto the slipway for a couple of days for a quick scrub and paint below the waterline. As seen from the photos below, a howling storm front came out of nowhere on the Wednesday afternoon, but passed over as quick as it arrived.
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Looking across Belmore Basin in Wollongong Harbour, the storm appeared to be rolling out from some central point, in all directions.
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As the previous photo shows the storm rolling out to sea in the east, this shot looking northwest shows the front moving up the coast. All these shots were taken within a time frame of just a couple of minutes.

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On the following Friday (March 1), the ship went back into the water on the 1 PM tide and I was fortunate to be invited to help out with the return trip to Sydney. The aim of the voyage was to meet up with the replica of the early 17th century Dutch ship, the Duyfken, which was expected to arrive at Sydney Heads around 4 PM the following day.
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Another view of Windeward Bound up on the slip, Wednesday February 28, 2001.

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To avoid a current running south along the coast we motored about 30 nautical miles out out to sea, before turning towards Port Hacking. Surrounded by rain squalls after dark, we were lucky to arrive dry for an overnight anchorage of Jibbon Beach at the mouth of Port Hacking sometime around midnight.
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Looking at the back of the storm (shown above) and Windeward Bound on the slip, Wednesday, February 28, 2001.
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About 20 miles off Wollongong. At this point, the ship went another 10 miles out to sea before turning towards Port Hacking to eventually drop Anchor around midnight off Jibbon Beach. Shot taken on Friday, March 2, 2001.

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With everyone on board woken at 7 AM and with a wonderful breakfast out of the way, the anchor was raised and Windeward Bound slowly made way by sail up the coast towards South Head.

Arriving off Macquarie Light about an hour before Duyfken was due, Windeward Bound hove-to, to wait for the little ship's arrival. Due to a headwind, Duyfken was held up a little. But within binocular range, we were all surprised to see how high this ship could point towards the breeze. As Duyfken approached, we resumed a course that brought us into a position to fall in just behind the replica for her run up the harbour to the National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour.
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The arrival of the Duyfken Replica to Sydney, Saturday March 3, 2001.

Peter Andrews © 2001. All Rights Reserved.
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Duyfken & Batavia in Sydney.
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Windeward Bound's Web Site: http://windbound.com.au/
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Peter Andrews © 2001. All Rights Reserved.