On Australia Day I found myself aboard the good ship James Craig, and had a little ride around the Harbour. It was my first time on this fine old sailing ship. It's an iron-hulled barque, built in the UK in 1874, and it carted freight around the world many times until it was abandoned and sunk off the coast of Tasmania. In recent times it got lovingly rebuilt, and it's now operated (equally lovingly, I observed) by the Sydney Heritage Fleet.
I'd invited myself on board to say hello to my old friend Liam, who happens to be the third mate. Half way through the trip, he got promoted to driver, or whatever that is in correct nautical terminology. It looked like a rather demanding role, and consisted of running around the back end and peering over the edges, trying to see what's ahead. He was in radio contact with people at the front (fortunately), with the chap operating the engines, and with the drivers of the various ferries that were scuttling backwards and forwards around us.
Bringing the thing in to the wharf at Darling Harbour seemed particularly challenging.And there were the tugboats too to coordinate then.
Here's a tug shadowing us as we pass Barangaroo and the nearly-finished Crown Casino thing.
They weren't using the sails this time, but they'd used them earlier, and they were still being furled up as we started out. Looks like a labour-intensive operation, and there are 21 of them.
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