AROUND THE PORTS

John Maddox, Port Officer Sydney, Australia

As described by Jill Baty in Flying Fish 1995/1, War Baby arrived in Australia in February last year and after a circumnavigation of Tasmania was left at Elvina Bay in Pittwater, Sydney, while Warren Brown and crew returned to their home ports. Warren then decided to ship War Baby back to the US Eastern Seaboard due to time restraints, and she left Elvira Bay in March 1995.

I had a great cruise back from Hobart, Tasmania, in a Farr 12.20 returning after the 1995 Hobart Race. We had southeasterly winds all the way so were not on the wind at all! The usual watering holes were frequented -- the Customs House Hotel in Hobart, Triabunna Hotel on the west side of the Freycinet Peninsula in southeast Tasmania, and the Fisherman's Club, Eden, New South Wales. In Hobart I had an enjoyable day out watching the Derwent Regatta with Hugh Garnham aboard his Glenshiel VII.

Other visitors to Sydney were Sue and Jim Corenman in Heart of Gold from the San Francisco area. Initially they were alongside the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club at Newport, Pittwater, where Jim had an unfortunate fall on the dock which necessitated a short spell in hospital. Sometimes it is safer at sea than dockside! They then moved Heart of Gold to the Spit, Middle Harbour, Sydney.

Angela and Hugh Farrant were due to visit Sydney after seeing friends in New Zealand. They were to have stayed at Sid Yaffe's Dorchester Hotel but had to return urgently to England for family reasons.

Gulshan Rai, Port Officer Representative Bombay, India

Peewit, a 36ft French yacht sailed by Bernard Forget and his wife, has made a second voyage to India. I first met up with him in 1984 (Flying Fish 1985) at Bombay. This time he choose to drop anchor at Goa. Gracious Lady, a 37ft British ketch skippered by Leslie Banwell and crewed by Sylvia, also made landfall at Goa after several stopovers in the Med and Red Sea.

Another European yacht moored at Goa was the Finnish 40ft Serenade, with Jedrej Prusak as skipper with a crew of three Finns. They sailed for Salalah in Oman en route to the Red Sea ports. The Arabian Sea has steady northeasterlies between December and April and is totally free from heavy weather.

The first yacht to sail into Bombay harbour this season was Brandal III, Dutch for `naughty boy', owned by Indonesian-born Hollander Ewald Bresser and his wife Henny Admiraal. Ewald is a retired engineer from the Dutch army. In their 40ft ketch they are slowly completing an eastabout circumnavigation.

The American 46ft Nepenthe, Greek for a grief-banishing drug, owned by ex-Pan Am airlines staffer Fred Brutschy and crewed by Honolulu-based Butch Zeller, sailed into Bombay harbour from Salalah. They set off from San Francisco in 1985, spent five years in the Med, and expect to reach home port in two more years via Japan and Hawaii.

Brigadier DA Barker-Wyatt, CBE, was in Bombay to participate in the 75th anniversary celebrations of the formerly Royal, now Bombay, Sappers. (My name was given to him by Willy Ker, OCC). We met up for a drink at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club. He owns a Nicholson 30 and has done extensive sailing in the northern seas. He is a member of the Royal Engineers Yacht Club which, like the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.