After the search for the elusive tall ship was over today was the day we would finally get to sail on the ship itself. Originally named the Svanen, the Southern Swan is a magnificent three-masted barquentine, built in Denmark in 1922. Made of Danish oak she is a unique vessel, while not classified as an icebreaker, her hull is extraordinarily strong. Enabling her to handle light ice that may have built up in the cold waters of the North Atlantic, Denmark and Greenland, where she originally traded as a grain carrier.

The Southern Swan has a unique nautical history. In 1969 she was purchased as a private vessel and extensively refitted to handle larger and longer ocean voyages. She served as a sail training vessel with the Canadian Sea Cadets and journeyed to Vancouver to appear at the World Expo in 1986. She then sailed to England to join the First Fleet Re-enactment.

As you can see the Southern Swan has had quiet an interesting history before arriving in the harbour. The journey itself circles the habour, under the bridge and loops back on the other side. Usually a very stable ship, unfortunately the day had carried on with the weeks previous weather. RAIN!! This did not deter our bare footed staff from carrying on and delightfully informed us they would provide free ponchos to 'protect us'.

Food was served on the lower decks which consisted of a hand buffet, it was poor and still left us hungry, but the food was not why we were there. A delightful cruise and chats with some locals all of whom were a lot older older than us. A continuing traditional, perhaps we are old at heart!

After feeding and watering ourselves we had a brief wait and we were off for our evening bridge climb. The first part was putting all the gear on which consisted off:

1x jumpsuit

1x fleech rolled up

1x rain coat rolled up

1x hanky attached to wrist

1x hat

1x gloves

1x head lamp

1x radio and headset

1x glasses cords (for me)

All attached with clips to a waist harness, this as I am sure you can understand weighed a lot but was neccessary to prevent anything falling from the bridge to the road or tracks below. Putting on the jumpsuit itself seemed to be something one of our fellow German climbers struggled to understand, putting it on backwards several times.

Getting onto the bridge walkway we climbed all the way to the top via the stair case. Stopping on the way for photos. The climb down was done with ladders in between the train tracks, which when I went down happened to have a moving train on which was a strange feeling.

Overall a great day.