Dreamtime Aus 1 - Melbourne To Sydney - July 1974

This video covers the first part of our cruise by yacht Dreamtime from Melbourne to Townsville in North Queensland in the second half of 1974. Remember that all photos and movie content is digitised from 50 year old 35mm slide film and 8mm Super 8 movie film.

The initial plan was to leave Melbourne well before winter came, but all the best laid plans.......

After a few months of work and preparation, Dreamtime was ready to leave on our first extended cruise, but by now it was mid winter! The intention was initially Melbourne to Sydney where my family lived. Then on north to North Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef, possibly then stopping in Townsville where we were most likely to obtain work.

Back in 1974 the computer models for weather forecasting were only in their initial development and big computers costing enormous sums of money were very limited in there true power which was needed for complicated 3D models of the atmosphere.

So it was no surprise that we were caught up in an extreme winter storm as we neared the east end of Bass Strait, almost heading north into the protection of the NSW coast. Two and a half days later we were able to continue on north after a period of mostly laying ahull to the wind and waves.

After the battering we experienced, we gained the coast again near Bermagui which was a welcome respite. We did some repairs and a major tidy up down below and then were able to continue on to Sydney which was my home town up to age 21.