In October 2013, the Royal Australian Navy will celebrate its Centenary and over 30 nations have been invited to be part of the formal fleet review in Sydney on the 5th Oct 2013; AuSTA and STI are planning a series of events to fit around the formal fleet review – and we want one of our ships to be there! Moreover, we are not the only Europeans planning to go, and there are several other majestic Tall Ships who are planning to deploy down there, following the age-old Trade Routes. At the moment, your operations manager Andy Spark is busy putting together a possible programme and, again, it won’t surprise you to know that – being the JST – we won’t do things by halves and we won’t just be dropping in and dropping out. If we follow the Trade Routes it is very possible that we would call in, and probably do some voyages to change the lives of local disabled people, in places like Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town and possibly even Madagascar, as well as numerous stops along the way. We would need to arrive in Australia in September 2013 and so would leave UK in the Spring and so you can see this is no small undertaking! Once the fleet review is complete, STI are planning a race between Australia and New Zealand and we might well stay there a bit longer after that too, in order to do just what the JST does best – change lives – for some Kiwis and Aussies too.
BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK? We need your views. Would you want to be part of this epic journey? What do you think about your JST going into the southern Hemisphere for the first time ever? Would you want to sail these historic routes, recreating History and helping to changes lives along the way? Please let me know by following the thread on our Forum or e-mailing me at info@jst.org.uk. We have a heck of a lot of preparation to do and funds are very tight at the moment and so we will have to get all our maths right, but once we know (probably in February 2012) we will let you know. If we are able to go – and you think it would be popular - we will then get our programme sorted as soon as possible and start taking bookings.
Alex Lochrane - CEO