Museum looks at Kay Cottee’s solo voyage around the world

by Sail-World on 4 Feb 2005 Visitors to the National Maritime Museum can now experience first-hand the loneliness of Australian long-distance sailor Kay Cottee on her record breaking 189-day solo circumnavigation of the globe.

The museum is inviting visitors to board her yacht Blackmores First Lady and go below deck to see the cabin and work spaces much as they were at a key stage on Ms Cottee’s remarkable voyage.

Along with the yacht, the museum has acquired hundreds of objects from the journey and many of these are displayed along with facsimiles and replicas.

The first woman to sail solo around the world non-stop and unassisted, Kay sailed home to a hero’s welcome in Sydney Harbour on 5 June 1988.

‘I was never really lonely,’ she says now. ‘I was too busy most of the time and I had radio communication and my First Mate, Ted (a large toy bear) to talk to.’

The 37 ft (11.2 metre) yacht is displayed, fully rigged, as part of the museum’s Watermarks – adventure, sport and play exhibition in its ANZ Tall Gallery.

The cabin and work spaces are displayed as they looked in the period 25 January to about 4 February 1988. Blackmores First Lady had just rounded Cape Horn and was heading happily north from the cold and ice into a warmer, sunnier Atlantic.

Ms Cottee was able to spread out her gear in these calmer waters. Her Christmas cards were still displayed in the cabin along with her photos of family members and friends – one young niece had written on her picture: To Aunty Kay, Please have a very happy and safe trip, don’t be another ‘Titanic’!

The 25 January was her 34th birthday. She had just opened the birthday gifts that were previously stowed away, and consumed a large chocolate cake she had baked in the galley.

The calmer weather in this period also allowed her to carry out difficult repairs to the yacht’s boom which was cracked in a fierce storm more than three weeks earlier.

‘This is a real-life experience,’ director Mary-Louise Williams said today. ‘By seeing the yacht this way, a museum visitor learns something of Kay Cottee’s technical abilities and her emotional response to this great solo challenge.’

The inspections are available daily. Visitors should telephone (02) 9298 3777 in advance for advice on times. Admission by the museum’s Big Ticket which also gives admission to the destroyer HMAS Vampire, submarine HMAS Onslow and the tall ship James Craig –

Cost: $18 adults, $9 children, $35 family.