Notorious returns to Batemans Bay

Slipping into the Bay in a ferocious storm on Friday night, she sheltered on the lee shore of Snapper Island before sailing into the Town Wharf, to the delight of holiday crowds, on Saturday.

Stepping on board Notorious is like taking a step back 500 years.

The brooding presence of the dark-timbered caravel is a haunting sight for all who see her.

Owners Graeme and Felicite Wylie are back on the South Coast after sailing the east coast since their visit in July, 2013.

When they sailed north from the Bay they stopped at ports along the way to Ballina.

Their shortest stop was at Wollongong – for 15 minutes.

Just after berthing, the vessel was turned on its side by the easterly swell and was saved by Graeme slashing the lines, and motoring off, narrowly missing a dolphin post at the stern.

In Ballina they met their new granddaughter and visited family then set course for their home port of Paynesville on the Gippsland Lakes, to “mow the grass and evict the possums from our house” in time for Christmas.

In April last year they set sail for Port Douglas and this stopover in the Bay marks nearly the end of that voyage.

The story of Notorious is worth mentioning.

Graeme, a furniture-maker by trade, laid the keel for this incredible boat in his back yard, near Warrnambool, in 2001.

For the next nine years the couple laboured to build the 18-metre vessel, without short-cuts – the only hint of modernity being the Dacron sails.

Because plans of caravels are unknown, Graeme studied drawings from Spain and Portugal to design Notorious and her size is average of the time when they were commonly built, between 1450 and 1500.

He was particularly inspired by the “Mahogany Ship”, a caravel in Mendonca's fleet, which was wrecked on the south-west coast of Victoria in 1522.

It was discovered in sand dunes in 1836 but was reburied in the early 1900s and has not been found since.

Before heading home, the couple will leave their small ship on the South Coast for a month.

Graeme says they now lead a “very privileged life”.

“We go to lovely places and meet beautiful people,” he said.

Amid the happiness of such an idyllic life, they suffered the sadness of losing their silky terrier Tassie, who now lies under a forest banksia in Iluka.

Felicite misses her grandchildren – a hole filled by the children who visit Notorious.

“Some kids are too frightened to come aboard, so I do my grandmotherly bit,” she said, and immediately went to pacify a child reduced to tears of terror by the prospect of having to step onto the plank back to shore.

Notorious will be open to the public at the town wharf from 9am to 4pm daily until January 25.

Entry is $5 adults, $2 kids.