Holy Manookatoo!!

30th August 2015 is Melbourne's 180th birthday - the day when the first settlers landed on the banks of the Yarra River 180 years ago. This date is marked by #Melbourneday and is also the date of the Melbourne Regatta, also known as the "Blessing of the fleet".

On a sunny Sunday morning, with Australian flag bunting on the flybridge, the Australian maritime flag on the stern and the Westernport Mariner's burgee on the bow, Manookatoo joined the celebrations at Victoria Harbour.

A replica of The Enterprize, which brought the first settlers from Tasmania, headed a fleet of boats up the Yarra,
to where several dignitaries and several thousand Melburnians waited on the shore.
The Scotch College band played The National Anthem and the Naval hymn, (or "for those in peril on the sea") and Father Bob Maguire blessed the fleet, while The Captain ably managed to hold position on Manookatoo amidst a mass of jostling craft, including two Sydney ferries, many cruisers and a couple of smaller vessels.
We sang Advance Australia Fair, the Docklands Choir sang the Melbourne song and we drank a toast to Melbourne's birthday before returning to our dock feeling happy and blessed by the sunshine after a long cold winter.