Introduction: On Trip One the ship was new, it was owned and
operated by AMSA and the Nav Aids worked directly for AMSA. On
my second trip the ship was now owned by P&O and the Nav Aids
worked for Australian Maritime Systems (AMS) who were contracted
by AMSA to perform the maintenance work. The MV Cape Grafton,
now called the MV Southern Supporter, was showing the effects
of eight years of service but unlike the first voyage all the
bugs had been fixed and it performed faultlessly. On this trip
my objective was to photograph the really offshore lights (for
this book) that would have been very difficult to reach any other
way. Not only did I achieve that goal but I was able to observe
the skill required in maintaining the large offshore buoys that
resulted in a section on buoys being included in the book. The
seven week voyage went from Port Hedland WA, around northern Australia
and down the Queensland coast to Mooloolaba, just north of Brisbane.
The maintenance personnel and I disembarked at Mooloolaba while
the MV Southern Supporter returned directly to Cairns. During
the voyage the crew or at least some of the crew, changed three
times. Each time it changed I was surprised how many crew and
maintenance personnel came on board whom I had encountered during
the years I’ve spent photographing lighthouses.