The Birth of SisterShip Magazine
In the mid-1970s, aged just 17 and with no sailing background or passport, Ruth set off as a cook on a 64-foot motor launch delivering Telecom towers from Cairns to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
Upon arrival in Port Moresby Ruth was exposed to a new world, meeting many sailing folk and long-distance cruisers. Amongst them was a single-hander named Colin, who was circumnavigating on a motor cruiser – with no motor. Colin’s boat was equipped with only the basics, not even a bilge pump.
On her return to Sydney, Ruth purchased a small car and drove up the east coast to Cairns looking at every boat for sale she could. In Townsville Ruth found Sketty Belle, a 30-foot, steel, gaff-rigged schooner. Adventure beckoned and with no GPS and only a plastic sextant (and a tyre for a fender)
She set sail to the Whitsundays. Once there she prepared Sketty Belle for voyages to Torres Strait, Gove, Sri Lanka, India, Chagos Archipelago, South Africa, and eventually the Caribbean.
While sailing, Ruth took on an ever-changing crew of men. ‘Either my dream was not theirs or they did not like taking orders from a woman,’ Ruth explains.
At one stage journalist Simon Winchester hitched a ride on Sketty Belle to cover stories in remote locations in the Indian Ocean.
After Simon departed in Mauritius, Ruth tackled her first solo passage, seventeen days from Mauritius to South Africa. She was fearful for much of this trip. Although she knew and trusted her vessel, and had experienced bad weather aboard Colin’s boat, she worried about how she would cope on her own in a storm in this notorious stretch of ocean. Would she be rendered helpless, frozen by fear?
When a wild storm with 60 knot winds finally did hit, Ruth found the experience empowering, saying that as the storm approached and she dropped the sails, she felt joyful.
From South Africa Ruth journeyed to the Caribbean, working in the West Indies as a charter boat skipper (hired on the basis that if she got herself that far she must know what she was doing!) then sailed to the United States as skipper on a private yacht.
Returning to Australia, Ruth left Sketty Belle in the Caribbean, until frequent nightmares about the boat sinking led to her decision to sell.
It was on return to Australia, that Ruth began thinking about creating a magazine for women sailors.
Ruth says, for her, the main attraction of cruising was not the actual sailing but the family-like community of cruising folk, particularly the contact with inspirational and interesting women.
The first issue of SisterShip was published in April 1988. We have been able to add this historic first edition to our online catalogue and it is available to read and download for free in our magazine store.
Several issues were produced over a twelve month period before life intervened. Ruth continued to follow her passion of all things maritime, however SisterShip was placed in drydock.
Twenty-seven years later, Ruth attended the inaugural WWSA Gathering on the Bay at Port Stephens to give a talk on anchoring to an eager group of women.
She brought with her, precious back copies of SisterShip to distribute as gifts for the attendees. Captivated by these magazines, the seed was planted and plans to bring the magazine out of drydock began.
