With World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney coming to an end, cities all over Australia are finding themselves inundated with pilgrims from all over the world awaiting their flights back home.
For one group of Merchant Naval students from Italy, a trip to Melbourne to visit the Stella Maris Seafarers' Centre located there was the ideal plan to fill in an extra free day. Dario, Francesca, Rosa and Matteo are all studying at one of the many Maritime Colleges in Italy. They came to Melbourne, accompanied by the National Director of the Apostleship of the Sea in Italy, Father Jiacomo Martino.
Pat Phelan, an avid member of the Melbourne Stella Maris Seafarers' Centre for the last 20 years, was on hand to show Father Jiacomo and the students about. Pat was able to give the students a good insight of how the centre used to operate back 15-20 years ago when the port was at its busiest due to visiting vessels staying much longer than nowadays. Though the Centre hasn't changed in size since it was first built, the facilities on offer have advanced to keep up with the ever changing needs of today's seafarers.

Well last week saw the running of the Australian Tennis Open Championships and what a great result for the Serbians and Russians. With some free ground passes supplied by Anne Maree some lucky crew mebers were able to attend before they flew out for home in Ukraine.
Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best, and even though they didn't get to see any live games played outside, the atmosphere was great, food was good and they got to enjoy watching some tennis on the large outdoor screen.
Stella Maris Melbourne also held its own competition with seafarers being asked to write down who they thought would win the Men's and Women's Single Championships. Plenty entries were received, and from the 10 correct entries the winning entry picked out was that of Ljubo Brcic from the m/v Maersk Jaun. Ljubo wins himself a nice tennis racket, some tennis balls, a couple of bottles of nice Australian wine along with a variery of biscuits and chocolates. Well done Ljubo - your prize will be waiting here for your vessel to return.

Click here for more photos

Last Sunday, we were very suprised when we went to make a pick-up of crew at Victoria Wharf 24. Our driver was greeted by about 45 Russians, whom he found out later were a mixture of crew and scientists. The m/v Akademik Fyedorov had juts come back from picking up scientists from its Antarctic base Vostok. Here, over 100 scientists had been working for over 12 months with temperatures dropping as low as minus 89 degrees.
The vessel was supposed to change its scientific passengers in Hobart, but due to fuel prices being much higher there than in Melbourne, the vessel made its way here instead. So for the next 4 days the 68 crew and over 100 scientists made their home at Stella Maris, enjoying the relaxation in the Stella Maris patio as well as shopping for gifts before they flew home.
Tuesday saw the scientists who had just finished their 'tour of duty' fly home and a new batch of scientists were flown in to join the vessel. This group were only going to be staying at the base for about 4-5 months before flying back home. The crew and scientists all enjoyed the hospitality that was on offer to them at the Stella Maris and a lot of friendships were bonded over the short period they were here in port. We wish them all safe travelling and look forward to seeing them again possibly next year.

Click here for more photos

Friday the 11th of January saw the birthday of the m/v Clipper Trust. Along with friends aof the captain, who lives in Melbourne, mebers of Stella Maris were also asked to attend in a way of expressing their thanks from the crew for the hospitality that they have all received whilst their ship has been in Melbourne.
The m/v Clipper Trust comes into Melbourne about every 2 weeks, its cargo mainly sugar that it loads in Bundaberg, Queensland. The crew are all Indian and come from various parts of India, with exception of the Captain, who migrated to Australia from India many years ago.
There was stacks of loveyl Indian cuisine to be eaten, and plenty of alcohol as well for those who wanted a drink. After the cake was cut, the Captain made a speech where he thanked everyone for coming and also made thanks to the work that the Stella Maris undertake to make sure that his crew have a great time whilst in Melbourne.

Click here for more photos

In appreciation of the good times that the Stella Maris gave to the Ukrainian crew aboard the m/v Maria C, Kevin and Scott were invited for lunch onboard. A nice vegatable soup and baked chicken was devoured by both. This was only the second time that these guys had been to Melbourne, the first being about two months prior.



Scott, our Ship Liaison Officer, with some of the Ukrainian crew on board m/v Maria C

A pleasant suprise for staff and volunteers last week when Sergei,the chef onboard the m/v Illawarra Chief, came to the centre to cook dinner for them. A tasty blend of two very famous Russian salads were on the agenda. Mixed with some Russian sausage that had been purchased earlier at the QV Markets, the dinner was a very nice suprise in Russian Cuisine. Those members and volunteers who had been lucky enough to have been rostered on for that day enjoyed a hearty filling meal. Asked why he wanted to cook for us, Sergei replied in his broken english "Because he make his crew feel so welcome, he felt obliged to do something nice for us". He wanted to show us how he and his crew enjoyed the hospitality that we offer to them.

Click here for more photos

An excursion was organised for the Sergei and a few of his friends in thanks of the meal he had prepared for us a few nights earlier. The crew had been asking me for awhile now about trying to see kangaroos in the wild. I told them that finding wild kangaroos around Melbourne was next to impossible, but that I would take them to see our possums instead. The guys enjoyed the excursion so much that they returned to Carlton Gardens the following day as well with some of their friends looking for the possums. Little did they realsie that possums only come out during the night. More requests have been made so we will try and make these trips on a regular occurance.


Click here for more photos

On the day before Independance Day for India, the captain of the m/v Clipper Trust rang our centre to see if we could organise a trip to the zoo for some of his crew. The weather was forcast to be a fine sunny day so it was a cheerful 9 members of the crew who were picked up by Bobby Grech, our Ship Visitor, and taken to the zoo. The entry price was subsidised by the Stella Maris and in all everybody had a great time.





Click here for more photos

Last month the captain of the m/v Tatiana Schulte asked me if I could assist to get some indoor plants for his vessel. Being a fairly new vessel, there were no plants on it at all, yet provision had been made for plants in both the crew & officer's messroom as well as the Captain's & Chief Engineer's office. So Angela, Martin and myself headed off to the nursery to buy plants for their ship. They had given us a budget of $300US which we used with just 5c change left over. When the m/v Tatiana Schulte arrived back into port a few days later we were all ready to start the interior decorating. The master was most impressed with the colourful variety we had purchased for his vessel.


Click here for more photos