Lady of the waves charted a new course

A FINAL OUTING: Former Bay Belle skipper Jane Taylor, 85, at the wheel during the ferry's last outing. The gear lever she is holding was salvaged from a scrapheap by skipper Charlotte Ebbett after it was replaced by a hydraulic switch.
The woman who made history as Northland's first female ferry captain and took the wheel of the Bay Belle on its final journey last Friday has spent a lifetime on the water.
Jane Taylor, 85, started her nautical career as a 17-year-old working on cement barges on England's Grand Union Canal.
She got her launchmaster's ticket at Southampton in 1946 - making her the first woman at the English port to do so - and served as a sea-going Wren (Women's Royal Naval Service) in World War II.
She and her late husband Pete Taylor arrived in New Zealand as unpaid yacht crew in 1953. They had £20 between them and went milking.
When she landed a job on the ferry Kewpie in 1966 she was the first female skipper to work in the Bay of Islands.
The 1970 she took the helm of the Bay Belle, which at that time operated on the famous cream trip around the islands.
When the Bay Belle was transferred to the Paihia-Russell ferry run in 1973 she took the wheel for its last trip from Urupukapuka Island's Otehei Bay.
Mrs Taylor's daughter Tammy Jameson - herself a Fullers skipper - said she paved the way for a lot of women by becoming the Bay's first female commercial skipper.
Her mother got her first break in New Zealand when every other qualified skipper was off sick.
"She got a phone call saying, 'Do you think you could handle the ferry?' - and she told them,'Too bloody right!"'
Mrs Taylor greatly enjoyed telling passengers about Russell's history, so when a bus tour business came up for sale she grabbed her chance to start Jane's Russell Tours. Questions about her own history prompted her to pen an autobiography, From rudders to udders and back again.
"People were always intrigued that I was a woman skipper. They wanted to know about my past," she said.
She has also worked as a reporter for the Northern Advocate and the Northern News, ran Russell's ambulance service from her taxi, and served the SPCA for many years.
She has five children, 10 grandchildren - one of whom, seven-year-old Tayla Jameson, joined her on the Bay Belle's final trip - and nine great-grandchildren.
"I've had a hell of a life," she said.
After Friday's final ferry crossing crew past and present spent the evening at the Duke of Marlborough drying out and swapping stories, with skipper Charlotte Ebbett describing the Bay Belle as "a mentor, a trusty workmate, an on-the-job engineering tutor and, in the end, my best friend".
The Bay Belle has been sold by tender. Fullers will say only that the boat is staying in Northland.