Shortly after launching, the ship was chartered for the filming of "The Adventurer" in the Bay of Islands. In late 1986, "R. Tucker Thompson" sailed to England via the South Pacific and the Panama Canal to join the First Fleet Re-enactment Voyage: a historical re-enactment for the Australian Bicentenary. She left England for Australia in May 1987, and sailed with the fleet via Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Mauritius, and Fremantle before arriving in Sydney on Australia Day (26 January) 1988.