Day 13 – Making Good Speed

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day 13 of our voyage. Overnight we have continued to make good speed and are now located 120nm to the West of Sicily. Late tonight the wind is forecast to veer more to the south east which will allow us to set more sail and continue to improve our boat speed so that by late tomorrow afternoon we should be just of the northern coast of Sicily. Over the past 24hrs we have made a decision to alter our original passage plan and instead of transiting through the Sicilian and Malta Channels will now head to the north of Sicily, pass through the Messina Strait, then head across to Greece and pass through the Corinth Canal, enter the Aegean Sea then make our way up to Cannakale. This will cut a small amount of distance of our original plan and will see us sail through some picturesque parts of the Mediterranean.  Tonight we are back to Blue Watch writing the Captains Log so please enjoy tonight’s edition which has been written by Lillie. Enjoy!!Until tomorrow, take care.  Yours AyeCaptain Gav   Captains Log 16 April 2015 DAY 13Ahoy there!It is currently 20:30 and the Blue Watch is out setting sails before the last evening lights fade beyond the horizon. It has been a jam packed day; we started the day at 12am (00:00hrs) after a surprisingly good three hour sleep, ready to set the Storm Trisail as a training exercise. Shaun decided to challenge the Blue Watch (again) and stepped back to watch us proudly as we managed to set up and raise the Trisail under the determined command of Chook. After many group huddles to figure out what we were doing (first times are always the best!!), we opened the sail and set it, seeing the bright fluorescent orange glaring at us beneath the bright floodlights only momentarily before we put it away again, for the time had come for us to get back into bed for another brief sleep.  The sunshine greeted us when we surfaced, bleary eyed, to attend the morning brief, where we found out that Aaron made an interesting female figure (especially when he still had make up on for lunch!)During our midday watch, Knuckles called us all in for “three way talks”, where we had to introduce ourselves as another person in our bunk, an awesome exercise to get to know the people from other watches a bit better.  Dinner came eventually, along with an ‘exclusive screening’ of the first episode of Gallipoli, which a lot of the crew who weren’t on watch decided to watch, as our days en route to ANZAC Cove are becoming numbered.The light has now left the sky, and I suspect Shaun has some more trouble to stir up for his weary watch, so I shall leave you with wishes of goodnight and hopes to see everyone back home soon.Night,Lillie Rose (Blue Watch)P.S. to my family, I miss you all, and am enjoying my time on the Young Endeavour, especially to my little sister Eleanor, I wish you could be here too  but I’m taking some photos for you to see when I get home. xxxxxJarrod’s shoutout: As the boys measured whose muscles were bigger on the deck the real men were at the helm measuring each others beards, when suddenly a message falls out of the strapping Jarrods beard which reminds his fading sea faring mind, to all his people he says “Hello”.  Brendan’s shoutout: But wait, that noise, it sounds like morse code… Oh my, it’s Brendan! He’s just dashed through the seventeen foot waves across the deck, dodging bodies flying around midships. I can just see his battered hand banging on the Challenger Room window, and making out the code through his flurry of blows, hear his cries: “Jane, I miss you, love you lots….” That’s all I can hear, the dull thuds have faded, but his feelings remain.     “