Day 16 – Sunday Sea Routine

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day 16 of our voyage. Following a night of heavy rolling and not much sleep due to a 2-3m following sea I decided to make today a â€˜Sunday Seaâ€™ routine and give everyone the opportunity to get some rest or just enjoy the day at sea with no organised activities.Â As you will see from tonightâ€™s Log all chose to spend their day in different ways as did us Staff but the most important thing is that we all enjoyed ourselves and managed to recharge our batteries so that we are now well rested for the days ahead.Â Â Overnight in the strong NE winds we managed to achieve some great boat speed with the award for the fastest going to Dougie and the Morning Watch who managed a top speed of 11.8kts which is pretty impressive. As expected these stronger conditions have really helped us with our passage south and since departing Brest on Wednesday afternoon we have now sailed just over 560nm which is not bad in four days.Â Â Tonight we are back to Red watch writing the Log with Maddy and Gilly volunteering to write tonightâ€™s edition, enjoy!Â Â Until tomorrow, take careYours AyeCaptain GavCaptainâ€™s Log â€“ 6th SeptemberHello land lovers! Itâ€™s your favourite scurvy dogs Gilly and Maddy here, coming live to you from Sunday Funday somewhere off the coast of Portugal. Itâ€™s been a relaxed Sunday since being awoken by Enyaâ€™s â€˜Sail Awayâ€™ at 0700 this morning. Red Watch was first to emerge from their racks to greet the new day by grabbing some amazing breakfast (including freshly baked bread) from Master Chef Marcus before relieving the hungry Blue Watch at the Bridge.Â Â It was at this point that Dougie introduced the term â€˜Sunday Sailâ€™ and that it was in effect! This more or less translates to a day-long siesta, party or basically whatever you want!) This was a bit upsetting for poor Red Watch who still had four hours of watch left, but the beautiful sunny day soon washed away all the anguish.Â Â Nibbling on chips, crackers and more fresh bread whilst climbing aloft and setting/furling sails made the watch move along super quickly and before they knew it, Red Watch was relieved by White Watch and headed down to yet another amazing spread laid out by Marcus for lunch. Our lovely Staffies also had a quick peak online to find out an exciting round of both AFL and NRL scores for us, with things looking like weâ€™ll be in for an exciting finals series! Being a â€˜Sunday Sailâ€™ the majority of the Reddies and Blueys sat around and watched the movie â€˜Grown upsâ€™ for a couple of hours, being surprised by Captain Gav and Dougie with offerings of Popcorn and Fanta! Some were a little too eager for their sugary beverage and couldnâ€™t control themselves which left poor Lewi covered in the sticky orange stuff but all was cleaned and corrected in time to enjoy the rest of the movie.Â Â After the movie many moved to their racks for some precious shut eye while others went up on deck to get some lovely sun. Some may have gotten a bit more than they bargained for, but all came down with a smile on their red faces! Whilst all this was taking place down in the cafÃ© the remainder of the Blueys and the on watch Whiteys enjoyed (what Iâ€™ve been lead to believe) a cheese platter of epic proportions that will go down in infamy in the annals of history.Â Â Red Watch is now up on deck enjoying the last few rays of sun while on the â€˜Last Dogâ€™ watch while the rest of the intrepid world Voyagers prepare for their watch or get some much needed rest after this wonderful Sunday Sail! This is Red Watch (Gilly and Maddy) checking off but Iâ€™m sure weâ€™ll be in touch again soon!Ryan (Gilly): Just another shoutout to Dad and Poppy. One for Fathers Day your time and now fathers day our time ïŠÂ Â Maddy: Happy Fatherâ€™s Day Faj!! Hope youâ€™ve been well and truly spoilt and smashed it at golf this weekend! Lots of love xxxxÂ Â Tug says Happy Fatherâ€™s Day to Tug! He also sends his love to Sophie, Abbey and Jo ïŠÂ Â Brittney (Rudy): Happy Fathers Day Dadda! Hope youâ€™ve had tight lines all weekend! Thinking of you biggest mob! Miss you.. Love you, P.S I love you too Mumma ïŠNina: Happy Fathers Day, Cam! Hope you went on a good walk. Hi to all those checking in at home. Iâ€™m having a ball Special mention to Mel Kennett and the folks at OA. ïŠ Missing you, KB.Â Â Zac: happy fathers day reggie! I didnâ€™t buy you a present. Love you to mum xÂ Â Kate: Happy Fathers day papa HD! Hope you managed to get a message from your other daughters around the world, but I believe I get special credit for being in the middle of an ocean. Love your favourite xxxÂ Â Brad: Happy fathers day Dad, hope itâ€™s been a good and not too cold at home. Looking forward to a beer with you when I get home. Love you.Â Â Adam: Hi dad, happy dads day. Hope you are having a relaxing weekend somewhere nice. The sailing has been awesome. You may need to accelerate your plans on buying that yacht so itâ€™s waiting for me to borrow when I get home. Cheers, Adz.Â Â Rowan: Hi Scumbag, happy fathers day. Hope youâ€™re enjoying Mongolia, say hi to WSM for me. Love and hugs to you both XXÂ Â Dan: Happy Fathers Day Boss! Hope youâ€™re having a cracking time in Ireland. Treat yourself to a proper Guinness for me and look after yourself! Love you Heaps xx Little ManïŠÂ

Latitude/Longitude:

41Â° 2' North / 11Â° 55' West

Conditions:

Currently located 146nm west of Porto still running square downwind and experiencing moderate-strong NE winds with a 2m following sea. Our current speed is 6.5kts and the temperature is 17 degrees.

AUTHOR: Commanding Officer STS Young Endeavour

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Day 11 – Last Day of the Voyage

Good morning Shipmates, Sailmaster Sara's final Wakey Wakey song was pumped through the Ship’s speakers to jar the crew of YE from their deep slumber after a particularly tiring day of the Community Day Sail. Activities included end-of-voyage chats for the watches, harbour furling the square sails, eating as much home made pizza, cooked by master chef Ash, as we possibly could and knocking over final command day tasks including the Slide Show. It was up on deck for a quick head count to make sure everyone was out of their ‘racks’ and ready for their final day onboard. Breakfast was followed by the morning brief on the plan for the day and then the Staff Crew weighed anchor and got us underway while the Youth Crew laid aloft for a quick harbour cruise. Navigator Seb piloted the Ship from our Athol Bay anchorage, past Fort Dennison under the Harbour Bridge, where we fired the Ship’s saluting cannon, and then into Balls Head Bay to our berth. We berthed at HMAS Waterhen at 1000 to the warm welcome of friends and family of the Youthies, waiting on the wharf for us. Once we had secured the ship alongside we invited our guests onboard, allowed them a walk around the ship to see where the Youthies had lived and worked for the last eleven days, and then we gathered everyone at midships. Sail Master Sara spoke about our adventures during the voyage and then I presented the Voyage Completion certificates to the youth crew and the Young Endeavour Award to Liv for her outstanding hard work on in undertaking the voyage and her dedication to helping her fellow youth crew members to achieve their voyage goals. We then farewelled the Youth Crew of V04/24 after a fantastic challenging and enjoyable voyage. Thank you for following our adventures and hope you enjoyed hearing about them. Yours, aye, Captain Mike

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Day 10 – Community Day Sail Sydney Harbour

Good evening shipmates, After a well-earned quality night’s sleep at anchor in Hunters Bay, Sail Master Sara woke us with another of her soothing tunes to get us on deck for a quick early morning activity. After breakfast the staff crew weighed anchor and conducted the transit to HMAS Waterhen, at Waverton. We berthed there at 0900 and prepared to embark our guests for the Community Day Sail. At 1015 we cast off our berthing lines and departed with our 34 guests and commenced our 3 hour tour of the harbour. Our Community Day Sailors were a group 30 members and staff from the Windgap Foundation. We also embarked some defence personnel as well. We again passed under the Harbour Bridge and then proceeded into Rose Bay where we set some sails and commenced sailing back towards Waterhen. Whilst on the harbour our fantastic youth crew helped us host our Windgap special guests. They encouraged our guests to participate in setting the staysails and a square sail by helping to pull on the sheets and clewlines. The youth crew also helped Chef Ash to prepare and deliver the food to our guests on deck. At 1300, after 3 fun-packed hours on the harbour, we berthed back at the southern wharf at HMAS Waterhen. Once we had farewelled our guests it was time to commence our end-of-voyage activities and preparations. The staff crew managed to organise a visit to the RAN Ship MATV Sycamore, which is crewed by a mixture of civilians and Navy staff, is a multi-role aviation training vessel. The youth crew embarked with their watch leaders and were given a 45 minute tour of the ship by some of the Navy crew. On completion they returned onboard and Young Endeavour sailed and proceeded to our anchorage in Athol Bay, which affords a great view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. During the transit to the anchorage the Youthies undertook their end-of-voyage chats, facilitated by their watch leaders, to examine if they had achieved everything in their full-value contracts they had completed at the start of the voyage. After the traditional last voyage dinner of home made pizzas, Sara gave the Youthies the Harbour Furl brief, who then donned their climbing harnesses and laid aloft to undertake the ‘Harbour Furl’ of the square sails to make them look immaculate for our ceremonial arrival at the end of the voyage tomorrow. Once that was completed, the youth crew then finished off their final outstanding Command Day tasks, which were planned for the last night onboard. These included the Voyage Slide Show compiled of photos taken by everyone. This was excellent and provided a touching reminder of what we had experienced and the beautiful coastlines and islands that we had visited during the voyage. The final activity of the day was the end-of-voyage administration, which for the youth crew included a feedback questionnaire asking for feedback on their experience of the voyage, as well as a letter for each crew member to write to themselves on their experiences during the voyage, which the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme will post to the youth crew in 6 months time. The aim of this is to help reinforce what the youth crew have learned about leadership, teamwork and about themselves from the experience of the voyage. Once these were completed the crew were encouraged to go to bed. The Ship will remain in Athol Bay overnight and weigh anchor and sail in the morning at 0900 and undertake the transit to HMAS Waterhen, where family and friends will meet the Ship on arrival at 1000. Until you hear from me tomorrow for the final instalment of Voyage 04/24. Yours aye, Captain Mike

V04/24

19 February 2024

Day 9 – Command Day Part 2

Ahoy from Sydney! For today’s Captain’s Log: the Youthies took over and completed several tasks including singing the national anthem in three different tunes as well as giving salty sea facts to start the day in a nautical way. We finally made it! After a long and weary effort of the command team and watches, we were able to fully sail into Sydney Harbour. At approximately 11:50 we anchored in Hunters Bay. To celebrate we had a groovtastic disco in the 12 berth due to excessive rainfall but the youthies made it work, having a blast dancing to Billie Jean. Afterwards, the youthies as well as the staff reflected on our efforts during command day, following the handover of the ship to the Staffies, where we highlighted what we did well, what we could improve on and what lessons we can take back to our normal lives, of which there are many. Continuing on from the previous log, with command day still ongoing. We encountered multiple problems. One of which being that mother nature didn’t bless us and gave us little to no wind to work with. However with the efforts of the Youthies we were able to successfully gather up to 8 knots of speed after a 4am tack in which the youthies persevered despite a lack of sleep enabling us to make our way into Sydney. Before our reflection the Youthies finished their day strong with a ‘Happy Hour’ cleaning session and one final dance. The afternoon was spent relaxing and recharging from ‘Command Day’, going aloft and furling the square sails. For dinner, Ash prepared a barbecue with steak, sausages, chicken kebabs with buns and an assortment of salads with a delicious chocolate cake for dessert. The Youthies are looking forward to the Community Day Sail tomorrow which will be a great opportunity to give back to Australia and put our sailing knowledge to the test. We have learned many lessons during ‘Command Day’, we pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone and together a crew of 24 youth were able to sail a tall ship into the harbour of Sydney. Today’s score: 9 camels and a donkey (Amazing) Until next time Rock on! Tarvi, Kaeden and Matt. P.S. Happy Birthday for tomorrow little bro, love Lil xx P.S.S. Kai, sorry I didn’t do the thing for Meg. I just remembered and will do it when back.

Thank you Tarvi, Kaeden and Matt for your narrative of today's events. Intentions are to remain at anchor in Hunters Bay, just off HMAS Penguin, home of the RAN Diving School, a place close to my heart, having spent many a day there under training as a young Officer! The plan is to weigh anchor and proceed to HMAS Waterhen, in Waverton, to pick up our Community Day Sailors from the Windgap Foundation and take them for a sail around the harbour for 3 hours. The Youth Crew will help us host our visitors and give them an experience of Young Endeavour. We will drop them back to Waverton and then proceed to anchor in the harbour where we will have a good view of the Bridge and the Opera House for the Youth Crew's last night onboard. Until tomorrow. Yours Aye, Captain Mike

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Day 16 – Sunday Sea Routine

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