Departed Cape Town

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day 2 of our voyage. It all started with a 0630 wakeup call and early morning activity and hasn’t stopped since for our World Voyagers of Passage Eight. Following breakfast we had a delivery of a large amount of beautiful South African fresh produce (fruit and vegetables) which is going to keep us going for the next 30 days which took all of us to store and Chef Jenko busy finding different places to put everything. Once completed it was straight into departure preparations and making sure that everything was properly secured for sea.After farewelling our South African Navy Liaison Officer, Ships Agent and a number of the crew from Passage Seven who had come to say their final goodbyes we departed our berth at the V&A Waterfront at 1000 and headed to sea. Initially it was a beautiful day with light winds which made it perfect for just taking in the spectacular South African coastline but regrettably these conditions did not last. Just prior to lunch the wind freshened and the conditions continued to deteriorate throughout the day which has made it quite uncomfortable for our new mariners. That said they have pushed on and a still in very good spirits.Currently we are located 50nm to the south west of Cape Town battling some strong headwinds and a 2m swell. Our plan is to keep heading south to pickup some more favourable winds (Roaring 40’s) then alter course to the south east and start making best speed for Fremantle.Volunteering to write the Captains Log for this evening is Kate and Matt from White Watch so please enjoy reading about their day.Until tomorrow, take care.Yours AyeCaptain GavCaptains Log 24 Nov 2015Ahoy there family and friends, let the adventures begin! As 24 of World Voyage Youth Crew shuffled on board, many a little tired from either jet lag or making the most of their short stay in Cape Town, the feeling of excitement was palpable. We started the afternoon with the usual: meet and greets, checking out of Customs, safety briefings, ship tours and a night climb to the top of the rafters overlooking the busy Cape Town waterfront.We meet our Watches and Watch Leaders and discussed what we personally want to get out of this voyage. This voyage is truly our voyage to own, we brainstormed many ideas and the Staffies will try to facilitate achieving them all. We crawled into bed around 2300 hrs and were up again at 0630. We woke to the sound of U2 (It’s a beautiful day) playing on the speaker system and we began preparing the ship for departure at the scheduled 1000 hrs.We left the harbour in Cape Town with the rugged mountains in the background; the boat was escorted out into the open waters by a pod of dolphins and municipality of playful seals – surreal.Some wagers were placed as we set off from the harbour for Last Man Standing and First To Fall, with ‘Seasickness’ being the name of the game – and didn’t it start early! Lunch was served at 1130 and many comments were made that this meal would be the Last Supper. Sure enough, not soon after lunch, it had begun.Our watch has just begun our first official watch for the trip and I had to dodge all the bodies sprawled out on the deck “getting fresh air” to get to the bridge. We may have lost the sight of land but many have not lost the sight of their lunch (sorry to all the Mums that might be reading this). The sea is fairly calm at the moment (1.0 – 1.2m swells), although as I write this, it is difficult to stay stationary on the office chair – it’s a good work out nonetheless (NB: while I have been writing this, Matt has currently left for some “fresh air”).We are currently 26nm due west of the Cape of Good Hope. We are sailing in a SW direction to make the most of the wind in the sails. We are ‘losing ground to make ground’. We are at the mercy of the wind at the moment and once it changes, we will have an opportunity to catch more favourable conditions to sail back in the direction of Australia. Sailing around the Cape of Good Hope is still a few days away yet. Hopefully we will have more crew back on deck by then, too.We are on watch until 2000 hrs tonight and then again at 0400 hrs with a 0325 hrs wake up call. We are sure it will be worth it for the early morning sunrise climb to the top of the yards.Until next time,Kate and Matt (Grenfell) – White Watch