Happy Birthday Chooka, Loz and Shane!!!

The Youth Crew enjoyed a quiet night at anchor and are now well rested and ready for the next portion of the voyage. Today was somewhat unique in that we celebrated three birthdays. XO Chook, Blue Watch Leader Loz and Supernumerary Shane were all wished many happy returns at wakey wakey. Loz vehemently denied that all three of them were 29 today, although the other two happily declared they were. At morning brief, Salty Sea Dog Lukish outdid himself with his explanations of all things nautical. Today’s explanation involved the French fleet, Vikings and grated coconut. Well done Em.After a special happy hour (brasso day), XO Chook conducted the sailing to and from an anchorage lecture. The Youth Crew were divided into two groups and assigned the task of describing how they would sail the Ship either to or from Twofold Bay. The solutions were very well thought out and proved that the Youth Crew have well and truely absorbed the basic thoery of sailing. The third round of rope races has evened the field with red and white watches now tied.During the afternoon, XO Chooka led the Youth Crew through a communications exercise where three groups communicate with each other through different mediums. The exercise highlighted the need to have effective communications in order to complete even simple tasks. The rest of the afternoon was spent aloft. All hands spent an hour working on the yards and generally becoming more comfortable with handling sails 30 metres above the deck. After supper, and some upperdeck games, we weighed anchor and sailed.Overnight the watches will be busy completing a teamwork exercise that will require them to carry out a relatively complex task involving the sails or the yards. This will provide another challenge for the Youth Crew as they attempt to carry out these unfamiliar tasks while applying principles such as tolerance, understanding and cooperation.YOUNG ENDEAVOUR Fact File: The Ship has travelled 225,000 nautical miles throughout her 15 year career as Australia’s national tallship for youth development training. That distance includes a circumnavigation of the world as well as several visits to our regional neighbours. The voyage schedule for the rest of 2003 will see YOUNG ENDEAVOUR visit cities as far North as Cairns QLD, and as far West as Portland VIC.YOUNG ENDEAVOUR Glossary: Cable Locker- The space where the Ship’s cable (anchor chain) is stored. In YOUNG ENDEAVOUR this is in two compartments directly under the 12-berth cabin. When weighing anchor the cable locker is manned by two hands whose role is to range the cable in fleets so that it will be ready to run out when the anchor is next used. Voice Pipe- A fitted pipe with a flexible hose on the end through which the Officer-of-the-Watch can call the Captain to pass information. In YOUNG ENDEAVOUR the voice pipe runs from the after end of the bridge to the Captain’s cabin.Thought of the day: Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future. Paul Boese.Yours, AyeJohn CowanLCDR, RANThis is Mikel, from Red team which will be on watch less than threehours time. We left Eden at eight pm and are now heading for the opensea soon to head south. Everybody from the Youth Crew have foundtheir sea legs by now or so many hope. The experiences that YoungEndeavour presents are challenging and often very trying yet onefeels proud to having achieved the goals that day set by the staff.Battling high winds and rough seas makes it even more of a challenge.When this voyage ends on the thirteenth of this month I will feel sadleaving her since she has been my home for this voyage. I will fondlyremember all that has happened onboard and know it was a prvilege tohave had the chance to sail on her as a Youth Crew member. I lookforward to seeing my family when I return home after this but knowthat my family will be following our day to day movements as we saildown the coast from the A.C.T.To end this entry, this chanllenges that were offered while I havebeen onboard were something I will never forget and to those who wantto do this, have a go cause it is the best thing that one ever coulddo. Should I ever get a seond shot at doing this I would gladly doall this over again without a second thought.Mikel, Canberra A.C.T