Day 9 – Command Day Part 1

Ahoy there shipmates! Welcome to the coolest blog on the block, from your youthies on the Young Endeavour! As always, day 9 was a blast (in more ways than one)! This morning we were treated to a sleep in till 7am after a night of anchor watches. We began the day with a game of Evolution evolving from beautiful eggs to chickens, to dinosaurs, robots and then our final form – a dancing Beyonce! After another delicious brekkie served by Adam, we started the day with a morning brief where we listened again to Reggie’s marvellous (cringey) dad jokes followed by an interactive and spectacular performance from the staffies on-board production company, Shiphouse productions! Todays theatrical performance shared the story behind why we yell ‘two six’ before we heave on the ropes (hint: it involves firing cannons)! Just like every show, this one involved some of our favourite characters like Salty and his crew – but this time, they needed a volunteer from the youthies to feature in it. Cam was thrilled to be chosen, but little did she know – she would be featured as a cannon, to have her mouth loaded up with rice bubbles and fruit loops! After that incredible show (and Nana’s fabulous glittery shorts and fishnet stockings), we jumped straight into the happiest hour of the day! Those of us who didn’t have roles got a good break while the newly elected Captain, Sail Master, Navigator, Watch Leaders and Chefs chatted to the staff for advice on command day, which was to begin at 1300! After lunch (mmmmmm and what a ripper meal it was, thanks again to Adam our good looking cooking chef) we had our second last round of Ropies with more scratches and bruises as each Watch fought for victory. Benny tested our knowledge on animals and people (we’ll leave that up for interpretation) around the ship, followed by a bonus round featuring Dillion, Lachlan and soon-to-be Captain Sol who raced to be the first scoff down 2 dry Weetbix (with peanut butter and Nutella) then whistle! And so came the long-awaited (and perhaps slightly dreaded) moment, 1300 – the moment the staffies handed the power of the ship over to us (the youthies, yew!) for Command Day! They were so keen to go on holiday that they Reggie, Dan and Adam even jumped straight into the freezing ocean from the ship in their holiday clothes! Once the ceremonial telescope was handed over from Captain Kenny to our new Captain Sol, we were split up into our Watches – the Salty Dinos and Thunder Dragons (courtesy of our Watch Leaders Lili and Maddy)! Now the real challenge began – completing all 26 tasks from the staffies before 1300 tomorrow including navigation, sailing, a disco and other wild and wonderful tasks! To kick us off, a group of six youthies rowed themselves to the shores of Balmoral Beach to gather a group of friendly strangers to sing the national anthem across the radio for everyone on the ship! With only the power of their hands, they rowed back to ship (with absolutely no lack of complications with the oar timing) and eventually made it back to Young Endeavour. To finish off the day, we created a beautiful chalk mural of our entire journey, then all the youth crew were assigned our tacking stations before heading aloft for a group photo just before the sun set! Thanks to our chefs we were well fed with some eggplant / chicken pasta and now begins the long night of our 6 hour watches before we set sail at 0630 tomorrow morning. Miss you Trav, 2 days… see you soon! – Lucy. Until tomorrow, Lili and Lucy out.