Day 7 – Storm Bay, D’Entrecasteaux Channel, Huon River…and 47 Knots!

Ahoy shipmates, and greeting from the Huon River. After a breezy night at anchor and some fun early morning activities as per below, we departed our anchorage in Port Arthur bound for the Huon River, via Storm Bay and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel and Huon River. I must say wind changes happen quick down here. We were half way across Storm Bay with sails up in a brisk 20-23 knot northerly, next thing you know it was over 30 knots from the south west. Fortunately the ship and the youth crew handled it in their stride. Once we began making our south down the D’Entrecasteaux we copped yet another change…47 knots from the west! We finally came to anchor in Surges Bay, up the Huon River, at 2000…a pretty little spot and well sheltered. Overnight the youth crew will stay in sea watches conducting a self reflection exercise called ‘stop, start, repeat’, as well as consolidating their sail handling and an navigation challenge set by Nav Daz. That’s it for now, until tomorrow, fair winds, Captain Kenny.———-Dear diary,
Last night we embarked on a mission from the mother ship to the historic site of Port Arthur to search for the supernatural. We were greeted by Dave the ghost expert who had a strong resemblance to our youthie, Churchy. The tour took us around the world heritage listed remnants of the convict settlement. After many scares and close calls even the skeptics started to believe in ghosts. With many of us dreaming about the ‘Lady in Blue,’ we were abruptly awoken for our anchor watches, which consisted of 45 minute shifts in which each watch looked over the Endeavour for the night. We then woke to find that we embarked on a journey of 50 metres overnight, accompanied by the clanking sound of lowering the anchor chain. After our wakey, wakey song and a brisk walk around the deck a couple times we all mustered to midships to play a morning game of knights, mounts and cavaliers. After homemade pancakes by Adam our chef, we then mustered again for our routine morning brief by the staff crew. But on this occasion, Salty had lined us up with a special treat by the name of Reggilina and Cheeky Jack, continuing on the story of his ancestors and clarifying the origins of some nautical terms. We weighed anchor and headed off into Storm Bay in search of sheltered waters but were greeted by 40 knot winds. This sadly put an end to our hopes of practicing our setting and furling of the sails in the lead up to command day. However it did give us a chance to participate in some rope races led by Benny which challenged our knowledge of the ship. After some biased calls by a staffie whom we shall not name there was a tie breaker consisting of speed eating Weetbix. We then moved in to first dog watches of two hours which gave some much needed down time and gave us a chance to revise setting and furling procedures. After some lovely nachos and roast pork the best watch (blue) started our first shift of the night, in which we will rotate through watches while we search for more sheltered waters in the Huon River.
Nic, Kel & Logan Out
Blue Watch.