A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER

Hi everyone,Welcome to day 5 of our voyage. As expected we had a cool change in the weather today and gone were any thoughts of another swim, instead we have been adding extra layers of clothing and trying to keep out of the chilly wind which isn’t easy when you have an open bridge.With this cool change has come some stronger winds so it has given us the opportunity to conduct both rotational and demonstrational tacks in heavier conditions which has shown our new crew how much harder it is to sheet in sails in 15-20kts of wind. That said, they did a great job today and I continue to be pleased with the way that they are developing as a crew and how well they are sailing the ship.Late this afternoon we experienced the return of some sea fog which reduced our visibility considerably and has kept us all on our toes maintaining a good lookout for other vessels.At the moment we are heading north west back towards the coast of Norway but shortly will tack and take advantage of the forecasted north westerly wind shift then we will regain our southerly passage to Bremerhaven.Writing tonight’s Captains Log is Nick, Lachlan and Jonsey from White Watch who kindly volunteered to write tonight’s entry. Enjoy!Until tomorrow, take care.Yours AyeCaptain GavCAPTAINS LOG – 07 AUG 15White watch started Day Five of V05B at 0400 with a modern twist on the classic computer game “Mine Sweeper”. It’s a combination of battle ships, chess and Chinese whispers all in one just to hone our craft in communication skills and teamwork.A rogue dolphin must have smelled Marcus’s blueberry and custard breakfast scrolls as he swam by the ship. He said hello and probably hoped for some breakfast leftovers to find there way overboard. Instead unknowingly he caused a parade of world voyagers to thunder across the deck in pursuit with cameras in tow running port to starboard and back again as he dived to and fro under the ship.We had an illegal Swedish stow away come on board during the night going by the name of Nanna who came by for a visit after breakfast, this strangely coincided with the disappearance of the Engineer. Her purple lipstick was rather fetching and may have been too confronting for his delicate sensibilities. She brought a sack and the cleaning bug with her. A few of our shipmates fell afoul of her cleaning habits with various items of attire brought out on public display including ‘Jetski’ Flip Flops and a surprising number of cuddly soft toys.There was another tight battle down at the rope races today. A couple of draws drew out the rope offs with some extremely competitive sides coming out in the heat of battle. This resulted in one world voyager spraying the deck with mouthfuls of pear (Scout) and another impersonating a vacuum cleaner and dispatching their pear in under four seconds (Trav)!After Lunch, we rotated out of our usual tacking stations and also participated in demonstrational tacks where we saw what the bridge crew does during Tacking Stations which put us through our paces. The result is a World Voyage youth crew who are well versed and confident with tacking the ship.With regards to the weather, the pleasantly surprising run of sun and light winds has come to an end with the appearance of a sea fog and the disappearance of anything beyond half a nautical mile.Nick, Lachlan and JonseySigning Off White Watch