All At Sea

Ahoy Shipmates,Voyage 19 of 2007 has gotten off to a challenging start with strong winds for the first two days. On our first night we remained alongside as the anchorage off Adelaide is very exposed and would not have been conducive to the first night’s objectives of safety training, including our first climb aloft the foremast. Alongside with wind gusting to 40 knots certainly made for an exciting first climb to the topgallant yard.Yesterday morning we motored out of Port Adelaide River for the open sea, where we immediately started sail setting and furling drills. By late afternoon we had sailed most of the way across the Gulf of St Vincent and were approaching its western shore, this was timed well to conduct tacking instruction. By 4 p.m. we had completed three tacks in 20 knots of wind under headsails, topsail, ���tween mast staysails and mainsail and the crew were well prepared to continue sailing overnight in the navigationally constrained waters of the Gulf.After our tacking training we handed the topsail and hardened up onto the wind to work our way out of the Gulf waters towards Kangaroo Island. Overnight we had to put in a further three tacks; all the youth crew, many bravely fighting through bouts of seasickness, turned to and met the challenge of their first night at sea.Today the weather looks excellent for more sailing with a fresh wind but only slight seas as we sail in the lee of Kangaroo Island. Yours Aye,Captain Bob* Note: ���tween is sailor’s shorthand for between.