Login
Anchored in Guichen Bay
Ahoy ShipmatesMorning brief this morning found us just 14nm from our anchorage position in Guichen Bay near the township of Robe in South Australia. So it was a short morning brief and a quick set of cleaning stations (happy hour) followed by some informative instruction on maritime Rules of the Road (no road rage allowed) from Trish. Shortly after, everyone was required on deck to hand in all sail prior to coming to anchor at 1115. First up this afternoon I had the pleasure of imparting some theoretical knowledge on the art of sailing a tall ship to the youth crew. This was followed by a boat trip ashore were we all enjoyed the opportunity to stretch our legs and explore the small picturesque town of Robe. This evening we enjoyed one of Sumo and Jarrod’s famous YE deck barbecue’s, which was then followed by a very entertaining session of three way talks. As this is our first night at anchor since departing Port Lincoln we have now reduced to anchor watches for tonight allowing staff and youth crew some extra sleep, ensuring we are well refreshed to continue with more adventure over the next several days.Yours AyeCaptain Gav Captains Log update at 2000hrs by S/C Paul Lees (Victoria Police R2 MLU) aboard the Young Endeavour, currently anchored at Robe S.A on day 4 of 11day Voyage: Port Lincoln ��� Geelong. Day 1: Saturday Dec 1st, Arrived at Port Lincoln, Harbour with six young males from Yes2 Program in Geelong along with 21 other young people from across Australia, including Roy from Darwin, Kate from Canberra, Anita from Moss Vale and Alice from Hobart. All anticipated much excitement but were also unsure of what lay ahead. 12 males sleeping six to a room, in small bunks with not much more headroom than a coffin. 15 females all bunked in together at the bow of the tall ship. Ninety second showers, staggered meal times, and watches on the ship four hours long in three rotating teams of nine. Everyone does fatigues contributing to the cleanliness of the ship. Any items of clothing not put away in lockers are gathered by the ships ���Nana Sumo�� in full mock costume and paraded before all until the offending owner steps forward.Highlight: The welcome and high morale set by Lieutenant Commander ���Captain�� Gavin Dawe who was the Bosun onboard the Young Endeavour for the World Voyage in 1992, returning as ���Captain�� for Voyage 20/2007 and Chief Petty Officer John ���Hector�� Crawford (a veteran of 10 Sydney to Hobart races) and the remaining crew of 6 male and 2 female naval crew. Night mast climb by all youth crew under still, warm conditions at anchor was sensational. All mobile phones and wallets handed in to Young Endeavour staff.Day 2: Sunday Dec 2nd, under sail. Three teams of nine (Red, White and Blue) were instructed in sailing and navigational skills and commenced 24hour watches. It was much more difficult to manoeuvre one’s self around the ship whilst under sail. It is also more difficult to sleep, not only due to the constant movement of the ship but also due to the constant shift changes. The Youth crew are getting along well as they mingle and get to know each others backgrounds, experiences and goals. It is good to watch their interaction during drills and in their own time.Highlight: Youth crew furling and setting sails and climbing aloft but this time under more adverse weather conditions, wearing wet weather gear and harnesses. Changing the ships direction by tacking in the middle of the night (one at midnight and one at 4am) was challenging but completed without complaint.Day 3 Monday Dec 3rd, Stronger winds and rougher seas as we neared Kangaroo Island. Not what I would call a highlight, but certainly memorable was a 4am climb aloft to the topsail yard. Eight members of my ���Blue watch�� team were all sick today, including myself and our crew leader. Watch leader Able Seaman Jessica Barr, Maggie, Gambella and I were all sick at height whilst trying to sea furl the topsail in strong winds and shifting seas. We all felt great when we were on deck once again. All except Gambella, who was in the wrong spot at the wrong time and copped most of our sickness. The other two youth crew watches are also experiencing sickness and fatigue.Other highlights were watching Mat and Shimilla conquer their fear of heights and watching Longdy and Kate steer the Young Endeavour, sometimes at the speed of 10 knots.Day 4: Tuesday Dec 4th, All teams worked together to clean the ship and put the sails away for anchoring at Robe S.A. Everyone excited at the prospect of walking on land.Highlights: On land at Robe, unstable at first but great to walk around without everything moving under or around you. The trip to shore by naval dingy, pick up and return to ship for an awaiting BBQ aboard. The food aboard has been fantastic, but over half the youth crew have had trouble keeping it down. After the BBQ, the youth crew performed an entertaining ���partner intro�� exercise and as all youth crew have only a one hour watch tonight each, morale is very high at present, awaiting the challenges of the remaining 7 days, commencing tomorrow with a refreshing swim at 0630hours.The total distance travelled from Port Lincoln to Robe is 305nmWill update further as time allows.
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Comfortably at anchor with light SW winds
You might also be interested in
Ahoy there Land-lubbers! Today has been the wettest yet! After a busy night of anchor watches and little sleep due to the rolling seas, this morning’s weather seemed promising. We awoke to a beautiful sunrise in Wineglass Bay with dolphins in abundance, chasing and playing alongside the boat. However, there was a spicy **Insert ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls here** call over the intercom from Chucky to don some wet weather gear. The ‘Captain’s Challenge’ (aka the Pre-Command Day Examination) took place after morning briefing, used by the man who makes the sea seasick (El Capitan Gav) to test the Youthies capability to sail the Young Endeavour by themselves. This was made incredibly difficult by the rain. While many hands were on deck and climbing the rigging, the elected navigators were busy (and dry) pinpointing our location. Given the circumstances, we were able to successfully complete the Captain’s Challenge with 10 minutes to spare! There was a brief respite for lunch, cooked by the ever-amazing Haydo and his Gordon Ramseys’. After which, all hands were back on deck to continue setting and furling sails. This task quickly turned from practice into reality, as we were hit by several squalls that became progressively worse over the course of several hours. The Youthies fought bravely against the roaring winds and blistering cold rain to furl the sails. We succeeded in making the ship safe. We have weighed anchor, and are taking shelter in Prosser Bay (near Orford) tonight. Command Day gives the Youthies (almost) total control of the Young Endeavour for 24 hours. This evening, we conducted elections to determine the leadership team that will be running the ship throughout this period. Here are the results: Captain Paige Sailmaster Sophie Navigator Lochie Officer of the Watch Jeremy Red Watch Leader Summer Blue Watch Leader Jack White Watch Leader Alistair Chefs Aria, Tiffany & Anna We wish all our (land-lubber) families back home all the best. Love ya, Gibbsy and Jezza xoxo
Hi Everyone, Welcome to Day 6 of our voyage. The strong northerly’s experienced yesterday moderated overnight and by the early hours of this morning we had entered Great Oyster Bay and were now motor sailing due to the light conditions. Just before sunrise we altered course to the east and transited through Schouten Passage which gave the morning watch an opportunity to view the western side of the Freycinet Peninsular and witness a spectacular sunrise. Once safely through the passage we altered course to the north, handed in sail, then proceeded directly into the famous Wineglass Bay where we came to anchor at 0830. Once at anchor we conducted the normal morning’s activities and have spent the rest of the day enjoying this beautiful part of Tasmania. That’s enough from me I will now handover to Liv and Mei who have done a wonderful job of writing tonight’s Log. Until tomorrow, take care. Captain Gav Ahoy there! This morning started off with a “funny” parody of “Let It Go” from “Frozen” featuring a memorable yet un-relatable line: “the vomit never bothered me anyway”, created by Red Watch. Thankfully, White Watch could sleep through this as they were on guts watch from 0000 to 0400, where they worked as a team to set the storm jib in a record time of 40 minutes! Other highlights of the night included learning about navigation, steering the helm by the wind for the first time and our famous midnight café featuring a lot of vegemite. Some very special guest dolphins swam around the ship and looked truly majestic as they glowed with bioluminescence. We anchored and woke up to the stunning view of The Hazards at Wineglass Bay, which we later hiked up and saw a spectacular view of Young Endeavour looking gorgeous in all its glory. But before this, we had mid voyage chats where we evaluated our goals and how we’ve progressed since the beginning of the voyage. We then played the inaugural bin ball championships created by Bucky at Wineglass stadium featuring a sand court. Unsurprisingly, White Watch won with a tight score of 3-2 in the finals. After the hike, which we were told was going to be around 20 minutes but ended up being more than an hour, some Youthies took the chance to have a quick swim before going back to the ship. Tonight’s dinner menu included lamb satay curry and grilled chicken, as well as a special addition of Hoppy’s Sundae Bar, which proved to be very popular. Most of us decided to have dinner on the deck and take advantage of the picturesque view of Wineglass Bay. As always, a big shoutout to our Head Chef Haydo and Masterchef assistants for keeping our bellies happy! After dinner, we had a self-reflection “Stop Start Continue” workshop in our watches where we wrote about certain aspects we want to work on to improve ourselves. Hopefully we will see that we have been able to make progress on our goals when we get to read them again in six months’ time. We believe in you, you got this! Currently, we’re waiting to start the anchor watches (our favourite) and preparing to set sail again tomorrow. Finally a shoutout to Mum, Dad and Ruben miss you guys so much. Remember I’m looking at the same moon and stars as you are, Love you - Liv Shoutout to Dad as I live out his dream of “enjoying good food on a navy ship”. Mei This is Liv and Mei signing off J
Hi Everyone, Welcome to Day 5 of our voyage. Overnight and during the early hours of this morning we continued to enjoy a great sail around the southern Tasmanian coast with all of the watches kept busy with setting and furling sails and doing some practical navigation. By sunrise we were located just to the south of Bruny Island now just sailing under fore & aft sail and hoping that the day would get warmer, which sadly it didn’t. But the cold and a little rain hasn’t dampened our spirits and we have still managed to fit in a lot of great activities today and our young mariners continue to impress with their endless energy and motivation. That’s enough from me I will now handover to Riley and Jack who have done a great job of writing tonight’s Log. Until tomorrow, take care. Captain Gav This morning the youth crew of the STS Young Endeavour woke to the frightening sound of red watch singing a parody of Riptide by Vance Joy over the ships intercom. This was then followed by the message that blue watch, the watch that was on guts the night before, could have a well-deserved sleep in. While members from blue watch went back to sleep the rest of the crew made their way down to the galley to enjoy another one of Haydos fantastic meals. After everyone had had breakfast the morning brief was given at 0900 which involved informing the youthies of the day ahead and a very educational story by Matty on the origins of the nautical term “two six heave”. After the morning brief the crew went below decks for Chucky’s favourite part of the day: Happy Hour! (Also known as cleaning the ship hour). In the afternoon the three watches conducted rotational tacking stations. This involved the watches rotating through the positions that the other watches fill when we tack which helped the crew get a better idea on what happens when we tack. Captain Gav came up on deck to give us a crash course about sailing theory and the ships history. This was very interesting and gave the youth crew a helpful insight into why different sails are used depending on different wind conditions. Round 3 of the famous Rope races were then commenced at noon with a twist of the round being worth double points. This highly non-competitive competition ended with Blue and Red watch drawing making it a close race for the rest of the trip The biggest highlight of most people’s day was sailing through the straight between Tasman Island and Cape Pillar in the afternoon. We all gathered at the bow of the ship as we gazed upon the spectacular columnar basalt edged cliffs rose up on either side of the narrow passageway. We had to furl all the sails, which involved sending two youth crew members up the main mast in rough swells and high winds to gasket the sail. Engines where turned on for the first time that day so we could safely pass the straight. The effort was truly worth it as we passed the resident seal colony and schools of dolphins. One of the greatest things about the STS Young Endeavour is even though the ship may sway from side to side and youth crew struggle to walk straight without getting knocked into a wall; the ships Chef continues to work hard and impress us with meals made from a kitchen which is smaller than the size of most people’s laundry room. It continues to amaze me how he keeps this quality in these rocky conditions. Not enough praise can be given to the hard work this man puts in keeping everyone happy. Go Haydo!Hi mum and dad I’m still alive, somehow we are already halfway through. See you in six days. Jack. You probably won’t see this but love you to the moon and back mum and dad. Riley. Until next time… Youthies Jack & Riley