At Anchor, Wellington Harbour

Howdy all from Windy old Wellington,Over the past twenty four hours as some daily readers may have beenaware we the youth crew took over the ship for our command day. Thisday was one that we had all been anticipating and looking forward toas soon as we heard what was going to happen and when.We set off From Ship Cove, which is at the north end of the southisland around 2pm or 3pm on our course to reach our port inWellington Harbour at 1000 on Wednesday the 8th of Feb. We wereasigned by the captain and staff a list of tasks we had to completeand certain navigational points that we had to pass within .5nm of.The crew was awarded points for each task that was completed andthese points were tallied at the end of the days sailing. This pointssystem was not so much for competition but more for incentive and fora challenge for the command leaders.We got off to a bit of a shakey start with our first bearing slightlyoff, which led to us being a bit off course but our nav officers whowere Alex and Mandy managed to put that behind them and get us backon track and screaming down to our first point. Managing to remain oncourse for the rest of the arvo and the early evening had us set toreach our anchor point around 7 hours earlier than expected so theBig Boss Man was forced to give us some extra tasks to complete.We were blessed for the majority of the morning and afternoon with astunning blue sky and sunshine out, which really lifted andmaintained the spirits of the crew. Unfortunately as night timeapproached we were hit by some stronger winds, which led to usgetting blown into an unnecessary tack and also to actually startreversing the ship at 3 knots, which although unconventional we weretold that it was a FIRST ever and something to be proud of.Apart from that small mishap the rest of the trip ran very smoothlyas we managed to find all our nav points and extra tasks and also tokeep the ship pointing in a forward direction, haha. We had to doseveral tacks on the run home but despite that fact we were able tostay on a good enough heading to safely get us to Wellington. Theentire crew as i did really enjoyed themselves and proved thatthey could push themselves when times were toug. Every single of oneof them should be very proud of themselves as i am very proud ofthem. Now a few of the crew wish to share some thoughts with you oftheir journey;Hi Mum and Dad,We made it! The voyage was amazing and i have learnt so much aboutsailing and that kind of caper. I’ve learnt a lot about work andmyself and what im capable of. I got to the top of the masts, whichwas awesome and i still cant believe it. Im set for money and a bedso i will talk to you soon,Stu.I would just like to thank everyone for an enjoyable trip, its been apleasure. You’ve been great.Johnty.Hi Guys,Bet your all missing me, oh well too bad ‘cos im having way too muchfun! Talk soon,Love Hans.Hi everyone, well sadly our voyage has come to an end, but over thelast ten days we have seen some amazing scenery sailing down the eastcoast of NZ, stopping in Napier and the Marlborough Sounds in theCook Strait. I have met a lot of amazing people and picked up a lotof valuable skills which i will keep forever.James.Hello all! This trip has been truely overwhelming experience and iwill never forget it. Treasure every moment!Love Megs.What an awesome trip and a great group of people to share it with.Would love to come back and do it all again, hopefully without the 48hours of sea sickness. Great meeting everyone, hope to catch up withsome of you all at a later date. Cheers,Jordan Magg.Thanks guys for those thoughts, to all those parents who are missingtheir precious ones i can tell you they are safe, smiling and havinga great time. Big smiles from Chloe, Fel, Alex and all other crew. Iwould just like to say that i thouroughly enjoyed my time as theships captain and would like to thank the staff and my fellow crewfor their support, without all of you this trip would not have beenhalf as fun. Hope all is well back there, take care and be sure wewill see all of you soon,signing out for now,Youth Crew CaptainKean Steinkellner.