Away to sea we go!

Ahoy there, Well the program is in full swing today, the Youth Crew have forgotten their lives ashore and have all embraced ship borne routines. They were awoken at the wonderful hour of 0630 by Sail Master Jordo to the colourful music of Johnny Cash. Judging by the looks on their faces the music may not have crossed the age barrier as much as Jordo had hoped. Once everyone was up on deck we conducted yet another get to know each other activity before heading down below for breakfast and showers. By 0800 everyone was ready and raring to start the day and mustered on the port side of the bridge for morning brief. The morning brief had quite a few guest speakers this morning with the chef, engineer, medic and of course myself all having our little introductions and pointers on how to have a great voyage. Once we were all done with the brief (which turned out to be not so brief in the end) we headed down below for ‘Happy Hour’ which is when the Youthies and Staffies prove that a clean ship really is a happy ship. After the ship was cleaned to Jordo’s high standard everyone mustered once more at midships so Dougie our resident safety gear expert could take them through all the vital safety equipment we have onboard. Finally after this was completed we were safe to proceed to sea and weighed anchor just before lunch. While the afterguard once more looked after the navigation the watch leaders took the watches through some more deck safety and finally started to teach the Youth Crew how to set and furl sails. It was with great enthusiasm that everyone heaved in on the sheets to set their first sails for the voyage. So much so that I had to ask the watch leaders to go a little bit easier in the light conditions before they started to pull the clews out of the sails. The sail training program continued after lunch with the ship motor sailing to the East in very light winds. Eventually at 1430 the winds died completely and I opted to take in all sail and send the crew over the side for a refreshing swim. It was only a quick dip as they had a lot of theory still to learn but what is the fun in sailing on a tall ship if you cant enjoy yourself along the way. Once everyone was back onboard the wind had backed to the North and provided some perfect sailing conditions with a steady 10kts of wind. We set all sail once more and then conducted the first set of tacks. This first set is very important in that everyone needs to know where they need to go to should the ship need to tack in the middle of the night. Once the crew had convinced me that they were safe to sail overnight I sent the off watch bellow and settled the ship down for the night. We plan to make our way to the East overnight under sail heading towards Lady Musgrave Island. The speed required to arrive there just after sunrise is perfect for a quite first night at sea. The watches will be concentrating on helm, lookout and conducting their below deck rounds overnight and I look forward to hearing how they went tomorrow. Until next timeCAPT Matt Its not who you are that holds you back, Its who you think you are, so start believing in yourself and you will never fail Unknown