Back to sea

Ahoy there Shipmates, The Ship remained at anchor overnight with the Youth Crew keeping their first anchor watches. This meant that only one member of each watch was up on deck for an hour, letting the other members of the watch catch up on some much needed sleep. The staffies were awoken nice and early by Sail Master Guv with the intention of weighing anchor and getting underway by 0700. As we recovered the anchor the Youth Crew were raised from their blissful slumber and wandered down to the galley to see what wonderful treats Bec and her assistants had on order. With a tasty pastry and a hot cup of coffee, there was many a happy face wandering around the ship. With the anchor home and secured for sea we pointed the bows to the NE and got underway using engines due to the light winds. As we set off Guv mustered the crew on the port side of the bridge for the entertaining morning brief. With salty continuing to enlighten us all with his tales from yesteryear I am sure the Youth Crew will never look at a history lesson the same way again. After a quick clean up down below decks the budding sailors mustered on deck for a sail theory brief from myself. Starting on the basic principles of how sails work I soon dove into the mystery’s and dark arts of square sails and how to maximise the airflow through the entire rig. With some enthralled (or bemused) young sailors captivated by the science behind the art of tall ship sailing I quickly beat a retreat before their questions delved even deeper into theory’s that take a lifetime to master and then apply. The watch’s were then given some time to apply their newly found knowledge and to set and furl some sails with their watch leaders. Allowing them to get that one step closer to my Captians setting and furling assessment and then command day. After such a busy morning lunch seemed to pass in a blur of delectable delights before we were all back up on deck and ready for an afternoon of fun on deck is what had become a bit of a wet and luckily windy day. With the wind freshening in the afternoon we changed the sail plan to include the topgallant and topsail and then conducted our first set of tacks in decent wind. With a few false starts the team started to get the process down pat, even if we did end up boxhauling one of the tacks (Just think three point turn under sail with a 240 tonne ship and you will understand the principals of boxhauling). So once the watches had squared away their own tacking stations we then rotated the watches to allow them to understand what the other watches do at their tacking station. By this stage everyone was rapidly resembling drowned rats so I re-set a suitable sail plan and settled the ship down for the night. I then sent the watches below to warm up and enjoy some scones with jam and cream while Penny and I kept the 1st Dog watch alone. Thankfully after White watch had enjoyed a good hot dinner they came up to relive us of our responsibilities and we could finally go below to warm up ourselves. The watches are well used to the routine of watch keeping by now and the ship will remain at sea overnight. We are making ground towards Heron Island and going a bit too fast actually, as I pen these last words for the night. We have just increased the distance by adding an extra 30nm into the nav plan to try and allow us to arrive at a more suitable time tomorrow. Until tomorrow night, May you never have to reef your course CAPT Matt It was with a happy hearth that the good Odysseus spread his sail to catch the wind and used his seamanship to keep his boat strait with the steering oar. Homer