COMMAND PERIOD DAY TWO

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day 53 of our voyage and day two of our Command Period. I won’t write much tonight as I think that our Sail Master Liv has got everything well and truly covered. The only thing that I must mention is during the early hours of this morning I awoke to find Miquela chasing a flying fish around my cabin. How this fish managed to get there where not quite sure but the theory goes that he must have gotten a fair amount of lift of a large wave and managed to fly onto the bridge and down through the aft companionway where he managed to slide into my cabin. The good news is that Miquela did manage to grab hold of him and return him safely back into the Atlantic Ocean. It just goes to show that it doesn’t matter how long you have been at sea something new can always surprise you.Enjoy tonight’s Captains Log written by the lovely Liv.Until tomorrow, take care.Yours AyeCaptain GavHi, hey, hello to everyone back home and beyond!Yet another day in command of the STS Young Endeavour has passed with all of the crew members putting all they can into some awesome teamwork and cooperation for day 2. We have had to do a few things in order to make it to our designated waypoints over this 24 hour period, including a lot of prior preparation, planning and a few Tacks and Wears thrown in the mix. As mentioned yesterday by the brilliant Bob, we had hands to tacking stations, dinner and then overnight we had the watches setting squares, doing some sail trimming and keeping fixes in order to maintain our Speed Of Advance (SOA) and stay on track for our designated waypoints.This morning began early with our GPS tracking going completely dark and the only form of navigation left was a dead reckoning. Basically guess work for our team up on watch. Our third waypoint was in sight and even with all our equipment off, we managed to hit it early and continue our course straight for waypoint four. A 15 minute sleep-in saw everyone a little happier when it came to a call across the pipes from me “Good morning everyone, hands to tacking stations, hands to tacking stations. Prepare to Wear the ship!”. Weary eyed, some still in PJ’s, all watches were at their designated spot within 5 minutes and we were ready to go. One Wear followed shortly after by another, saw us back on track again, with another task ticked off our command period instructions list. With my voice a tad scratchy after yelling through the wind, watches were sent off to breakfast to fuel up for a big day ahead.The next task of the day was an awesome photo opportunity up the yards. Blue watch on the Course, White watch on the Topsail and Red watch on the Topgallant, everyone smiled their biggest toothy grin for the camera as Dougie snapped away. An incredible lunch time prepared by our new Galley Girls followed and with that, our fourth Waypoint! Rudy, Annie and Maddy prepared some amazing homemade burgers for everyone with delicious leftovers from yesterday, gorgeous salads and of course, gorgeous smiles. Another task and another creative opportunity came at midday with a mural at midships. It depicted each crew member in any shape or form, and lasted just long enough for a photo before being washed away by a stray wave over the bow.I am pretty proud to say that on completion of this first 24 hour period we confirmed with our Nav, Evan, and we have hit all four of our waypoints ending ahead of time, keeping us on track for arrival in Rio! 1300 came and the ship was handed over to a new set of World Voyagers to see us through our second 24 hour Command Period. After the excitement and full schedule of the first 24 hours, we started off with a siesta (helped by gaining an hour this afternoon when we retarded clocks back an hour crossing into the Oscar time zone). Heartfelt letters written to each other followed another awesome meal cooked by the new Galley member; Damo, Jess and Caitlin.Amy here- Liv has just ducked down to join in for a well-earned Macarena boogie at our Latin dance party in the 12-berth. That was short and sweet, but I’m back now…Yes! And finally to finish off another awesome day at sea we had a dance party awesomely organised by Vita in the 12 berth, fully equipped with flashing lights and PA system.Thanks again to my fellow command team for period one and all of the crew for your cooperation and hard work. You are all amazing people! Finally for me, as we wrap up our last week at sea I would like to take the opportunity to say I will miss you all (V06/15, staff included) at the conclusion of this trip more than you can imagine. You’ve all helped to make this the absolute trip of a lifetime, of which I will never ever forget.Liv, out.