Day 2 – highs and highs?
Good evening All,
Day 2 started out very pleasantly with a beautiful sunrise as we sat at anchor off Rottnest Island. We introduced the Youth Crew to a fascinating and for some, a very new adventure – happy hour! No, not that sort and certainly not at that time of day. The hour of cleaning Ship – yeah!
We then covered a lot of sailing safety aspects before climbing the fore mast (33.4 metres high). For all of us this always presents as a challenge in some form. With the (cold) wind at 25 knots and a slight roll from the Southern Ocean swell, it wasn’t made any easier. Nonetheless, challenge confronted (and our first high of the day), it was time to get underway. We weighed anchor in the afternoon and proceeded north around Rottnest Island setting our first sails. Although, with the heavy weather we still used our engines to provide some good headway and as comfortable a ride as we could. Long 3m swells with a strong wind made for rough conditions – the waves were certainly high.
As I type we are motor sailing 8 nautical miles to the south of Rottnest Island on a course which will takes us inshore past the town (city?) of Mandurah and then towards Geographe Bay tomorrow. The plan is to seek some reprieve from the large Southern Ocean swell which is now almost from the South. We anticipate the wind to back to the east and ease a little overnight.
We have the main stay sail and fore stay sail set to help us push through the swell and ease the motion of the Ship. A quiet night of keeping our watches (shifts) on the bridge and perhaps a quick word with Neptune to help calm the seas.
So the highs of the mast climb and the highs of a big Southern Ocean swell sum up a long day on board Young Endeavour.
Will let you know tomorrow if our plan for the weather has worked … or not.
Dave J / Yak
Voyage Captain
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Weather: Wind 210 at 25-30 knots, Sea State 4, Swell 225 at 2.5m with a 0.5m sea on top. Temp 16C feels like 14C.
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Thank you Tarvi, Kaeden and Matt for your narrative of today's events. Intentions are to remain at anchor in Hunters Bay, just off HMAS Penguin, home of the RAN Diving School, a place close to my heart, having spent many a day there under training as a young Officer! The plan is to weigh anchor and proceed to HMAS Waterhen, in Waverton, to pick up our Community Day Sailors from the Windgap Foundation and take them for a sail around the harbour for 3 hours. The Youth Crew will help us host our visitors and give them an experience of Young Endeavour. We will drop them back to Waverton and then proceed to anchor in the harbour where we will have a good view of the Bridge and the Opera House for the Youth Crew's last night onboard. Until tomorrow. Yours Aye, Captain Mike