Day 6 – Bouncy Bouncy!

Ahoy shipmates , and welcome to Day 6. After a restful night at anchor we departed South Percy Island at 0700, bound for Great Keppel Island. Unfortunately the conditions continue to challenge as we battle our way south. Good news is the youth crew have embraced the challenge. Today’s big ticket item was demonstrational tacks, where I talk the youth crew tacking the ship from the bridge perspective…valuable information as we lead into Command Day. Blue watch have covered the rest of the day, so I’ll sign off here. Until tomorrow, fair winds, Cap K.———-

Captain’s Log Day 6
Blue Watch: Claire, Douglas and Jenna

Howdy howdy (let’s get rowdyyy)! Claire, Doug and Jen here on board the STS Young Endeavour, a little over half way into our voyage. It’s been filled with good cooking, developing sea legs, late nights and a dash of whale watching and sea snake spotting. Yesterday afternoon the legendary Blue Watch leader Reggie treated the Blue-ies with a beautiful sunset climb up the foremast. We sat on the topsail yard and watched the sun fall beyond the horizon, filling the skies with hues of pink, orange and red. While laying aloft, we managed to catch a glimpse of an ever-elusive sea turtle off of South Percy Island. Claire really wants to drill home the sheer indescribable beauty of the sunrises, sunsets and twinkling stars of the night. Thank goodness there’s no light pollution out on the open ocean.
We pulled out our sleeping bags and huddled in midships for a surprise movie night with popcorn. It was really enlightening learning about the tall ships of old (and their complete disregard for safety standards). We’re feeling very thankful for our harnesses. Afterwards, our two resident musos, Calvin and Ella, treated us to some absolute bangers, which lifted our spirits as we entered the night and hit the dicey seas.
As an interesting change of pace, we finally got the opportunity to take ultimate responsibility of the ship and Her wellbeing, as we held anchor watches and did our rounds. All was well (no pirates dared to board – woo!) and we woke to begin our 36 hour continuous sail at 0630. A game of Knights, Mounts and Cavaliers did well to wake us up in preparation for the long day ahead. Throughout the day we manned the sails and the bridge, soaking in all the knowledge we need for Command Day, where the Youthies take complete control over the ship, which we are 36 hours away from (at time of writing).
The latest round of rope races definitely tested our knowledge and included a very interesting bonus round where we – very dramatically we might add – acted out a variety of scenarios, such as Marcus finally catching something – a whale! – and Jenna being put in a clothes dryer.
On the horizon, we spotted a US warship (a helicopter carrier) training its crew, out of which flew a helicopter that tailed us for a while. Evidently, they saw big rig Reggie and scampered back to the Landing Helicopter Dock on the warship.
Big shout-outs to Reggie for being such a unit – Claire: shoutout to friends and family back in Cairns, love you and don’t worry, I haven’t died of frostbite yet – Jen: shoutouts to friends and family in Brissy, p.s. I tried to send a cheeky backie – didn’t work :/ — Douglas: shoutout to friends and family back in Brisbane, I hope you’re managing ok without me. Claire, Douglas and Jenna OUTTTTTTTTTTT!