Day 9 – Tangalooma, Moreton Island

Ahoy Shipmates…Command Day complete and we are now safely at anchor at Tangalooma, Moreton Island, after an awesome 24 hours of sailing. I’ll hand over to Youth Crew Captain Monty for some final words.

Captain’s Log – Last of Command Day, 1st Oct 2018
Hey hey, it’s Captain Monty here.
Captain Monty, I have been called that for the past 24hrs and I am not sure if I am worthy of such a title when Captain Kenny is the one who truly holds the title and responsibility. After only 24hrs with the ship in my hands, I am in awe of him and the rest of the staff crew. Like seriously, you have no idea… words cannot do justice to what this day has been like for all of us. I am lucky and grateful to say the least that my fellow crewies felt I could even slightly fill such a role. As you might have already read yesterday the weather was not on our side and as such neither was my stomach. The wind was coming exactly from the direction in which we were instructed to sail. For those of you who don’t know anything about sailing directly into the wind, it’s not possible. In order to travel against the wind you need to ‘tack’ across it and use the wind to kinda make a diagonal pattern back and forth across the wind in order to slowly make it to your destination. Tacking the ship requires everyone onboard to be awake and heaving/checking away in order to turn into and across the wind. This is something we as a crew can easily do, what makes it suck is when you need to tack at several unknown points throughout the night, making a decent night’s sleep nigh on impossible. Although overall, we did well. Yes, we went in the wrong direction at one point. Yes, we nearly ran the ship ashore (not really). Yes, we had very little sleep (really), both the staff and youth crew included. But they are just a few negatives of a very hard but interesting command day. I don’t think I have ever felt as supported and trusted in any leadership role I have encountered in my life so far. The crew knew I was battling seasickness in the rough weather and very kindly waited until I stopped depositing my guts into a paper bag to listen to instructions, advice, and explanations as to what move we were making next and why. I also am very aware that this was not achieved by my merits alone. My navigator, Nick, and my Sailmaster, Ryan, did an amazing job and made this task all the more easier and enjoyable. This command day was a collective effort, by all the youth crew, I have as much if not less sailing knowledge than them, this day was accomplished by pooling our collective knowledge and strengths into one. In the early hours of this morning I handed over the helm to the staffies. We made our destination on time and as such could allow the staff to take us safely to anchor. We are currently anchored at Tangalooma for the night. We had the opportunity during our Command Day to complete other fun tasks which we amazingly completed most of in the last two hours before handover. After handover and a very informative debrief we went ashore for some much needed solid ground beneath our tired feet. With a bbq dinner on deck and a ‘talent’ show of sorts for tonight’s entertainment, today has been one I will never ever forget. Here are my main takeaways from command day; morale filters from the top down, punctuality can make all the difference, respect and support travels in more ways then one, our differences make us stronger, and last but not least back your decisions loud and proud. I am only one voice and perspective of Command Day and I am positive that when the other crewies get back home to you they will tell you all about it. We did our best and I am super proud of our efforts.
That’s it from me,
Peace out dudes,
Monty