Heron Island

Ahoy there Shipmates, The ship remained at sea overnight making way under a full press of square sails towards Heron Island. The Youth crew were kept busy throughout the night setting and furling sails as required by the watch officers to maintain the required speed and course. The fun did not stop as the sun came up with Sail Master Guv cracking the whip and getting the ship set up and in the right position for a set of demonstrational tacks. This is the chance for two members of each watch to come to the bridge to see how the ship tacks from the bridges perspective. We conducted four tacks to allow each member of the Youth Crew to experience a tack at least once with a couple of extras having a second look. After the demonstrational tacks the ship was squared away and a quick morning brief took place on the port side of the bridge. After the brief (Which was actually surprisingly brief for once) the Youth Crew wend below to clean the ship while the Staff Crew made preparations for going to anchor. With the deck a buzz of activity soon both boats were ready to go and the ship came to anchor just to the north of Wistari Reef which is next to Heron Island. The Youth crew enjoyed a fine lunch down below before proceeding to the upper decks to get a quick brief on the reef and what you can and can not so while snorkelling. A rotation was then set up with each watch taking it in turns to go snorkelling, some deck consolidation and mid voyage chats with their watch leaders. While the rotation was taking place we had four visitors from the Heron Island research station that had begged their boss for the afternoon off to come across and keep up the tradition of welcoming a visiting tall ship by coming out to say ‘g’day’. I gave our visitors a personalised tour and they were amazed at the luxury the Youth Crew are travelling in. After the rotation of events was completed a quick set of rope races was conducted up on deck to continue the training of the Youth Crew in which line does what. After rope races there was a slight pause in proceedings to allow everyone to chill out and reflect upon what had been a great day. Just on sunset Rick the Nav took all those who were interested through some celestial navigation using a sextant up on the bridge. Dinner was a bit latter then normal at 1800 which turned into quite the communal affair with all the watches almost being able to eat at the same time. After dinner the Staffies weighed anchor and the ship returned to sea for the night. We plan to remain at sea overnight and allow the watches the last chance to consolidate their knowledge in running the ship before we go to anchor tomorrow at the town of 1770 in preparation for command day the following day. Until tomorrow, may the stars always show you the way home CAPT Matt Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of moments that take your breath away Hitch