Captain's Log

V07/15

11 May 2015

MIXING WATCHES

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to day 15 of our voyage. Just as we were starting to enjoy some good sailing the wind died during the early hours of this morning and we were left becalmed with heavy rain soaking the morning watch which isnâ€™t a pleasant way to start your day.

Given these conditions it has been a fairly relaxed day with the most exciting thing happening being the mix up of the watches. This we have done during other passages of the World Voyage as it gives everyone the chance to change watches and get to spend more time with other members of the crew. We even do this with the Staff which then enables the World Voyages to work with other Staff Members as well.

Currently we are located 250nm to the west of Tristan Da Cunha motor sailing in light and variable conditions. The wind is forecast to freshen again tomorrow so hopefully we have some good conditions to be able to sail to Tristan Da Cunha where we still plan to anchor on Saturday if the conditions are suitable.

Writing tonightâ€™s Captains Log is the new Red Watch so please enjoy!

Until tomorrow, take care.

Yours Aye
Captain Gav

Day 14 or 15. The days have melted together so weâ€™re not entirely sure.

Early morning watches started with a discussion of mid-voyage goals. We were all pretty happy with our achievements so far â€“ smashing the captainâ€™s setting and furling yesterday, but we put a few more goals on that list to tackle. An exciting observation was made at 4am, with three lights spotted on the horizon. With nothing showing up on the radar, and our early morning deliriousness, we were a little suspicious of what these shining globes were. We soon confirmed it was just a fishing boat, exciting though, any sign of human life raises excitement these days.

Masterchef Marcos spiced up things by teaching us all how to make raisin bread. A few delicious rolls and loaves were dearly appreciated by all at breakfast. These warm delights were a blessing in what was a horribly wet morning, where all of us on watch got soaked. Weâ€™ve attempted to make the best use of the warm engine room, decorating it with clothes and shoes to dry.

Today was a slow day for activities, following the usual morning brief and happy hour, we had an extended rest period due the big â€œSwitch-ups, swap-a-rooâ€ of our watches. The 3 existing watches, each consisting of 8 world voyage crew members, were shuffled. This means some members will pull the guts watch (midnight till 4am) two days in a row. This group made good use of the extended midday rest period. It will be a good challenge for all of us, putting us out of our comfort zone just as we were starting to get settled.

The afternoon entertainment consisted of a viewing of â€œThe guardians of the galaxyâ€, however many of us spent this time napping, catching up on some much needed sleep.

Captain Gav confirmed for us today that we have permission to anchor at Tristan Da Cunha for a short visit. This is the most remotely inhabited island in the world! Unfortunately over the day the wind has died down and we are currently running on engines, in an effort to stay on schedule for our visit. Fingers crossed the weather will let us anchor on Saturday. We are all extremely excited to make this a possibility.

A group of the male crew are participating in Movember from the middle of the Atlantic! We would love to have your support in this great cause. Log on to the Movember website and search for the Young Endeavour group.

And thatâ€™s about all for today. Other than a shout out to Dougie who just walked in sporting a fabulous pair of pants featuring Mr Strong from Mr Men, Very red. Appropriate as it is the new red watch writing this blog!

Young Endeavour out.

Shout Outs!

Hey Jodie, Mum and Dad, Shout out #2. (go back a few days if you missed the first) Doing movember again. Please donate!! Love you Jodie, Matt.

Hey Mum, Dad, Caitlyn, Tom and Pat, miss you all loads! Amie, canâ€™t wait to see you in Cape Town! Good luck with exams! Love you, Hope xx

Sending love to Rattle St and Misty Hill… Today was beautiful, calm and soft, I was thinking of you. Iâ€™m glad to still have a couple more weeks to figure this ocean out. For the one who might wonder, Iâ€™ve some statistics to report; GP: 9, SS:7, PLUs: all and none. Wish I could talk to you! Thank you for my book. It gives me a feeling as warm as steel cut oats with cream.

Latitude/Longitude:

36 degrees 35 minutes South / 16 degrees 19 minutes West

Conditions:

Currently located 250nm West of Tristan Da Cunha and experiencing light and variable winds with a confused 2m swell. Our current speed is 6.5kts and the temperature is 14 degrees.

AUTHOR: Commanding Officer STS Young Endeavour

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Good morning Shipmates, Sailmaster Sara's final Wakey Wakey song was pumped through the Ship’s speakers to jar the crew of YE from their deep slumber after a particularly tiring day of the Community Day Sail. Activities included end-of-voyage chats for the watches, harbour furling the square sails, eating as much home made pizza, cooked by master chef Ash, as we possibly could and knocking over final command day tasks including the Slide Show. It was up on deck for a quick head count to make sure everyone was out of their ‘racks’ and ready for their final day onboard. Breakfast was followed by the morning brief on the plan for the day and then the Staff Crew weighed anchor and got us underway while the Youth Crew laid aloft for a quick harbour cruise. Navigator Seb piloted the Ship from our Athol Bay anchorage, past Fort Dennison under the Harbour Bridge, where we fired the Ship’s saluting cannon, and then into Balls Head Bay to our berth. We berthed at HMAS Waterhen at 1000 to the warm welcome of friends and family of the Youthies, waiting on the wharf for us. Once we had secured the ship alongside we invited our guests onboard, allowed them a walk around the ship to see where the Youthies had lived and worked for the last eleven days, and then we gathered everyone at midships. Sail Master Sara spoke about our adventures during the voyage and then I presented the Voyage Completion certificates to the youth crew and the Young Endeavour Award to Liv for her outstanding hard work on in undertaking the voyage and her dedication to helping her fellow youth crew members to achieve their voyage goals. We then farewelled the Youth Crew of V04/24 after a fantastic challenging and enjoyable voyage. Thank you for following our adventures and hope you enjoyed hearing about them. Yours, aye, Captain Mike

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Day 10 – Community Day Sail Sydney Harbour

Good evening shipmates, After a well-earned quality night’s sleep at anchor in Hunters Bay, Sail Master Sara woke us with another of her soothing tunes to get us on deck for a quick early morning activity. After breakfast the staff crew weighed anchor and conducted the transit to HMAS Waterhen, at Waverton. We berthed there at 0900 and prepared to embark our guests for the Community Day Sail. At 1015 we cast off our berthing lines and departed with our 34 guests and commenced our 3 hour tour of the harbour. Our Community Day Sailors were a group 30 members and staff from the Windgap Foundation. We also embarked some defence personnel as well. We again passed under the Harbour Bridge and then proceeded into Rose Bay where we set some sails and commenced sailing back towards Waterhen. Whilst on the harbour our fantastic youth crew helped us host our Windgap special guests. They encouraged our guests to participate in setting the staysails and a square sail by helping to pull on the sheets and clewlines. The youth crew also helped Chef Ash to prepare and deliver the food to our guests on deck. At 1300, after 3 fun-packed hours on the harbour, we berthed back at the southern wharf at HMAS Waterhen. Once we had farewelled our guests it was time to commence our end-of-voyage activities and preparations. The staff crew managed to organise a visit to the RAN Ship MATV Sycamore, which is crewed by a mixture of civilians and Navy staff, is a multi-role aviation training vessel. The youth crew embarked with their watch leaders and were given a 45 minute tour of the ship by some of the Navy crew. On completion they returned onboard and Young Endeavour sailed and proceeded to our anchorage in Athol Bay, which affords a great view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. During the transit to the anchorage the Youthies undertook their end-of-voyage chats, facilitated by their watch leaders, to examine if they had achieved everything in their full-value contracts they had completed at the start of the voyage. After the traditional last voyage dinner of home made pizzas, Sara gave the Youthies the Harbour Furl brief, who then donned their climbing harnesses and laid aloft to undertake the ‘Harbour Furl’ of the square sails to make them look immaculate for our ceremonial arrival at the end of the voyage tomorrow. Once that was completed, the youth crew then finished off their final outstanding Command Day tasks, which were planned for the last night onboard. These included the Voyage Slide Show compiled of photos taken by everyone. This was excellent and provided a touching reminder of what we had experienced and the beautiful coastlines and islands that we had visited during the voyage. The final activity of the day was the end-of-voyage administration, which for the youth crew included a feedback questionnaire asking for feedback on their experience of the voyage, as well as a letter for each crew member to write to themselves on their experiences during the voyage, which the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme will post to the youth crew in 6 months time. The aim of this is to help reinforce what the youth crew have learned about leadership, teamwork and about themselves from the experience of the voyage. Once these were completed the crew were encouraged to go to bed. The Ship will remain in Athol Bay overnight and weigh anchor and sail in the morning at 0900 and undertake the transit to HMAS Waterhen, where family and friends will meet the Ship on arrival at 1000. Until you hear from me tomorrow for the final instalment of Voyage 04/24. Yours aye, Captain Mike

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Day 9 – Command Day Part 2

Ahoy from Sydney! For today’s Captain’s Log: the Youthies took over and completed several tasks including singing the national anthem in three different tunes as well as giving salty sea facts to start the day in a nautical way. We finally made it! After a long and weary effort of the command team and watches, we were able to fully sail into Sydney Harbour. At approximately 11:50 we anchored in Hunters Bay. To celebrate we had a groovtastic disco in the 12 berth due to excessive rainfall but the youthies made it work, having a blast dancing to Billie Jean. Afterwards, the youthies as well as the staff reflected on our efforts during command day, following the handover of the ship to the Staffies, where we highlighted what we did well, what we could improve on and what lessons we can take back to our normal lives, of which there are many. Continuing on from the previous log, with command day still ongoing. We encountered multiple problems. One of which being that mother nature didn’t bless us and gave us little to no wind to work with. However with the efforts of the Youthies we were able to successfully gather up to 8 knots of speed after a 4am tack in which the youthies persevered despite a lack of sleep enabling us to make our way into Sydney. Before our reflection the Youthies finished their day strong with a ‘Happy Hour’ cleaning session and one final dance. The afternoon was spent relaxing and recharging from ‘Command Day’, going aloft and furling the square sails. For dinner, Ash prepared a barbecue with steak, sausages, chicken kebabs with buns and an assortment of salads with a delicious chocolate cake for dessert. The Youthies are looking forward to the Community Day Sail tomorrow which will be a great opportunity to give back to Australia and put our sailing knowledge to the test. We have learned many lessons during ‘Command Day’, we pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone and together a crew of 24 youth were able to sail a tall ship into the harbour of Sydney. Today’s score: 9 camels and a donkey (Amazing) Until next time Rock on! Tarvi, Kaeden and Matt. P.S. Happy Birthday for tomorrow little bro, love Lil xx P.S.S. Kai, sorry I didn’t do the thing for Meg. I just remembered and will do it when back.

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

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