Smooth Sailing

Hello again everyone,Great sailing overnight, albeit a little slow. As the sun rose the wind eased a little more and we had to hoist the \’iron topsail\’ (start the engines) and do some motor sailing so we could continue to make good ground to the south and position ourselves well ahead of the expected cold front which will bring stronger winds (good) and larger seas and swell (not as good). The effects of a trough that crossed WA overnight have passed and the wind has just changed direction in our favour and shortly I expect to be back under sail.This morning at morning brief we had our first appearance of Nanna (Josh the engineer) who revealed what clothes and goodies we had left out of our lockers – laugh a minute as Nanna pulled out our pajamas, hats, cameras and other stuff from her bag that we hadn\’t been tidy with. A favour from Nanna cleaning up after us deserved a favour in return so we all had the opportunity to sing to her down on deck \’crab and sea shells\’ and other favourites – High Five eat your heart out!The Youth Crew spent the day learning some sail theory and were introduced to the \’art\’ of navigation. We ran our first session of rope races where one member from each watch (Red, White and Blue) is nominated in-turn to point out a designated item. The winning watch gets a prize at the end of the Voyage … Red Watch have been off to a good start. Although it wasn\’t all work today. Opportunity to relax on deck with James playing some tunes on the guitar or sit out on the bow sprit at the front of the Ship and watch the ocean and dream …Anyways, back to reality and the need to keep watches with the Youth Crew helming, keeping lookout and doing rounds of the ship to make sure all is well. There is always the need to tend to our sails – constant trimming, setting and furling, and adjusting the yards.Today also marked the start of the Youth Crew helping out in the galley – we enjoyed great meals thanks to Ebony, Olivia and Maddie. Looking forward to more of that but please don\’t tell my wife Louise as I am supposed to be on a strict diet!We are currently half way down the coast between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin abeam the fantastic town of Margaret River – arguably one of the best wine regions in Australia and the world! As I speak the sun is setting and all of a sudden I hear the engines return to idle and lots of excited yelling from the bridge – Taffy our Bosun has been trolling a fishing line and we have hooked on! A beautiful 5 kg Bonito was successfully retrieved – not that we need more food! We are expecting to pass Cape Leeuwin, the most south west point of mainland Australia at about 11:00pm tonight.My sage words of advice to the Youth Crew at our morning brief were in relation to the need for respect for each other and the Ship. I normally support such thoughts with a quote and this morning it was a fairly simple and short piece … \’always be nice to your Mum\’ – something I have grown to appreciate much more … hi Mum up in Brisbane and trust the storms haven\’t been too bad!Until tomorrow,Dave J (Yak)Voyage Captain