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Completely Knackered
Our final night at sea for this Voyage approaches as the sun sets. It’s been a long and memorable one and the YC have been great shipmates and true Tall Ship sailors. We’ve had our ups and downs but we have triumphed overall because we have worked as a team. Tonight we sail through Dundas and Clarence Straits arriving in Darwin Harbour, tomorrow, Wednesday, for our last night at anchor.The YC Captain and XO (Adam and Ange) write about the two days the YC commanded Young Endeavour:Youth crew entry by Angela Hancock, 19 from Cronulla NSW and Adam Woolley, 21 from Launceston Tassie.The Youth crew election held on Friday the 15th of June was the beginning of the preparation process for command day on Voyage 10 2001. There were various roles that needed to be filled during the upcoming days, ranging from captain to chefs (who cook green mashed potatoes) to salty sea princesses.After the elections came the many cramming sessions in order to gain as much knowledge as possible to successfully take full command of the ship. We were given an objective to sail from anchorage off North Goulburn Island at 1600 Sat 16 June and sail south east of Guluwuru Island and pass through the hole-in-the-wall on a south easterly heading. From there we had to proceed to anchorage at Black Point, Port Essington by 1000 Monday 18 June.This was an extremely hard mission and was going to take an enormous amount of strength, courage and teamwork to make it through, and in the initial stages we may have under estimated how hard this was really going to be.As 1600 Saturday approached everyone started to get a little more excited as the realisation set in that a group of people who were total strangers with no sailing knowledge or experience 13 days ago were about to embark on a voyage that none of us are ever likely to forget.After a successful sail from anchorage we proceeded along a course set by our wonderful naviguesser. Our first tack occurred in the early hours of the morning setting us on course for our major challenge-the one-mile wide hole-in-the-wall passage. Smooth sailing soon turned into a mental and physical battle between us and unfavourable wind direction and conditions.Eight tacks and two wears later we finally conquered it – even though the islands may not have actually been there. The second day wasn’t as physically exhausting, however the mental and emotional strain didn’t relent. On arrival at Black Point we sent out a beach assault team to row ashore and gather as many locals as they could to sing the national anthem to claim a piece of land for the youth of Australia. (This was a little harder than expected as the total population of the area was about 15.)It was a huge team effort to conquer our command day and we did it in style – or at least we think we did. We were all completely knackered by the end but will all go away with great satisfaction and different experiences.Ange-having the time of my life. I’ll never forget this trip and all I’ve gained from it. There are so many cool people here and I’m just letting everyone at home know that I’ll be partying in Darwin for another couple of days yet. See you all soon, miss you all, love always to the Fam and friends.Stay tunedAndrew Davis
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
CO's Log 19 Jun 01Current situation at 1800: At sea in Dundas Strait. Temp 28C, wind sou'sou'east at 10 knots.
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Hi Everyone, Welcome to Day 5 of our voyage. Overnight and during the early hours of this morning we continued to enjoy a great sail around the southern Tasmanian coast with all of the watches kept busy with setting and furling sails and doing some practical navigation. By sunrise we were located just to the south of Bruny Island now just sailing under fore & aft sail and hoping that the day would get warmer, which sadly it didn’t. But the cold and a little rain hasn’t dampened our spirits and we have still managed to fit in a lot of great activities today and our young mariners continue to impress with their endless energy and motivation. That’s enough from me I will now handover to Riley and Jack who have done a great job of writing tonight’s Log. Until tomorrow, take care. Captain GavV03/23 – DAY 5
This morning the youth crew of the STS Young Endeavour woke to the frightening sound of red watch singing a parody of Riptide by Vance Joy over the ships intercom. This was then followed by the message that blue watch, the watch that was on guts the night before, could have a well-deserved sleep in. While members from blue watch went back to sleep the rest of the crew made their way down to the galley to enjoy another one of Haydos fantastic meals. After everyone had had breakfast the morning brief was given at 0900 which involved informing the youthies of the day ahead and a very educational story by Matty on the origins of the nautical term “two six heave”. After the morning brief the crew went below decks for Chucky’s favourite part of the day: Happy Hour! (Also known as cleaning the ship hour). In the afternoon the three watches conducted rotational tacking stations. This involved the watches rotating through the positions that the other watches fill when we tack which helped the crew get a better idea on what happens when we tack. Captain Gav came up on deck to give us a crash course about sailing theory and the ships history. This was very interesting and gave the youth crew a helpful insight into why different sails are used depending on different wind conditions. Round 3 of the famous Rope races were then commenced at noon with a twist of the round being worth double points. This highly non-competitive competition ended with Blue and Red watch drawing making it a close race for the rest of the trip The biggest highlight of most people’s day was sailing through the straight between Tasman Island and Cape Pillar in the afternoon. We all gathered at the bow of the ship as we gazed upon the spectacular columnar basalt edged cliffs rose up on either side of the narrow passageway. We had to furl all the sails, which involved sending two youth crew members up the main mast in rough swells and high winds to gasket the sail. Engines where turned on for the first time that day so we could safely pass the straight. The effort was truly worth it as we passed the resident seal colony and schools of dolphins. One of the greatest things about the STS Young Endeavour is even though the ship may sway from side to side and youth crew struggle to walk straight without getting knocked into a wall; the ships Chef continues to work hard and impress us with meals made from a kitchen which is smaller than the size of most people’s laundry room. It continues to amaze me how he keeps this quality in these rocky conditions. Not enough praise can be given to the hard work this man puts in keeping everyone happy. Go Haydo!Hi mum and dad I’m still alive, somehow we are already halfway through. See you in six days. Jack. You probably won’t see this but love you to the moon and back mum and dad. Riley. Until next time… Youthies Jack & Riley
