CORAL SEA
Ahoy there everyone, Welcome to day three on our adventure under sail. The ship continued sailing along handsomely at five knots overnight beating south in the Coral Sea outside the Great Barrier Reef under all plain sail. Wind conditions consisting of a 15 knot sou easterly enabled good sailing to be achieved though the half metre swell continued to challenge members of the Youth Crew.With the rising of the sun, an epic wakey wakey song from white watch, all hands conducted a tack to manoeuvre clear of the outer fringing reefs before breakfast enticed the Youth Crew down below with varying levels of consumption. After a quick set of cleaning stations (happy hour) the Youth Crew continued with deck and sail consolidation until lunch.After lunch, the inaugural round of rope races was conducted. This activity enabled the Youth Crew to challenge each other in a non-competitive activity by remembering and identifying different items of safety equipment located around the upper decks. On completion the Youth Crew were enthralled by the Navigator’s lesson on charting the ships position by using merely the deck and a piece of chalk to explain the earth was not flat as he had drawn on the deck, but round! During this presentation we had also escaped the sight of land and were finally surrounded by an empty horizon.After a short break Watch Officer Matt presented an intriguing maritime Rules of the Road lecture, an important component of safely navigating the ship to avoid colliding with other vessels or running aground by correctly identifying various lights, shapes and navigation markers. The watches were then back on deck for the remainder of the afternoon progressing with climbing aloft competencies and sail handling.Just prior to a stunning sunset, the ship was tacked again in order to commence heading sou’ west back towards the coast for tomorrow’s scheduled anchorage. With dinner completed each watch has settled into their second night watches at sea ensuring the safety of the ship overnight as the we re-enter the Inner Great Barrier Reef motor sailing on a close reach port tack.Until tomorrow evening, take care.Yours AyeCaptain Damien
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
2100 at sea - weather clear skies, swell SE 0.5 metre, wind SE 15 knots, temperature 24 degrees, barometer 1016 hpa
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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