Cruising the Gulf

Good Evening Readers,Another full on day completed in Young Endeavour as we continue the transit of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Regretably the wind deserted us late this afternoon and we are now motoring along under the power of the iron topsail. If there is no improvement overnight we may have to pay hommage to the Wind Gods tomorrow. Stay tunned. Below is an epistle submitted by Ellie and she has said it all.Happy birthday to my brother Michael.That’s all from me tonight.yours ayeAndrew ‘Gunna’ RourkeCommanding OfficerBy EllieAhoy there me mateys! Tis Capt’n Hells Bells here (a.k.a Yellow Bellied Ellie) coming to you live on the evening of our eighth day aboard Young Endeavour. For me, today began at 0345… Surprisingly this hour of the morning is no longer a stranger to me. I proceeded to the bridge, gloves and harness in hand, despite my weary and blinky expression I was nevertheless eager to spend four hours on watch duties with who can only be described as my new found family onboard Young Endeavour.I won’t entertain you with a blow by blow account of the entire day’s proceedings, as it will always be more fun to tell our loved ones in person about all the amazing things we are doing and seeing.I will, however, embellish a few details. For instance, some dolphins were just spotted swimming off our starboard bow and I just finished what can only be described as a five star meal of scotch fillet with pepper sauce, with a side of lamb cutlets, (See, Mum?! They’re taking great care of me!) Now that’s all within the last 10 minutesï¿½ï¿½_ you couldn’t imagine the amount of fun and excitement we’ve crammed into these last eight days!To pick one particular highlight, a few nights ago at around 2240 I witnessed an awe inspiring moon rising over a dark horizon, with a neon orange moon surrounded by a deep purple glow. Pretty nice to imagine, right? Now imagine seeing this while clinging to a 35 metre main mast with your left hand and foot, while your other leg wrapped itself around the sail that you were tying down with your right hand. In this strange new world I’ve found myself in, that’s exactly what I was doing on Tuesday night, and even stranger ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ that’s all in a night’s work! Nowhere else do you get to make these kinds of memories, (nor these kinds of bruises).Now to more recent events, we have been at sea all day, crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is truly magical to stand on the bridge and turn a full circle and see nothing but an uninterrupted sky and water horizon in every direction. The only sign of external human life today has been a low flying plane this afternoon that flew over to snap some photos of our majestic vessel, and its hot-shot crew. It’s been a bit of a rocky day, larger swells than we have so far been used to, making everyday activities like showering and eating all the more eventful. But the weather has been consistently phenomenal, seeing to a record breaking amount of sunscreen application and water consumption, but we wouldn’t wish it any other way. Today we could finally say that we’ve known our new friends for over one week. It is also the day that leaves us with eleven days left on our journey (the normal length of a standard Young Endeavour voyage). Once we realised this, many of the youth crew were shocked to realise that with so much time left, so many more boundaries would be crossed, and goals achieved. At this rate, I doubt I would now recognise the people we will have become by the time we reach Darwin.Stay tuned, loved onesï¿½ï¿½_ there are many more salty tales to come. Morale is high, and boredom is at an all-time low. We are being looked after by the greatest staff crew you could ask for, headed by the incredible Captain Gunna. However, it has to be said, that the youth crew’s favourite crew member onboard is without a doubt Chad, the greatest chef in all the seven seas who treats us everyday to the most incredible meals, that we’ve come to know as ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½Chad’s Loveï¿½ï¿½. Signing off, this has been Yellow Bellied Ellie here, sitting in my happy pants and obeying all the rules.

Latitude/Longitude:

11Â° 20' South / 138Â° 59' East

Conditions:

Co 265, Sp 8, Wind SE 5 kts, Temp 27C

AUTHOR: Commanding Officer STS Young Endeavour

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V04/24

19 February 2024

Day 11 – Last Day of the Voyage

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

V04/24

19 February 2024

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

V04/24

19 February 2024

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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Cruising the Gulf

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