Captain's Log

V20/25, Sydney - Sydney

13 December 2025

Day 06 – V20/25, Sydney -Sydney

Ahoy there landlubbers and armchair readers! Our crew of Voyage 20/25 have had another huge 24 hours leaving nothing in the tank to write the Captains Log tonight. I suppose I’ll do the heavy lifting and share our adventures with you while they are up the yards and setting and furling sails on the deck.

We started Day Six at anchor in stunning Fingal Bay with a wakey wakey song and an early morning walk around the upper decks. Kingy our chefo set up a BBQ on the teak deck and served up delicious bacon and egg rolls (fresh baked) to start the day right!

We are well into the hard skills development phase of our journey now and our Officer of the Watch, Jack and I delivered some high power briefs on Rules of the Road and Sail Theory. Our crew were clutched right in and asking lots of insightful questions that demonstrated they were really learning about our ship and how she sails.

After lunch and a snappy round of rope races we weighed anchor and set sail for the deep blue. See you next year Port Stephens – we will be back! We rolled straight into demonstrational tacks which involves a walkthrough of the sequence of a tack, a discussion around how we manipulate the rudder and sail plan to successfully drive ships head through the wind. After four tacks the crew had finished with their training and we settled into our overnight sail plan.

Destination – Hungry Breach, Broken Bay! Heading South and one step closer to home. Hungry Beach is the perfect place to stage our Command Day elections and have a teak deck BBQ at sunset.

All crew are in high spirits and really enjoying the voyage.

Watch this space for a return of our Youth Crew authors tomorrow night.

Captain Leups Out +

Latitude/Longitude:

32 56.316 S / 152 06.310 E

Conditions:

Weather: Overcast Wind: 10kn NE Temp: 26C

AUTHOR: Andrew Leupen

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V20/25

13 December 2025

Day 05 – V20/25, Sydney -Sydney

Ahoy their mate, the young endeavour has had a swashbuckling last 24 hours ranging from torrential rain to continuous zig zag steering through the night and a lot of tacking but yet the crew and youthies are loving every second! Shaken up at 2000 and powering through until 0800, the youthies watches were done in precise fashion, with a lot of heaving. Kingy cooked up an amazing breakfast to fuel the adventurous minds aboard ship and let’s just say there weren’t many leftovers. Getting further into the week the youthies have left the ‘crisis faze’ and have picked up energy in everything they do. We have been increasing the engagement in activities (disregarding there two balls lost overboard), games, moral and confidence in sailing exercises. The notorious salty provided us with more of his enticing old timey sea tales and Sarah planned a fun engaging day for us all! Tacking stations are an entire ship revolution requiring a strong foundation of teamwork, knowledge, communication, and leadership. The youthies split into their allocated watches and completed their individual sail tasks then they all hopped on the Jib and heaved as a 24 person unit to fully change the ships sails to adjust to the changing winds. After zig zagging and tacking continuously The Young Endeavor finally anchored at the lovely Fingal Bay at Port Stephans around 1400. The crew jumped offshore and continued their adventure now on land . For some it was a bit of a shock going from sea to land as we have be rocking every day. Then the Youthies climbed 3km to the Fingal Bay lighthouse listening to Matts speaker singing along to his ‘awesome’ choice of music. The Youthies were eager to swim at the beach even when the heavy rain came in, they made the best of the situation however instead of sitting on shore in the rain shivering they laughed and played in the waves until they could be collected and brought back ashore. Safe to say all our of clothes may be wet, but our spirits are still high. Excited for tomorrow, Milly, Penelope and Taylor.

V20/25

11 December 2025

Day 04 – V20/25, Sydney -Sydney

Ahoy shipmates. Our Youth Crew have had a huge day and just fallen out from Tacking Stations. Day Four saw us wake up nice and early whilst at anchor in the picturesque Salamander Bay, Port Stephens. About 4 nautical miles inside of the heads and across some relatively shallow sandy bars it is only possible to get in and out of here with the right tides, fortunately we had those over the last 24 hours. Youth Crew held anchor watches overnight and continued to learn about their ship with engine rounds, navigation fixing techniques and just getting to know each other with some chat during the silent hours. At 0630 we woke up and worked through an early morning activity as the sun rose in the background. Kingy prepared a massive cooked breakfast with some delicious French Toast on the side. After our morning brief we thoroughly cleaned the ship during Happy Hour and then it was time to run through some presentations. While Navigator Matt enlightened us with some navigation theory, Captain Leups hosted two of the Port Stephens Yacht Club officials onboard; Margeax and Michael were welcomed for a tour and for a chat to the Youth Crew about their adventure to date. Sharing our beautiful ship with like-minded mariners around the country is something that we love to do - thanks for coming onboard! After lunch we weighed anchor and pointed the bows for sea. With favourable winds we sailed out of Port Stephens under a press of fore and afts and with the Topsail braced sharply to port. Hopefully the residents of Nelson Bay enjoyed the sight of the ship majestically proceeding out to sea under sail. Once clear of the islands the ship was closed up to Tacking Stations and we introduced our crew to the concept of a Tack and of the importance for everyone to be ready to get up and respond should we need to. The team were great and we pirouetted this big ship across the deep blue until it was time for dinner. We are now settling down into sea watches overnight with a course broadly set for Seal Rocks. By morning though we will be back in the vicinity of Final Bay where we will seek shelter from the forecast Northerlies overnight. All Crew are well and having a great time. Tomorrow will be another huge day as we continue to build skills and drills in our team! Captain Leups Out +

V20/25

10 December 2025

Day 03 – V20/25, Sydney -Sydney

Hello friends! The ship sailed north overnight with beautiful fair winds and a following sea. The youthies were introduced to a little bit of wave action and immediately started learning about seasickness and how to still make the most of the evening watches. Visiting dolphins helped us as they escorted us along the way. The Youth Crew helped each other work through the seas with setting and furling sails applying skills our watch leaders have been teaching us throughout the day. In the morning we also did a drill on how to save someone should they fall over board. We had a lovely volunteer named Oscar he has a bright orange fluoro skin with a face that always seems to stay the same! The dummy was thrown overboard and youthies and staffies stayed clam to turn the boat around to safely retrieve Oscar. This experience showed us youthies how important training is for these high stress situations. When everybody was in place Navigator Jack jumped into action swimming away from the ship with his life jacket and equipment to retrieve Oscar. Teamwork shone through this drill and it was very rewarding. Kingy served up a feast with Carbonara and Chicken Schnitties for lunch, I must say the food here is AMAZING!! Swell went down as we entered Port Stephens and anchored in Salamander Bay. As the swell settled down so too did the youthies stomachs. The staff showed newbie Ben how to drive the RHIB when we anchored, and we got ready for our first swim on the Young Endeavour. The rope swing was out and most youthies launched into blue sky often finding their faces first with the water!! At the end we all had big similes and laughs and keen to do it again. Dinner is now done with Salmon and Veges or Chicken Korma, we are up on deck about to start a 3 way chat game to get to know our shipmates better!! Goodnight and thankyou from Milli!

THE VOYAGE

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Day 06 – V20/25, Sydney -Sydney

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