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Captain's Log
V21/25, Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
26 December 2025
Day 1 – V21/25, Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race!
Ahoy readers of this fine journal!! This voyage will be a little bit different for a number of reasons. We are sailing with 24 returning Youth Crew members – known as “The Crew”. We are sailing with the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Fleet from Boxing Day to New Years Eve and to say we are thrilled would be an understatement.
There is some discussion amongst the Ship Crew whether or not this is the end of our 2025 Voyage Program or the beginning of our 2026 Summer Sailing Season! To my mind this is our 21st Voyage this year and marks the end of a sensational 12 months where we have delivered an exceptional Youth Development Program to nearly 400 Young Australians as we literally circumnavigated this amazing Country.
Crew for the Sydney to Hobart include; Captain Leups, Sailmaster Sarah, Officer of the Watch Emma, Watchleaders; Chris, Simon and Kyle, Chefo Steve (AKA Big Sauce – out for his final voyage with us!), Engineers; Dan and Sam and Medical Officer; Chris.
This voyage promises to be a real high seas adventure and one that we will look back on with pride. Follow us on Marine Traffic and wish us well as we brave the 25kn winds and 3m seas for the first couple of days!
Captain Leups Out +
Latitude/Longitude:
33 49.900 S / 151 15.819 E
Conditions:
Weather: Overcast Wind: 15-20kn S-SE Temp: 22C
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V20/25
16 December 2025
Day 09 – V20/25, Sydney -Sydney
Good evening friends, families and loved ones, past, present and potentially future STS Young Endeavour crew!!! Today was a huge day. Overnight our Youth gave absolutely everything they had to navigate this ship from Broken Bay to Sydney Harbour (with a complex tacking plan!) for their Command Day and I am pleased to report we made it!
Day 9 of Voyage 20/25 was sensational. The dawn broke in a grey sky with light 10kn South-Easterly winds giving us just enough drive to achieve the arrival time of 0700L at Line Zulu demarking the entrance to Sydney Harbour. Our elected Command Day crew were incredibly well supported by the rest of the youth crew and their performance was inspiring.
Navigator Matt drove the ship into harbour and berthed on the northern arm of HMAS Waterhen. In the previous 24 hours the ship had used 63% of its water overnight. An amount far too great to organically re-make using the Reverse Osmosis units. The precise cause of the excessive water use is thought to be multiple Hollywood showers and some poor fresh water discipline compounded by flow-restrictors in the pipework not doing their job! No problem too great for the crew of STS YE though. We berthed, plugged in the 3 1/4 hose and within a few hours Engineer Dan had us back up at 100%.
While we refilled the freshwater tanks the youth crew rested. I had taken back the ship and the sense of relief from the crew was palpable. Chefo Kingy served up some sensational duck breasts and salads to reinvigorate the crew and we reset ourselves for the afternoon.
HMAS Diamantina graciously offered to provide the crew with a ship tour and a discussion around Mine Warfare and what life is like on a Navy Ship. Thank you to the crew for facilitating this we are very appreciative!! On return to STS YE we focussed on our Command Day Debrief discussions. These are key to drawing life lessons from this unique experience and the crew were characteristically honest, open and engaged. Excellent chat lead to some profound reflection and we all walked away a little bit wiser. Perhaps a little bit more resilient, confident, aware of our own limits and certainly with a whole lot of new friends for life having had that shared experience.
Tonight we harbour furl our square sails and clean up the upper decks after 9 days at sea. We are ready to receive our Community Day Sail guests tomorrow and showcase this beautiful ship and talk about our adventures.
The crew will go to bed tonight feeling fulfilled, proud and hopefully satisfied with all of their efforts. All we asked was they give everything that have and that they did. Respect!
Youthies will round out the Captains Log tomorrow night - check in tomorrow to read all about it!
Captain Leups Out +
V20/25
15 December 2025
Day 08 – V20/25, Sydney -Sydney
Ahoy there land lovers!
Our youthies have officially become salty sea dogs taking over the ship for the long-awaited command day. Votes have been tallied and results are in… Drum roll please…
Captain – Mitchell
Sail Master – Hamish
Officer of Watch – Mac
Navigation – Noah
Watch Leaders – Milly, Ed, Soren
Chefs – Maddy, Erin, Jade
To prepare the youthies for the day ahead, we had a movie night, featuring “Around Cape Horn” to get everyone inspired for the day to come. We settled into our anchor watches feeling mixed feelings of nervousness, excitement and hope.
The morning started with music playing through the pipes and Kingy’s famously loved breakfast as the youthies prepared for Captains briefings and the intense 24 hours ahead. Officially taking over the ship at 1000 as staffies celebrated on the deck with a musical number and “holiday” clothing.
Youthies gathered on the deck to listen to our new Sail Master Hamish and Captain Mitchell diving straight into the tasks and goals as hand. 6 youthies paddled the dingy to the neighbouring beach in search for the missing navigational instructions. Once our navigation packet was received, our Navigation Officer Noah and Officer of Watch Mac got to work determining our route to Sydney. Whilst the crew got started on the deck mural for the staffies.
With our bellies full and faces slightly burned from the previous beach day, we all went aloft before practicing our tacking lines. At 1600 we weighed anchor, youthies covered the deck heaving in the sheets.
Now we all pull in for the night to come and the learnings that come with and experience of this nature and intensity level.
Lots of Love, Charlotte and Mitchell
V20/25
14 December 2025
Day 07 – V20/25, Sydney -Sydney
Last night came with some high stakes as all three watches completed their ‘Bear-EX’s’. Multiple activities were completed such as climbing the wildly swaying mast’s, setting and furling the storm sails and all of this while under time pressure.
After all of this was over, all the watches having successfully completed their challenges during the cold and rainy hours of the night, started the morning with some more tacking practice to truly engrave the skills we have learned over the last couple of days.
Today might have arguably been the best day yet! While we mightn’t have seen juvenile dolphins, but there wasn’t a single drop of rain, the seas shimmered with sunlight, and we spent a day at a beautiful, secluded beach (Hungry Beach, Broken Bay). We tanned, played beach games, swam in the fresh water, and bonded even more. Can this trip get any better?!
As we are typing this log out to all of you beautiful readers, we’re all deciding what roles we would like to take on command day. A 24-hour period where 24 youthies take control of the vessel we have called home and take us back to Sydney… Hopefully you’ll hear from us again! Our roles can vary from Captain to Sail master, Navigators to Chefs and Watch Officers to General Crew. Despite having massive shoes to fill, we’re sure we can push ourselves and be successful in this stage of the journey.
With great appreciation to all of the staffies supporting us during these past 6 days, and now 7, we are confident that we have been taught well and can make them proud yet again after all of their dedication and commitment to us.
Lots of love,
Erin, Mitch, Noah – writing to you from the shimmering waters of Hungry Beach, Broken Bay
