Day 1 – Welcome Aboard, Birthday Cake and Fireworks!

Ahoy shipmates…Welcome to our third voyage for 2021…the comeback continues! If the first two voyages are anything to go by, it should be a cracker! The weather forecast looks good (ie not much rain), and we have 18 enthusiastic young Australians embarked for the adventure of a lifetime (I may be a bit biased). They joined us at HMAS Waterhen at 1500 today, and once all had been safely escorted onboard and stowed their gear, we gathered at midships for the formal welcome and introductions. At 1545 we departed our berth and made our way under the harbour bridge (never gets old) to our overnight anchorage in Double Bay (speccy views of the city, opera house and bridge). Gotta say though…being the Easter long weekend, the harbour was very busy! Once at anchor the youth crew got to know a bit about each other via ice-breakers, and the ship through tours guided by their watch leaders. After a delicious dinner, the first of many I’m certain, we all gathered once again at midships for briefs from the engineer (fixer of broken stuff), the sailmaster (program director and some do’s and dont’s), and myself (motivation and encouragement to seize every opportunity…leaving in 10 days with no regrets). Oh, and I forgot to mention…in between briefs we were treated to some birthday cake…happy birthday to Cameron (youth crew) and Jerome (staff crew)! And right on cue, as we were enjoying the cake, fireworks exploded over circular quay…couldn’t have timed it better. Our resident safety experts then gave a detailed brief on the various safety equipment around the ship, and as I write each watch is now conducting an introduction to deck safety and line handling, as well as completing their ‘full value contracts’, outlining their hopes and fears for the voyage (seasickness always gets a mention). We hope to have them in their racks by 1000…day two is always a big day…their heads may explode from the information overload, necessary if they want to take Command in eight days time! We plan on departing Sydney Harbour around mid afternoon tomorrow and will chase the wind, although from the looks of the forecast, won’t be much around for a few days…some challenging light airs sailing is on the cards. That’s about it for now…from tomorrow I will enlist the assistance of the youth crew to write the log so you can get to hear their version of events. Until tomorrow, fair winds, Captain Kenny.
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Wind: NE at 4 knots Weather: Fine Sea: Calm Location: At anchor Double Bay
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Ahoy followers of our Young Endeavour journey! Command Day. We made it.
The beautiful weather at our anchor point at Jervis Bay made for a spectacular day under the command of our fellow Youth Crew! A morning stretch and some wise words from the Ship Crew gave Captain Waz and the team a step in the right direction.
With the new watches all set and ready to go, Captain’s Setting and Furling gave all our youthies the chance to prove their abilities on the high seas. Strong performances from all three watches; Sharkies, Chompers and Narwhals!!
Morning brief gave the Sailmaster a chance to give us the daily orders and help get everyone on the same page. With the staff crew getting ready for a holiday and giving us the ship, floral shirts and party music filled the deck and, with some final preparations, the ship was ours.
The Captain was given a small but very significant envelope that contained the essential, non-essential and completely optional tasks to be done over the course of the next 24 hours. 2 tacks were to be made at a minimum before leaving the bay and safety checks were the essential tasks to start our journey. However.
More amusing, optional tasks allowed some of our youthies to become part of the “Beach Assault Team” while others were put to the task of making a slideshow of the voyage, tying all the knots on the list, etc. These were some activities that bided the time for our incredible navigator - Ruscoe to set out a plan and work together with the Sailmaster - Hugh to create a sail plan.
Tacking stations were the focus for our late afternoon, preparing to weigh anchor and leave such a beautiful bay, for our last stretch of this incredible voyage.
Happy Birthday to the Capitan, Warwick, who turned 24 today! The wonderful MasterChef’s created a “cherry ripe” cake out of rice crispies, coconut, chocolate, and love. With a beautiful ceremony to end our day.
Sailing into the night leaves us the ability to see the lights from our destination. Sydney, here we come!
Wish us luck! From Nat and Tom!!

ARRRGH, ahoy there from the spectacular Jervis Bay! We’ve all been taken A-back by the crystal clear blue waters and snow white sands.
After a well deserved sleep in these sheltered waters which was a refreshing change to clinging to our bunk racks for dear life for the past few days, the ship rose to another banger of a morale tune “sung” by Blue Watch. Brekkie was fun after the early morning activity to get us all up and moving. We held another round of competitive not-competitive rope races which culminated in smashed eggs on deck and the mummification of said egg smashers.
Roast lamb for lunch was prepped by the staffies in the absence of our culinary wizard Steve. Once cleaned up, we took the RHIB’s across to Captains Beach bordering HMAS Creswell which was a mind-blowingly beautiful little spot. Pretty much everyone had a dip in the drink and a roll in the sand and played some creative beach games run by our Suitability legends, Speedy Sam and Eggs.
A few hours at the beach made everyone ready to head back home and attack a teak deck barbeque, devouring cheese platters, steaks, sangas, and salads. With our full stomachs, us youthies initiated the highly anticipated elections for our command day roles. Which will commence sometime around midday tomorrow. We held a vote for each available role that all willing youthies put themselves forward for.
The following roles were voted as follows: Captain – Warwick, Sailmaster – Hugh, Navigator – Ruscoe, Officer of the Watch – Dan, Watch Leader – Nick, Ben, Bridget, Master chef – Emily, Mackenzie, Alyshia
We were greeted after our elections by a low flying anti-submarine MH60-Romeo Helicopter which did a cool fly around our ship. *Thanks Squizz!!* And then watched an amazing film about the rounding of Cape Horn back in 1929 on a 7 story tall sail ship.
Signing off from our anchor watch, Ben and Giles.
“I believe that positive energy and optimism help us to take up any challenge in life and to succeed in even the most difficult tasks. I also believe that positive energy is contagious: We can transmit it to others”
