Day 10 – Command Day Concludes

Ahoy there everyone, Welcome to day ten aboard Young Endeavour. We commenced this morning at 0700 with a song by Dougie on the flute, which was followed by another amazing breakfast put on by our amazing chefs. At this stage we had just made our way through the heads of Sydney Harbour, coming to anchor in Watsons Bay at 0730, putting us way ahead of schedule. However, it was not all smooth sailing, after setting sail yesterday at 1930 we proceeded out of Port Hacking on a search for what we hoped would be stronger sea breezes. Sadly the winds did not change and during the night they fluctuated between 6-8 Knots, leaving us with a boat speed of approximately one third of the wind speed with all sails set. We persevered and continued trying new strategies until we had shown, at approximately 2130, that we would need additional engine power to maintain a speed of above 3 Knots which would allow us to tack and manoeuvre the ship if required. During this time we were pushed further south putting all our newly learnt skills to the test, our navigator and watch officers should be commended on their navigation skills. After receiving additional power we continued to push south east until we were in such a position that we could turn and head north to the heads of Sydney Harbour. During this period we had one 5 person watch awake at a time, making it particularly important for us to be clear when we decided to wear the ship to allow us to change course as we utilised the changeover of watches when there were two watch teams on the deck at once. During this time our newly learnt road rules were also put to the test and passed as we came across; fishing vessels, markers and merchant ships. At anchor we went about continuing on with our list of 22 challenging tasks. Some were one off tasks and others were tasks that were continuing over the whole 24 hours. I am pleased to say all tasks have been completed at the hand over of the ship at 1300 today, with the exception of two which are to be presented and judged tomorrow night. Some of the more notable ones were the brief this morning where Rhys, playing Nanna, had the challenging task of getting Leon to smile, his little rhythm did the trick and went like this, ‘We nearly had a crash, we nearly had a crash. But no we didn’t, yay yay yay yay.’ (Repeated 4 times with actions to the tune of the chicken dance). The chefs completed there task by creating a Christmas themed lunch with was again above anyone’s expectations, we also sent our Beach Attack Team (BAT) to shore to round up some locals at a high point, the Gap, to raise the Australian Flag and sing the national Anthem. After the hand over we went for our first swim of the voyage, the rope swing was a real hit especially after Leon’s demonstrational back flip. This was followed by a barbeque dinner cooked on the main deck and then the Young Endeavour got Talent performances. It was judged a four way tie between the staff and the three watches. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate every member of the youth crew on our remarkable journey on one of the Young Endeavours longer voyages. The camaraderie, team work and friendship that has been shown during this short time with everyone onboard is truly a representation of the quality of the Young Endeavour Youth Program and its staff. Youth Crew Captain James