Day 10 – Final Night of Voyage

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to day 10 and the final night of our voyage. This morning the crew awoke to cold and overcast day with some passing squalls and moderate south easterly winds. Following an entertaining early morning activity of Knights, Damsels and Cavaliers the Youth Crew made their way to breakfast then morning brief
At 0820 we weighed anchor and transited the short distance around Garden Island and Fleet Base East where we berthed on schedule at 0900. Once alongside we off loaded 10 days of garbage then got the ship squared away in preparation for our Community Day Sail Guests. Regrettably the group that we had previously arranged to sail with had to cancel at the last minute so our group for today was made up of a number of Defence personnel and some Staff Crews family and friends.
By 0945 we had everyone onboard and following my welcome address and Laurenâ€™s safety brief our lines were cast off and we proceeded out into Sydney Harbour where we enjoyed a wonderful 3 hour sail around this spectacular harbour. During this sail the Youth Crew demonstrated their skills at climbing the mast, setting and furling sails and also acted as the perfect hosts serving an array of food which Chef Keely and her helpers had prepared earlier.
By 1300 we were again back alongside at Fleet Base East and once we had farewelled our guests the Youth Crew proceeded ashore with their Watch Leaders and completed end of voyage chats.
At 1600 we again departed our berth, transited the short distance across the harbour to Athol Bay where we came safely to anchor just to the south of Taronga Park Zoo at 1630. Once at anchor the Youth Crew proceeded aloft where they put a good set of harbour furls in the squares then once completed everyone mustered back on deck for a wonder pizza dinner prepared by our amazing Chef Keely with the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge as our picture perfect backdrop.
After we had cleaned up from dinner the Youth Crew completed end of voyage questionnaires then at sunset we mustered up on deck and watched a slide show of pictures taken throughout the voyage which gave us all a chance to reflect on our adventure over the past 10 day. To finish the nightâ€™s activities the Youth Crew again headed back down to the cafÃ© where they wrote letters to themselves which will be returned to them in six months time then once completed settled into their final set of anchor watches for the voyage.
Tomorrow morning, we will depart our anchorage, man the yards and berth for the final time for this voyage at Fleet Base East at 1000 where I am sure that we will be welcomed by a large number of family, friends and well wishers.

Once alongside family and friends will be invited onboard for a tour of the ship and to witness my final address and the presentation of Certificates of Achievement to all of the Youth Crew. Following this presentation we will say our final emotional farewell to the Youth Crew of Voyage 05/17 as they depart the ship.

On a personal note, I would like to thank all of the Youth Crew for the effort that you have put in throughout this voyage and for being part of our 2016/17 Circumnavigation of Australian. We sailed nearly 650nm this voyage in some extremely strong conditions and you came through it with smiles on your faces and with many stories to tell. Thank you for all your efforts in making this another successful voyage and helping us to get the ship safely home to Sydney and successfully completing our Circumnavigation of Australia.

As highlighted at the start of this voyage this was Horto our Engineerâ€™s last voyage after 30 months onboard. No one knows more than I the enormous contribution that Horto has made to the ship during his time onboard and I can honestly put my hand on my heart and say that we would not have achieved the 2015 World Voyage or this Circumnavigation of Australia without him. He has a work ethic second to none, is an amazing engineer, talented yachtsman and his sense of humour and ability to have fun kept us going during some of the toughest of times. His contribution to the Ship and the delivery of the Young Endeavour Youth Development Program is immeasurable and all of the Staff and a large number of young Australians have been honoured to sail with him. All the best Horto, you will be missed by all onboard.
This has also been my last voyage as the full time Captain of Young Endeavour. During the past 33 months I have circumnavigated the world and Australia and been given the opportunity to work with an amazing Staff Crew and a lot of wonderful young Australians. I cannot fully put into words how honoured I am to have been given the opportunities that I have but am extremely proud of the ship and it crews achievements during my time in Command and would like to thank everyone involved with Young Endeavour and the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme for their faith in me and the amazing support that I have been given as Captain of this important ship. I will now be taking a well earned break but hopefully will still return to the ship as Relief Captain whenever they need me. I handover Command of Young Endeavour to LCDR Mike Gough on Monday 13th March 2017 and leave the ship in very good hands. Carpe Diem
The Ship will now have a 3 day break in Sydney before embarking the Youth Crew for Voyage 06-17 and sailing from Sydney to Eden on the NSW South Coast.
Until next voyage, take care.
Yours Aye
Captain Gav
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didnâ€™t do than by the things you did. So cast off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. EXPLORE, DREAM, DISCOVER.
Mark Twain.

Latitude/Longitude:

33 50 S / 151 14 E

Conditions:

Currently at anchor in Athol Bay and experiencing light SE winds with passing showers and nil swell. The temperature is a cool 17 degrees.

AUTHOR: Commanding Officer STS Young Endeavour

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Newcastle

09 October 2023

Day 11 – End of Voyage 18/23

Good morning Shipmates, Sailmaster Chucky’s final Wakey Wakey song, Paper Planes by MIA, 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, 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 then straight into 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 Trev piloted the Ship from our Athol Bay anchorage, commencing the ‘victory lap’ past Fort Dennison under the Harbour Bridge, where we fired the Ship's saluting cannons, and back, with the YC still aloft, and then into Woolloomooloo Bay to our berth at the Fleet Base. We berthed at Fleet Base 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. I spoke about our adventures during the voyage and then presented the Voyage Completion certificates to the youth crew. Finally I invited Commander Gavin Dawe, RAN OAM, representing the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme, to present the Young Endeavour Award to Poppy Brown 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 V18/23 after a fantastic challenging and enjoyable voyage. Thank you for following our adventures and hope you enjoyed hearing about them. Yours, aye, Captain Mike

Newcastle

09 October 2023

Day 10 – Community Day Sail

Good evening shipmates, After a well-earned quality night’s sleep at anchor in Hunters Bay, Sail Master Chucky woke us with another of his soothing tunes to get us on deck for a quick early morning activity. While the youth crew had breakfast the staff crew weighed anchor and commenced the transit to HMAS Waterhen, at Waverton. After passing the Opera House and going under the Harbour Bridge, we berthed at the Navy base and prepared to embark our guests for the Community Day Sail. At 1000 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 of students and Staff from the Crescent School in Goulburn. We also embarked some defence staff from Project Sea 1788, ADF Careers and some Defence Graduates. 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 Goulburn special guests. They encouraged our guests to participate in setting the sails by helping to pull on the sheets. 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 youth crew got together with their watchmates and proceeded ashore at Waverton to completed their End-of-voyage reports, facilitated by their watch leaders. On completion they returned onboard, put their climbing harnesses on 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. We departed HMAS Waterhen at 1615 and proceeded to anchor in Athol Bay, just near Taronga Park Zoo. Next was our traditional voyage, last dinner onboard, homemade pizza night. Everyone had worked-up a healthy appetite from the long and very physical day, so probably ate a slice or two more than they probably needed. 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 show was skilfully compiled by Taylor Smyth. 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 which 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 0800, undertake a short harbour cruise, before berthing at the Navy Fleet Base at Woolloomooloo on Cowper Wharf Road. Family and friends who will meet the Ship on arrival can enter the Fleet Base at the gate near Harry's Cafe de Wheels. Until you hear from me tomorrow for the final instalment of Voyage 18/23. Yours aye, Captain Mike

Newcastle

09 October 2023

Day 9 – Command Day Part 2

Hello there all armchair sailors! Today brings us in to the end of our 24 hour ‘Command Day’, the period of time where the youth crew are given responsibility for the ship and are to set about completing a number of tasks while keeping the ship in running order – from the galley to the top-gallant yard. A series of anchor watches kept us safe and secure through the night with no alarm needed to be raised. Throughout their watches, youthies worked diligently on some of the more creative tasks that could be completed such as the writing of a song and a midships mural documenting our trip and brilliant staff crew. We awoke to the Final Countdown and quickly headed amidships into the cold to wake us up out of our slumber and get cracking on the final few tasks. A quick breakfast ensued (gotta keep the bellies full), and we had our morning brief on the bridge where tasks were divvied out and the mornings plan set out. With this underway it was time to get started with our biggest happy hour yet. Not only did the youthies keep to their typical routine of cleaning the café area, staff mess, and the berths, but also a big effort was made to clean above deck. Many hands make light work, and with youthies swabbing decks, power washing out the duckboards, polishing the cannons, and battling Sydney’s weather we made short work of the clean and managed to get our harnesses on for our final task; taking a picture of all youth crew strewn over the yards. Having channelled our inner spider monkeys and had the photo taken we descended, and in a quick ceremony handed the ship back over to the equally handsome (and much more capable) staff crew by 10:00. After the ceremony, we had the our final test of rope races; all for one big prize – the winners to adorn the top-gallant mast upon our return through Sydney harbour. The rope races were incredibly close, having tested our ship knowledge to steepest degree. With the final scores in, we were given one final bonus task worth up to 15 extra points… Each watch was given an egg. This egg had to have a story, a name, and by 19:00 be ready to drop from the course yard and survive. We were given a variety of odd objects (rubber gloves, vomit bags, zipties, fruit loops, and a single chamomile teabag among others) and had to use all of them to construct a creation that would help our Eggs - John Smith, Benedict, and Sumegg - survive the fall. John Smith poached it. Benedict got scrambled. But Sumegg? Sumegg survived! Eggcellent! With Sumeggs survival, the placements were now in; Blue Watch in first and to sail in on the top-gallant yard, White Watch in second and on the topsail yard, and Red Watch in third on the course yard. Heading back below we had three life lessons given to us by some wise youthies with topics such as; how to correctly eat a mandarin (one single peel!), how to buy shoes (as fussy as possible), and how to clean polish your bald ships mechanics head (by asking permission… and a little bit of elbow grease). We finished these demonstrations with a song written by the youthies that summed up our time here on the Young Endeavour before beating to quarters and getting some much needed rest. On behalf of all youth crew of voyage 18/23, we have loved every second of taking part of this opportunity and are loathe to see our time here come to a close.

Arkady Walker, Elected youthie Captain.

Thank you again for a great narrative Arkady. The weather has certainly been challenging us again today. At least the wind has stayed low in this sheltered anchorage. We are again remaining here overnight, however we sail early in the morning to HMAS Waterhen, Waverton, to pick up our Community Day Sailors. Until tomorrow. Yours Aye, Captain Mike

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Day 10 – Final Night of Voyage

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