Day 10 – Gladstone, Rain and the Final Farewell.

Ahoy shipmates…welcome to Gladstone. After a restful, if windy, night at anchor, a grey and cool morning greeted the youth crew as they arose for their penultimate day on Young Endeavour. After a quick breakfast and morning brief, where Salty regaled us with the origins of 2-6-heave, a thorough happy hour, both above and below decks, ensured the ship was tidy for our arrival in Gladstone. At 0930 we weighed anchor and made our way into Gladstone Marina…a challenging alongside due to the blustery conditions. Good news is…we made it, arriving alongside at 1100. Further chores followed…out gash (rubbish), rig the awning (rain) and lunch were the order of the day. Just after 1300 we welcomed our community day sail guests…smaller in number due to the inclement weather, with the youth acting as hosts, giving tours of the ship, demonstrating their ship’s knowledge with the final round of rope races (White Watch…winners!), and generally regaling our guests with their exploits over the past 10 days. Once our visitors had departed the youth crew went ashore with their watch leaders for end of voyage talks (debrief) and the obligatory coffees. Their return saw them lay aloft to harbour furl sails in light rain, after which the traditional last night pizzas were enjoyed by all. The highlight of the evening though proved to be the ships operatic department performances, with staffies presenting a different take on cluedo, and all three watches performing skits…much hilarity ensued. The slide show and song composed by the youth crew reminded us all of how much fun we have had over the voyage, visiting some spectacular places, in the company of amazing people. The youth crew of voyage 10/19 have been an absolute pleasure to have onboard. To a person they have embraced the spirit of Young Endeavour, and on behalf of the staffies I’d like to thank them for sharing their adventure with us…they will all go on to bigger and better things. They are also now part of the ever growing Young Endeavour family…a very special group of people. That’s about it from me, thanks for following along. Wishing you all fair winds and following seas, Captain Kenny (Cap K)….out!
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Wind: SSE at 18 knots Weather: Rain Sea: Calm Location: Alongside Gladstone Marina
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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”
