Captain's Log

V07/26, Sydney to Newcastle

7 April 2026

Day 10 – V07/26, Sydney to Newcastle

Ahoy readers of Voyage 07/26 Captains Log! The youthies have done it. We have rounded out Day 10 of an incredible voyage by sailing into Newcastle today over the lunch hour. Navigator Benny brought us in on the high tide in perfect conditions.

Our Youth Crew were thrilled to host a number of Australian Navy Cadet units today; TS Rushcutter, Manoora and Tobruk. Some of our young cadets travelling as far as two hours by car to make it to our ship this afternoon. It was a proud moment for the crew as we watched our Youthies of 10 days showcase their ship to our visitors. The calls of Two-Six-Heave resonated across the decks as our cadets set and furled sails.

Many a tall tale was shared of huge seas, dophins, sharks and the rest. It was fantastic to have so many young Australians onboard enjoying the magic that this ship brings wherever she goes.

Chefo Kingy put together some party pies, and other assorted finger foods. You’d think none of these youngsters had seen food in days the rate at which they were hoovered up! The snacks fuelled tours, laughs and friendships formed.

Tonight is our last night and we spend it alongside the wharf in Newcastle. We have celebrated out voyage onboard with some beautiful music (Thank you Payton and Maddie!!) and an epic slideshow which helped us all to remember just how far we’d come since that first day.

With the youth crew reflecting overnight the ship rests. Tomorrow is an early start as we clean up, pack up and start thinking about heading home to see our friends, families and loved ones who make this entire amazing adventure possible. For both the ship’s crew and our Voyage 07/26 Youth Crew.

This has been an epic voyage.

Captain Leups Out +

Latitude/Longitude:

32 55.406S / 151 47.012E

Conditions:

Wx Overcast, light and variable winds and glassy seas

AUTHOR: Peta Binns

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V08/26

10 April 2026

Day 01 – V08/26, Newcastle to Sydney

Ahoy readers of this fine journal. Voyage 08/26 is underway, and we are kicking off from the great city of Newcastle, bound for Sydney over the next 11 days. The stunning New South Wales coastline is our playground, and we intend to make the most of every nautical mile.

The Navy crew for this voyage include Sailmaster - Sarah, Navigator - Jack, Officer of the Watch - Jessie, Engineer - Mark, White Watch Leader - Mitch, Blue Watch Leaders - Chuckles and Chris, Red Watch Leader - Simon, and Chef - Nathan (our culinary maestro). A fine and capable bunch, and one ready to show our Youth Crew what life under sail is all about.

We are started alongside in Newcastle, and this afternoon at 1500 we welcomed our Youth Crew and their families aboard for the opening ceremony — always one of the most energising moments of any voyage. Since then, the ship has been alive with activity; new friendships forming, harnesses being fitted, and wide eyes looking aloft at the rigging. The evening has been spent climbing, learning the ship, and learning about each other.

The vibe onboard is outstanding. There is real energy in this crew, and all signs point to Voyage 08/26 being one to remember.

Tune in tomorrow to see where we end up!

Captain Leups Out ⚓

V07/26

06 April 2026

Day 09 – V07/26, Sydney to Newcastle

Ahoy there readers of the V07/26 Captain’s Log, welcome to day 9! While the rest of the country woke up to the Easter Bunny’s delivery, we were experiencing a special Easter at sea. Not just any day at sea, but Command Day. It has been a challenging and super long 24 hour period that we call command day. The day is our opportunity to put everything we have learned together to sail the ship. We weighed anchor at around 1645 and we set sail on our journey to Shoal Bay in Port Stephens. Overnight we conquered some pretty treacherous challenges; rain and big swells, a very rocky night indeed. Perhaps the worst one yet. But! That didn’t stop us, we came together as a team and set the sails, continued our overnight watches and still had a good laugh. This morning we woke up bright and early at 0730 and were ready to arrive at our anchorage. But that didn’t stop our amazing master chefs from whipping up a beautiful brekkie of pancakes and found some eggs on our bunks. Once we were at anchor, we had 45 minutes left of Command Day and we made the most of it. We had our morning brief with our Watch leader Will, Captain James, Nav’s John and Aman and some wise words. We even had a special guest Peppery - the offsider to our resident and wise old sea guide, Salty. At 1000 we handed the ship back over to the staff and went into a ship siesta to recover from Command Day. We were lucky, gaining an extra hour of sleep - thanks daylight savings. At 1300 we had deck games, ropies and got into our debriefs, breaking down command day and taking away so many valuable life lessons. During ropies we had an Easter themed bonus round, seeing which watch could make the best Easter egg parachute and tested them out by launching the eggs from the mast. It’s truly amazing, its difficult to put into words that do it justice, how we have all bonded into such a brilliant team over the short span of nine days! We just sailed a tall ship for 24 hours! All the way from Broken Bay to Port Stephens and into our anchorage in Shoal Bay tonight. Incredible! We are grateful to rest after such a tedious day. Getting ready for final few days left on board which is upsetting. Happy Easter everyone! Ben and Peyton.

V07/26

05 April 2026

Day 08 – V07/26, Sydney to Newcastle

Ahoy there readers of the V07/26 Captain’s Log! Day 8 has arrived with the start of the long awaited command day, and the start of planning to sail from the beautiful Broken Bay. The boat was handed over to us Youthies at 1000. After the staff met with their command team for “opposites,” which is where the newly anointed positions talked to their staff counterparts. The new command team got straight into it, being given a list of mandatory and side tasks. They spent the morning figuring out how to take the ship to the destination that was picked, Port Stephens. The command team discovered a problem, being the fact they had no navigation instructions. We quickly made a BAT (Beach Assault Team) to retrieve our navigation instructions from Hungry beach. With the instructions retrieved, we were able to plan our route with help of our new Nav’s; John and Aman. Our Youth watch leaders, Eliza, Mrudula, and Peyton, then conducted a deck safety brief with their new watches. They revised everything we have learned in the past week. After this we had a bit of downtime for the watches; they diligently started working on the side quests, our favourite one being making wanted posters of Staffies. After a lunch we needed to show the staff we knew how to do our tacking stations, so we went into a simulation one just to make sure. Our hunger was cured by our amazing master chefs; Taz, Samuel, and Jade who made us chicken carbonara, Portuguese chicken, and a yummy fish and chips. We cannot wait for the challenges we will see over night as we man this ship.

Your Captain, James and your Sail Master, Will.S

THE VOYAGE

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Day 10 – V07/26, Sydney to Newcastle

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