Day 16 – Light Winds

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day 16 of our voyage. Well today we ran a Saturday Sea routine and the majority of the Crew got to have a Sleep in. The heat that we have been experiencing since leaving Rio has been quite draining so it has become important for us to manage everyone’s fatigue levels and also reduce the amount of time we all spend in the sun which is not easy on a 44m sailing ship. This afternoon the wind strengthened enough for us to conduct a set of demonstrational tacks, this is the final part of my sail theory presentation and allows the Crew to come back to the bridge and experience how we tack the Ship (put the bow of the ship through the wind). Normally this is quite easy but when you only have 8kts of wind and 2.5kts of boat speed it becomes a little more challenging, but with a lot of patience and a little skill we successfully got through it.  Tonight we are back to White Watch writing the log and to be honest I can’t even tell you who wrote tonight’s entry because by the time I went up to the bridge to check on how things were going the Captains Log was finished and no one could tell me who wrote it. Anyway we will just let White Watch take the credit for tonight’s entry. Enjoy!!Until tomorrow, take careYours AyeCaptain Gav  World Voyage 03 March 2015  Hello and welcome to day 16 of our World Voyage from somewhere south of Mindelo, Cape Verde. As we make our way to our first destination at a steady 7 knots and the days count down until our first sight of land since Brazil, we are becoming completely familiar with our crewmates, the Atlantic Ocean and perhaps most importantly STS Young Endeavour.  While we haven’t had much luck with the weather (it has been universally flat, cloudy and with low wind, not ideal conditions for a sailing vessel), we have made the most of our opportunities thus far. Setting sails, changing tack, navigating and general ships maintenance have all become second nature and everyone attacks the required tasks with vigour and enthusiasm. Even ‘Happy Hour’, the time set aside each day for cleaning, has become a smooth and efficient operation. The heat has been a problem, not so much during the day when we can spend most of our time on the upper deck, but sleeping is uncomfortable. The weather reports that Navigator/sometimes Meteorologist/all round good guy Matt has coming in have suggested that it should be getting cooler as we move further north. I think it is safe to say that we are all hanging out for at least a slight change.  Partly due to this heat making sleep difficult, fatigue has been a factor that we have all been keen to manage. One way in which we are doing so is to have frequent ‘Saturday sea routines’, in which the day’s activities are pushed into the afternoon, allowing (at least in theory), those crew not on watch to sleep in and get some much needed rest.  Today was busy as usual; we spent a large portion of the afternoon on deck working and learning the ropes (sorry, had to be done!), and performing demonstrational tacks, intended to show the crew what a tack looks like from the bridge. This was done because later this week the Youth Crew will be taking over the ship for 24 hours for command day, and it is essential that we can effectively and safely operate the vessel. We are all very excited and to be perfectly honest have very little idea of what to expect. Sail Master Dion insists that this is a good thing… we aren’t so sure as today we found out that during the ‘Command Day’ we are also expected to run the ships galley. It was quickly suggested that baked beans on toast would suffice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This idea was shot down in flames when Double-A (Aaron, our resident Master Chef) asked us where the bread was going to come from. Unfortunately it seems that there will be cooking in at least some form. Wish us luck.PS. Hello to Mum, Dad and Sonia. Having a great time and looking forward to Cape Verde. Can’t wait to talk and hear all about the big race from Mum! Paddy, I have only gone ‘around the buoy’ a couple of times and I survived Neptune’s wrath. Let Ben know I am no longer a Poliwog, but a sailing Shellback! If he has any questions about the Navy, just send him my way! YM&OF –Andrew  PPS. Hey Mum and Dad. We are closing quickly on our first land fall and (hopefully) internet connection, meaning that I will hopefully be chatting to you in a week or so. Love you heaps and I look forward to hearing from you in return for a change. Eden    “Â
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Currently located 740nm south of the Cape Verde Islands and experiencing light 5-10kt NNE winds with a 1m NE swell. Current temperature is 25 degrees.
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Hi Everyone, Welcome to Day 6 of our voyage. The strong northerly’s experienced yesterday moderated overnight and by the early hours of this morning we had entered Great Oyster Bay and were now motor sailing due to the light conditions. Just before sunrise we altered course to the east and transited through Schouten Passage which gave the morning watch an opportunity to view the western side of the Freycinet Peninsular and witness a spectacular sunrise. Once safely through the passage we altered course to the north, handed in sail, then proceeded directly into the famous Wineglass Bay where we came to anchor at 0830. Once at anchor we conducted the normal morning’s activities and have spent the rest of the day enjoying this beautiful part of Tasmania. That’s enough from me I will now handover to Liv and Mei who have done a wonderful job of writing tonight’s Log. Until tomorrow, take care. Captain Gav Ahoy there! This morning started off with a “funny” parody of “Let It Go” from “Frozen” featuring a memorable yet un-relatable line: “the vomit never bothered me anyway”, created by Red Watch. Thankfully, White Watch could sleep through this as they were on guts watch from 0000 to 0400, where they worked as a team to set the storm jib in a record time of 40 minutes! Other highlights of the night included learning about navigation, steering the helm by the wind for the first time and our famous midnight café featuring a lot of vegemite. Some very special guest dolphins swam around the ship and looked truly majestic as they glowed with bioluminescence. We anchored and woke up to the stunning view of The Hazards at Wineglass Bay, which we later hiked up and saw a spectacular view of Young Endeavour looking gorgeous in all its glory. But before this, we had mid voyage chats where we evaluated our goals and how we’ve progressed since the beginning of the voyage. We then played the inaugural bin ball championships created by Bucky at Wineglass stadium featuring a sand court. Unsurprisingly, White Watch won with a tight score of 3-2 in the finals. After the hike, which we were told was going to be around 20 minutes but ended up being more than an hour, some Youthies took the chance to have a quick swim before going back to the ship. Tonight’s dinner menu included lamb satay curry and grilled chicken, as well as a special addition of Hoppy’s Sundae Bar, which proved to be very popular. Most of us decided to have dinner on the deck and take advantage of the picturesque view of Wineglass Bay. As always, a big shoutout to our Head Chef Haydo and Masterchef assistants for keeping our bellies happy! After dinner, we had a self-reflection “Stop Start Continue” workshop in our watches where we wrote about certain aspects we want to work on to improve ourselves. Hopefully we will see that we have been able to make progress on our goals when we get to read them again in six months’ time. We believe in you, you got this! Currently, we’re waiting to start the anchor watches (our favourite) and preparing to set sail again tomorrow. Finally a shoutout to Mum, Dad and Ruben miss you guys so much. Remember I’m looking at the same moon and stars as you are, Love you - Liv Shoutout to Dad as I live out his dream of “enjoying good food on a navy ship”. Mei This is Liv and Mei signing off J

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This morning the youth crew of the STS Young Endeavour woke to the frightening sound of red watch singing a parody of Riptide by Vance Joy over the ships intercom. This was then followed by the message that blue watch, the watch that was on guts the night before, could have a well-deserved sleep in. While members from blue watch went back to sleep the rest of the crew made their way down to the galley to enjoy another one of Haydos fantastic meals. After everyone had had breakfast the morning brief was given at 0900 which involved informing the youthies of the day ahead and a very educational story by Matty on the origins of the nautical term “two six heave”. After the morning brief the crew went below decks for Chucky’s favourite part of the day: Happy Hour! (Also known as cleaning the ship hour). In the afternoon the three watches conducted rotational tacking stations. This involved the watches rotating through the positions that the other watches fill when we tack which helped the crew get a better idea on what happens when we tack. Captain Gav came up on deck to give us a crash course about sailing theory and the ships history. This was very interesting and gave the youth crew a helpful insight into why different sails are used depending on different wind conditions. Round 3 of the famous Rope races were then commenced at noon with a twist of the round being worth double points. This highly non-competitive competition ended with Blue and Red watch drawing making it a close race for the rest of the trip The biggest highlight of most people’s day was sailing through the straight between Tasman Island and Cape Pillar in the afternoon. We all gathered at the bow of the ship as we gazed upon the spectacular columnar basalt edged cliffs rose up on either side of the narrow passageway. We had to furl all the sails, which involved sending two youth crew members up the main mast in rough swells and high winds to gasket the sail. Engines where turned on for the first time that day so we could safely pass the straight. The effort was truly worth it as we passed the resident seal colony and schools of dolphins. One of the greatest things about the STS Young Endeavour is even though the ship may sway from side to side and youth crew struggle to walk straight without getting knocked into a wall; the ships Chef continues to work hard and impress us with meals made from a kitchen which is smaller than the size of most people’s laundry room. It continues to amaze me how he keeps this quality in these rocky conditions. Not enough praise can be given to the hard work this man puts in keeping everyone happy. Go Haydo!Hi mum and dad I’m still alive, somehow we are already halfway through. See you in six days. Jack. You probably won’t see this but love you to the moon and back mum and dad. Riley. Until next time… Youthies Jack & Riley
