Day 2 – First Climbs, Sails, Farewell Sydney…and Dolphins!

Ahoy shipmates…day 2 of our return, and another busy one. After some light showers this morning the day has been fine and sunny…perfect. As I write we are just to the east of Broken Bay under a full press of sail making our way north…engines are off…how’s the serenity! The youth crew are about to commence their first watches…a challenging night lies ahead! The dreaded ‘green goblin’ (sea sickness) has reared it’s head…to be expected. I have enlisted aid of the youth crew to compile tonight’s log…sure you rather hear todays version of events from them. That’s about it from me…I’ll hand over to the youthies. Until tomorrow…fair winds, Captain KennyG’day G’day. We’re back for day 2 of our voyage! We started off the morning at the midships with a ice breaker throwing a Jamaican banana around a shoehorse (horseshoe) to get to know interesting things about each other. Adam cooked up another beautiful brekkie of bacon and eggs to get started for the day ahead. All groups raced to the deck to be the first to call in. White watch won! We raised colours and sang the national anthem with gusto…staffies were loudest! Then after inventing a new way of judging scissors-paper-rock, the youthies had their first climb up the foremast, assisted and overseen by the staff at every stop along the way. Blues started climbing, followed closely by Reds, and finished strongly by White watch. A great success was felt by all in hanging over the topgallant yard and then coming back down. Every single member of the youth crew made it all the way up, over, and down! Good on you youthies! Our second activity of the day was deck safety. All the youth crew had a turn setting, furling and unfurling the sails whilst still in the safety of the harbour. The demonstrations from last nights deck safety made a lot more sense when we got to have a turn doing it ourselves. Lunch break. Back on deck. More deck safety! And then happy hour! (happy happy happy hour!) Some minor organised chaos later and everything on the ship was polished up pretty nicely. Some more furling. Jemma and Reggie briefed us on some new sails of the ship, and then the youth crew put our skills to the test. Such good diagram drawings by Jeremy and Reggie of the mainsail and square sails. A lot of new terminology for the youth crew – we’ll see how quickly they remember it all! Then anchors up and away! Yehaw. We set sail on motor power for the trip ahead and around the point. All hands on deck to set sails as we rounded the heads into the open seas. Some super brave youthies got to climb the foremast to cast loose the gaskets on the topsail and the course. Down came the the topsail and the course and quickly filled with a belly of wind. Motor’s off – we’re sailing now. Dinner time! A majority of the youth crew (and some of the staff crew) experienced some elements of sea-sickness but were still mostly keen for another of Adam’s fantastic meals. Some highly tactical vomiting was practiced by many. The youth crew now are thoroughly aware of the placement of all sick bags. Red watch is the first watch. White watch is the midnight watch. Blues are on morning watch. – Sandro, Henry, Connor, & Tayla