Day 3 – Sea to Sydney Harbour

G’day Shipmates,Welcome to day 3 of our adventure under sail. The ship continued sailing north east opening out from the coast on a beam reach. The wind backed to north westerly at 15 and a 0.5m easterly swell was experienced for most of the night. The rolling motion this generated did not deter our Youth Crew who remained immersed in the challenge of sailing a tall ship.With the rising of the sun, the promise of a new day and some cheerful Wakey Wakey music from Sail Master Adam, the remainder of the crew were woken from their slumber after their first night at sea in Australia’s National Sail Training Ship.After another of Haydo’s spectacular breakfasts we gathered on the bridge for the morning brief. Today the crew heard from ‘Salty the Sea-Dog (Matt) who explained the nautical origin of the expression ‘not enough room to swing a cat’. ‘Nana Diesel’ (Lindsey) also made her first appearance, giving tips on shipboard hygiene and cleanliness, after which she taught the youthies their first onboard song, ‘Crabs and Sea Shells.’ which provided a lead-in to the much-loved Happy Hour.After discovering a problem with the Ship’s main freezer it was necessary to return to Sydney to seek repair assistance. We discovered that one of the youthies, Brendan O’Reilly, was a fridge mechanic and his assistance to Lindsey in narrowing-down the cause was much appreciated. We berthed back alongside the Navy Fleet Base at 1200, after which we enjoyed another of Haydo’s spectacular lunches.At 1300 we kicked off the first round of Rope Races (Lindsey the engineer’s favourite). This activity is a competition between the watches to test their retention of ship knowledge. From 1400 Miquela the Navigator began giving Navigation briefings to each of the watches, whilst the other watches did some climbing and had a bit of free time. Following a demonstration of 3-Way Chats the Youth Crew then went to dinner, after which they had the opportunity to do their preparations for the evening’s 3-Way Chats.We then departed the wharf and put the Youth Crew aloft so that they could get a good view of the harbour as we passed under the Harbour Bridge twice before returning to our Athol Bay anchorage from Monday night. As we passed the Opera House and Mrs Macquarie\’s Chair a fireworks show errupted making a great spectacle as we passed by. Once at anchor it was time for 3-Way Chats which is a great public speaking and ice-breaker activity through which everyone gets to learn about all of the Youth Crew.Finally the Youth Crew to settled – in to anchor watches which they continued through the night.The intention is to remain at anchor overnight and weighing anchor in the morning to return to sea to consolidate use of the fore-and-aft sails and set the square sails for the first time.Until tomorrow.Yours AyeCaptain Mike           “