Day 4 – Funning and frollicking at Orpheus Island
Did I mention the whale breaching all over the place at sunset last night? Thought I did. Sorry, couldn’t remember… well apart from the: brahminy kite, white-bellied sea eagles, brown booby and numerous terns, there wasn’t much wildlife spotted today, except for some humans. Foreign humans, that even came aboard and tried to stow away! But more about that later…
Overnight, we continued to ply south, climbing the masts, setting and furling sails and dodging trawlers. We eventually made landfall at Orpheus Is and anchored in Pioneer Bay at 0800. Lovely spot, part of the Palm group don’t you know? So then it was all breakfast, morning brief, happy hour and then Mike gave a lecture on the ‘rules of the road’, based on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. As Command Day approaches, dear reader, we need to prepare these sailors as best we can. Sailing this ship, in these here waters is no easy task, requiring not only sailing skills but navigational and ship handling skills too. We are setting them up for success, dig?
Lunch was delicious, thanks to Jenko and his assistant chefs (Byron, Macca and Erin). Then we unleashed the rope swing and went for a swim. We frolicked and funned for a bit then jumped into our seaboat with Mike and went ashore for a little explore. Jimmy, the Orpheus Island Research Centre manager was kind enough to give the crew a tour of the place – a marine research facility operated by James Cook University. The crew loved it. They then went for more of a splash and snorkel. We returned the favour and hosted Jimmy and a group of American Uni students – conducting some marine biological study at the facility – onboard and gave them the VIP tour. A lovely bunch, I could tell they really wanted to join the crew and sail away with us, but unfortunately their nasty, professor ordered them back to their books. I made that last bit up.
Anyway, we had a bbq as the sun went down and it reminded me of my quote of the day… “life isn’t measured by how many breaths we take, but by how many moments take our breath awayâ€. I love my job 🙂
Finally, to cap off a magical day, ‘three way talks’ was conducted. A great way to get to know each other a little better is to study each other. Preferably one member of each watch in a group of three, and then, in front of everyone, each person is to introduce themselves as one of the other people in the group and tell us everything there is to know about that person. Well, as much as one can remember. This is followed by a charade of that persons favourite movie, tv show or book. Good clean fun with a practical byproduct. Now I know who can help with my breaststroke (Bonnie) and who to practice Indonesian with (Erin). Not to mention who can fine tune my contemporary dancing skills (Louisa). Again, I love my job :))
Ok. Off to bed then. Our intention is to remain at anchor in Pioneer Bay, Orpheus Is overnight and to make up the rest in the morning.
Good night dear friends.
Yours Aye,
Captain Adam.
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Wind: ESE 12 Swell: Nil Temp: 25
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Thank you Tarvi, Kaeden and Matt for your narrative of today's events. Intentions are to remain at anchor in Hunters Bay, just off HMAS Penguin, home of the RAN Diving School, a place close to my heart, having spent many a day there under training as a young Officer! The plan is to weigh anchor and proceed to HMAS Waterhen, in Waverton, to pick up our Community Day Sailors from the Windgap Foundation and take them for a sail around the harbour for 3 hours. The Youth Crew will help us host our visitors and give them an experience of Young Endeavour. We will drop them back to Waverton and then proceed to anchor in the harbour where we will have a good view of the Bridge and the Opera House for the Youth Crew's last night onboard. Until tomorrow. Yours Aye, Captain Mike