Captain's Log

Feb-16

28 January 2016

Day 4 – Great Australia Bight

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to day four of our voyage. The wind strengthened to 20-25kts this morning and the swell increased to 2m causing a number of the Youth Crew to succumb to the dreaded sailorâ€™s curse of seasickness. Given these conditions we kept activities to a minimum during the morning then managed to conduct a good set of rotational tacks and another round of rope races during the afternoon.

Given the changing weather conditions experienced throughout the day the Youth Crew have been kept busy continually setting and furling sails and while on watch consolidating some of their newly acquired mariner skills.

The time is now 2030 and we are currently located 265nm ESE of Esperance sailing close hauled under fore and aft sail and maintaining a boat speed of 7kts. Overnight we will continue to make best speed under sail as we continue our passage across the Great Australia Bight.

Kindly volunteering to write tonightâ€™s Captains Log is Blue Watch, please enjoy.

Until tomorrow, take care

Yours Aye

Captain Gav

Captains Log
Continuing across the Great Australian Bight today marked the first of several days with no Australian Coastline in sight. After being hit by a few strong bullets of wind during the morning briefing and being forced to drop several sails we continued on with our shifts on the bridge practicing new skills we have learnt such as plotting our position and navigating on the charts. Before lunch we were provided with suitable conditions today to fly all three square sails from the foremast together for the first time in the voyage. As the effects of the open water and tiredness kick in Chef Marcusâ€™ food has been underappreciated as many youth crew members struggled to stomach full meals. In the afternoon we spent time practicing our tacking of the ship with rotating areas that each watch group is responsible for as we repeatedly tacked the ship in suitable conditions. We followed this with Rope Races on the deck between watch groups racing to identify lines related to the foremast sails. With mixed results from the three watch groups it was clear that not everyone has mastered the names and locations of some of the lines required to set and furl the sails. As we move forward into day 5 we hope that we are able to keep more youth crew heads out of sick bags as we continue across the Great Australian Bight towards Adelaide.
Blue watch took over watch at 17:45 and were put straight to work sheeting in the Jib and fore staysail to come closer up on the wind. 5 watch members then ventured up the fore mast were we watched a beautiful sunset, took a few selfies all the while sharing a two pack of scotch finger biscuits â€“ its all about team work with blue watch! After we clambered down the ratlines and gave each other a high five, we made our way back to the bridge where we shared our stories and we were lucky enough to witness an amazing shooting star off the starboard side, with Kenny storing it in his already full memory bank as one of the brightest he has ever seen! Hope he made a wish!!
Gâ€™day to Mum, Dad and Taylor from Jakey!!!

Latitude/Longitude:

34 45 S / 127 07 E

Conditions:

Currently experiencing strong 20-25kt SSE winds with a 2m SW swell. Our current speed is 7kts and the temperature is 17 degrees.

AUTHOR: Commanding Officer STS Young Endeavour

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Good evening shipmates, After a well-earned quality night’s sleep at anchor in Hunters Bay, Sail Master Sara woke us with another of her soothing tunes to get us on deck for a quick early morning activity. After breakfast the staff crew weighed anchor and conducted the transit to HMAS Waterhen, at Waverton. We berthed there at 0900 and prepared to embark our guests for the Community Day Sail. At 1015 we cast off our berthing lines and departed with our 34 guests and commenced our 3 hour tour of the harbour. Our Community Day Sailors were a group 30 members and staff from the Windgap Foundation. We also embarked some defence personnel as well. We again passed under the Harbour Bridge and then proceeded into Rose Bay where we set some sails and commenced sailing back towards Waterhen. Whilst on the harbour our fantastic youth crew helped us host our Windgap special guests. They encouraged our guests to participate in setting the staysails and a square sail by helping to pull on the sheets and clewlines. The youth crew also helped Chef Ash to prepare and deliver the food to our guests on deck. At 1300, after 3 fun-packed hours on the harbour, we berthed back at the southern wharf at HMAS Waterhen. Once we had farewelled our guests it was time to commence our end-of-voyage activities and preparations. The staff crew managed to organise a visit to the RAN Ship MATV Sycamore, which is crewed by a mixture of civilians and Navy staff, is a multi-role aviation training vessel. The youth crew embarked with their watch leaders and were given a 45 minute tour of the ship by some of the Navy crew. On completion they returned onboard and Young Endeavour sailed and proceeded to our anchorage in Athol Bay, which affords a great view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. During the transit to the anchorage the Youthies undertook their end-of-voyage chats, facilitated by their watch leaders, to examine if they had achieved everything in their full-value contracts they had completed at the start of the voyage. After the traditional last voyage dinner of home made pizzas, Sara gave the Youthies the Harbour Furl brief, who then donned their climbing harnesses and laid aloft to undertake the ‘Harbour Furl’ of the square sails to make them look immaculate for our ceremonial arrival at the end of the voyage tomorrow. Once that was completed, the youth crew then finished off their final outstanding Command Day tasks, which were planned for the last night onboard. These included the Voyage Slide Show compiled of photos taken by everyone. This was excellent and provided a touching reminder of what we had experienced and the beautiful coastlines and islands that we had visited during the voyage. The final activity of the day was the end-of-voyage administration, which for the youth crew included a feedback questionnaire asking for feedback on their experience of the voyage, as well as a letter for each crew member to write to themselves on their experiences during the voyage, which the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme will post to the youth crew in 6 months time. The aim of this is to help reinforce what the youth crew have learned about leadership, teamwork and about themselves from the experience of the voyage. Once these were completed the crew were encouraged to go to bed. The Ship will remain in Athol Bay overnight and weigh anchor and sail in the morning at 0900 and undertake the transit to HMAS Waterhen, where family and friends will meet the Ship on arrival at 1000. Until you hear from me tomorrow for the final instalment of Voyage 04/24. Yours aye, Captain Mike

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Day 4 – Great Australia Bight

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