Captain's Log
30 December 2013

Day 4 – Passage Robe to Apollo Bay

Ahoy there Shipmates,After a night of rolling under the influence of a 1.0 metre southerly swell as we motor-sailed in a south-easterly direction we were woken at 0700 by the Red Watch singing the attached song.The Blue and White watches reluctantly dragged themselves out of bed for a shower and breakfast before the Morning Brief extravaganza, which featured the plan for the day from Sail Master Paul, a navigation up-date from Rico, an explanation of the origin of the term ‘Hi-Jacked’ by Salty the Sea Mistress and I delivered an inspirational quote from Theodore Roosevelt. Nana then payed us a visit and spoke to us about the need for onboard cleanliness and hygiene after she had done a set of rounds through the Ship picking up the clothes and other belongings that the youthies had left lying around. She then held the ‘parade of shame’ where she brought out all the belongings from her ‘scran bag’ and the owners had to admit which clothes were theirs and thank Nana for tidying them up. As a payback she then mustered the crew at midships and taught them two songs, ‘Crabs and Seashells’ and ‘Rolly-Poly’.Next the youthies conducted their first real set of cleaning stations of the voyage, prior to me giving Part 1 of my Sail Theory presentations aimed at giving the youthies the knowledge they need to be able to undertake one of the leadership roles, such as Watch Leader, Sail Master, or Watch Officer on Command Day. On completion we enjoyed another of Haydo’s spectacular lunches.At 1230 volunteers laid aloft to un-gasket the Topsail and the Top Gallant sails to enable them to be set later in the day. The first set of ‘Rope Races’, a non-competitive, competitive test of the youthies’ retention of Ship knowledge, were conducted at 1300. This is conducted by watches and is great for engendering team spirit in the watches. Rico’s Navigation Brief followed at 1330 for 30 minutes.After a short break we launched into Rotational Tacks in which the watches rotate between the 3 watch tacking positions to gain an understanding of what the other watches do when the Ship Tacks or Wears. This is important because on Command Day the watches will be completely reorganised.On completion of ‘rotationals’ the watches furled the Jib, Fore Staysail, Main Staysail and brailed the Mainsail. Engines were then started and we resumed motor-sailing towards our next planned anchorage of Apollo Bay where we will anchor for New Year’s Eve. At 1700 we crossed the border from SA to VIC.It is forecast for the wind to abate tonight during the middle watch, when incidentally we will advance clocks by 30 minutes to Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time (AEDST). It is intended to anchor at Apollo during the morning watch tomorrow.Yours, ayeCaptain Mike     “ 

Latitude/Longitude:

38° 42' South / 141° 29' East

Conditions:

Weather: Fine and sunny, Wind: 260/12 knots, Swell: Southerly 1.0 metres, Temp: 17 deg. C