Day 4 – Swimming, Climbing and a Teak Deck BBQ!

Ahoy shipmates…day 4, another ripper! After a restful night at anchor, the sailmaster ‘woke the boat’ with some retro tunes before we tucked into another delicious brekky. At 0800 the flags were raised followed by a highly informative and entertaining morning brief, involving myself and the sailmaster, navigator, our nautical terminology expert ‘Salty’, and resident housekeeper, the infamous ‘Nanna’. After some shanties at midships we rolled into happy hour after which the ‘rules of the road’ brief was delivered to the youth crew…valuable information for the upcoming ‘Command Day’…basically who gives way to who and how not to hit stuff! After lunch the youth crew were ferried ashore for a swim and some beach games, between passing showers. On their return they all lay aloft for a quick tidy up of the square sails before settling in for the first ‘teak deck bbq’ of the voyage…including some crocodile, kangaroo and emu…simply delicious. A twilight series of ‘Three way talks’ entertained all as we learnt a little more about each of our youth crew, before rolling into anchor watches overnight. You may have noticed that we are still in Nelson Bay…it’s still a bit lumpy at sea so the decision was made to remain at anchor for another 24 hours…much easier to achieve things without the ‘green goblin’ interfering! Conditions are slowly abating so the intent is to head to sea tomorrow morning, after an eagerly anticipated sunrise climb and pancake breakfast on the upper decks. After a day at anchor and some time ashore to ‘hug a tree’ (sure fire cure for sea sickness), the youth crew are healthy and in good spirits (until tomorrow maybe)…more adventures await. I’ll hand over to the youthies now for their take on the day. Until tomorrow, fair winds, Captain Kenny———- Ahoy there, it’s the fourth day and for the first time since our departure from Sydney, no one was sea sick!! As we are at anchor at Nelson Bay, we are conducting Anchor Watches with two youthies at a time keeping hourly watches throughout the night. This morning we were woken up by Shania Twain’s ‘Man, I Feel Like A Woman’. This was closely followed by brekkie and some early morning deck games (Wasabi/Ninja, Big Booty and Wah!). TJ and Em also led us through some yoga where we found out we weren’t very coordinated. Later on, Keithy took us ashore by RHIB for some brief shopping and beach time (where we momentarily lost the frisbee). During this trip to land, we were given the task of learning more about our fellow youthies to share with the crew after dinner (3-Way Chats). Liam shared his lightly sea salted grapes with us all as we got drenched with the oncoming rain. After the shower stopped we decided to play a few ball games before heading back to the ship. Soon after we were back onboard, we climbed the mast once again to cast loose and retie the gaskets. We finished off the last meal of the day, enjoying a beautifully cooked barbie on the deck as Mary, Tayla and Peta held some dance classes as the sun set. We played some brief Charades as part of our 3-Way Chats before a light shower sent us scuttling below decks. We’ll be keeping on with our Anchor Watches tonight, before we set out of Nelson Bay tomorrow. Good Nighto! Sam, Iyanah