Day 6 – great sailing

Good evening All,
A truely beautiful sail overnight through some of the islands in Bass Strait with the watches doing their Bearex, a test of doing some deck work by themselves, that they have never seen before and sometimes without talking. A really good team bonding activity and good seamanship to boot. After breakfast we did rotational tacks where each watch gets to try each others tacking positions so we know all the ropes, so to speak. As we did this we could see the dark clouds of the cold front approaching from the south west. In typical Bass Strait fashion the front showed how unforgiving the seas can be. We shortened sail and were in 30-35 knots of wind within 15 minutes. Luckily the Youth Crew have really started to step-up and sail handling is becoming more timely. Despite the adverse weather, two things stuck out. The first was we were making good speed towards Port Phillip but would miss the tidal window at The Rip so we opted for Western Port and headed to anchorage at Cowes on the northern side of Phillip Island. Secondly, the majority of Youth Crew were up and about during the 8 hours of rough stuff and were really helping with sail handling and on the bridge, including some very heavy steering, or helming as we call it out here at sea. 5 days ago the thought of large waves drenching our young ship mates would have brought terrifying screams. Now it is just giggles and fair groud ride type squeels as youthful care-free spirits rise. We entered Western Port and immediately I undertook Captain’s setting and furling where each watch needs to demonstrate their sail handling skills without their watch leader. All were deemed safe with only a few turns at setting and furling – packet of Tim Tams a just reward for their efforts. We have just anchored off Cowes on the northern side of Phillip Island where some of the Youth Crew are doing more climbs of the masts while others are doing some group work. We will remain at anchor after what has been a long day. Tomorrow promises much better winds. We are obviously only getting a C grade on weather at the moment! Sleep well in your wide non-moving beds (our bunks are only 600mm wide and have ‘ship bits’ passing over, under and through them) and enjoy the comfort of sheets and dooners (getting familiar with our sleeping bags that slide off the bunk until knees and elbows hit something like the deck). Regards, Dave J, Voyage Captain
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Morning - beautiful light north easterly breeze with a calm sea and mild temperature but a bit rainy. This afternoon - cold front with south westerly wind change (we hit 40 knots of wind at one stage) bringing a higher sea state then, this evening the relative peace and calm at Phillip Island in Westernport. Must be in Victoria - four seasons in one day!
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Ahoy followers of our Young Endeavour journey! Command Day. We made it.
The beautiful weather at our anchor point at Jervis Bay made for a spectacular day under the command of our fellow Youth Crew! A morning stretch and some wise words from the Ship Crew gave Captain Waz and the team a step in the right direction.
With the new watches all set and ready to go, Captain’s Setting and Furling gave all our youthies the chance to prove their abilities on the high seas. Strong performances from all three watches; Sharkies, Chompers and Narwhals!!
Morning brief gave the Sailmaster a chance to give us the daily orders and help get everyone on the same page. With the staff crew getting ready for a holiday and giving us the ship, floral shirts and party music filled the deck and, with some final preparations, the ship was ours.
The Captain was given a small but very significant envelope that contained the essential, non-essential and completely optional tasks to be done over the course of the next 24 hours. 2 tacks were to be made at a minimum before leaving the bay and safety checks were the essential tasks to start our journey. However.
More amusing, optional tasks allowed some of our youthies to become part of the “Beach Assault Team” while others were put to the task of making a slideshow of the voyage, tying all the knots on the list, etc. These were some activities that bided the time for our incredible navigator - Ruscoe to set out a plan and work together with the Sailmaster - Hugh to create a sail plan.
Tacking stations were the focus for our late afternoon, preparing to weigh anchor and leave such a beautiful bay, for our last stretch of this incredible voyage.
Happy Birthday to the Capitan, Warwick, who turned 24 today! The wonderful MasterChef’s created a “cherry ripe” cake out of rice crispies, coconut, chocolate, and love. With a beautiful ceremony to end our day.
Sailing into the night leaves us the ability to see the lights from our destination. Sydney, here we come!
Wish us luck! From Nat and Tom!!

ARRRGH, ahoy there from the spectacular Jervis Bay! We’ve all been taken A-back by the crystal clear blue waters and snow white sands.
After a well deserved sleep in these sheltered waters which was a refreshing change to clinging to our bunk racks for dear life for the past few days, the ship rose to another banger of a morale tune “sung” by Blue Watch. Brekkie was fun after the early morning activity to get us all up and moving. We held another round of competitive not-competitive rope races which culminated in smashed eggs on deck and the mummification of said egg smashers.
Roast lamb for lunch was prepped by the staffies in the absence of our culinary wizard Steve. Once cleaned up, we took the RHIB’s across to Captains Beach bordering HMAS Creswell which was a mind-blowingly beautiful little spot. Pretty much everyone had a dip in the drink and a roll in the sand and played some creative beach games run by our Suitability legends, Speedy Sam and Eggs.
A few hours at the beach made everyone ready to head back home and attack a teak deck barbeque, devouring cheese platters, steaks, sangas, and salads. With our full stomachs, us youthies initiated the highly anticipated elections for our command day roles. Which will commence sometime around midday tomorrow. We held a vote for each available role that all willing youthies put themselves forward for.
The following roles were voted as follows: Captain – Warwick, Sailmaster – Hugh, Navigator – Ruscoe, Officer of the Watch – Dan, Watch Leader – Nick, Ben, Bridget, Master chef – Emily, Mackenzie, Alyshia
We were greeted after our elections by a low flying anti-submarine MH60-Romeo Helicopter which did a cool fly around our ship. *Thanks Squizz!!* And then watched an amazing film about the rounding of Cape Horn back in 1929 on a 7 story tall sail ship.
Signing off from our anchor watch, Ben and Giles.
“I believe that positive energy and optimism help us to take up any challenge in life and to succeed in even the most difficult tasks. I also believe that positive energy is contagious: We can transmit it to others”
