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Day 6 – Square Sails, Wind and Waves!
Ahoy shipmates…Day 6…back a sea! Overnight the youth crew kept sea watches at anchor, allowing each watch sufficient time to complete the ‘bearex’, a teamwork and leadership challenge, as well as brush up on their navigation skills with a navigation challenge. The expected southerly buster finally arrived around 2:00 am, so, immediately following morning brief, we weighed anchor, set square sails, and commenced our transit north in 25-30 knots of southerly breeze, 3-4 metre following seas, and persistent rain… perfect for a square rigged tall ship! (well maybe not the rain). The presence of a 2nd swell from the east made things a bit sloppy resulting in some green faces and some water across the deck… we’ll make sailors of them by command day! It has been a fairly quiet day otherwise, with the youth crew maintaining watch on deck (lookout etc) and resting when not on watch. We hope to arrive in Broken Bay sometime tomorrow morning… I’m fairly certain there will be some happy faces amongst the crew when we do! The gang from white watch have covered the day below so I’ll sign off here. Until tomorrow, fair winds, Cap K——— Hey there guys and gals! We had a reasonably calm night at anchor so we decided to do some teamwork excercises.We had to find the storm jib and put it up in under an hour and we succeeded even though we didn’t even know where or what it was.After that we did a navigation exercise and we nailed that (like we do with most other things, go white watch!). Most importantly though, we focused on working as a team and we were successful because we listened to each other and supported each other. This morning we decided to go looking for treasure and headed to sea on our way to Broken Bay. With constant rain and wind, and swells reaching up to 4 metres high and washing over the deck, things are pretty bumpy around here, so we’re holding on tight! Luckily, on the seasickness front, no one has been sick so far, not even poor Witney. As always, our spirits are high and our eyes are on the horizon, looking forward to whatever comes our way. We’re currently sailing using the square sails for the first time, which has been a lots of fun. To set the course (one of the sqare sails), we had to climb the foremast to untie the gaskets with the ship swaying from side to side as we exited Jervis Bay, which was an amazing experience*. (*whooo, this was so much fun!! – Andrea. **I was freaking out, even though I’m not scared of heights – Davo).As usual, Keely has been feeding us the most wonderful food, which we have been so grateful for to warm our bellies. With the sun setting soon and the waves still crashing over the deck, we’re hoping to enter the calmer waters of Broken Bay sometime tomorrow. Until then, we’ll brave the elements with determination, and look forward to a new day. – White WatchMessage to loved ones:Andrea: Hi Mum, Dad, Grandma, Charlie, Brownie, and all family at home and overseas! I’m having a great time here and am having the most amazing experiences, particularly climbing the foremast today, and doing some nagivation last night. I’m still missing you all lots and lots and am looking forward to seeing you again soon. Lots of love and big hugs, Andrea xoxoxoxoxo Davo: Hey fam bam, it’s me ya favourite. I’m having a blast, thanks for making me go on this 🙂 give Gerry some cuddles for me and make sure the bird has plenty of water (not). Say hey to the rest of the family for me, missing you all dearly especially you Dad. Anyway speak to you soon, Davo out.
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Wind: S at 25 knots Weather: Overcast, passing squalls Sea: Moderate/Rough Course: 010 Speed: 6 knots Location: East of Botany Bay.
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Hi Everyone, Welcome to Day 6 of our voyage. The strong northerly’s experienced yesterday moderated overnight and by the early hours of this morning we had entered Great Oyster Bay and were now motor sailing due to the light conditions. Just before sunrise we altered course to the east and transited through Schouten Passage which gave the morning watch an opportunity to view the western side of the Freycinet Peninsular and witness a spectacular sunrise. Once safely through the passage we altered course to the north, handed in sail, then proceeded directly into the famous Wineglass Bay where we came to anchor at 0830. Once at anchor we conducted the normal morning’s activities and have spent the rest of the day enjoying this beautiful part of Tasmania. That’s enough from me I will now handover to Liv and Mei who have done a wonderful job of writing tonight’s Log. Until tomorrow, take care. Captain Gav Ahoy there! This morning started off with a “funny” parody of “Let It Go” from “Frozen” featuring a memorable yet un-relatable line: “the vomit never bothered me anyway”, created by Red Watch. Thankfully, White Watch could sleep through this as they were on guts watch from 0000 to 0400, where they worked as a team to set the storm jib in a record time of 40 minutes! Other highlights of the night included learning about navigation, steering the helm by the wind for the first time and our famous midnight café featuring a lot of vegemite. Some very special guest dolphins swam around the ship and looked truly majestic as they glowed with bioluminescence. We anchored and woke up to the stunning view of The Hazards at Wineglass Bay, which we later hiked up and saw a spectacular view of Young Endeavour looking gorgeous in all its glory. But before this, we had mid voyage chats where we evaluated our goals and how we’ve progressed since the beginning of the voyage. We then played the inaugural bin ball championships created by Bucky at Wineglass stadium featuring a sand court. Unsurprisingly, White Watch won with a tight score of 3-2 in the finals. After the hike, which we were told was going to be around 20 minutes but ended up being more than an hour, some Youthies took the chance to have a quick swim before going back to the ship. Tonight’s dinner menu included lamb satay curry and grilled chicken, as well as a special addition of Hoppy’s Sundae Bar, which proved to be very popular. Most of us decided to have dinner on the deck and take advantage of the picturesque view of Wineglass Bay. As always, a big shoutout to our Head Chef Haydo and Masterchef assistants for keeping our bellies happy! After dinner, we had a self-reflection “Stop Start Continue” workshop in our watches where we wrote about certain aspects we want to work on to improve ourselves. Hopefully we will see that we have been able to make progress on our goals when we get to read them again in six months’ time. We believe in you, you got this! Currently, we’re waiting to start the anchor watches (our favourite) and preparing to set sail again tomorrow. Finally a shoutout to Mum, Dad and Ruben miss you guys so much. Remember I’m looking at the same moon and stars as you are, Love you - Liv Shoutout to Dad as I live out his dream of “enjoying good food on a navy ship”. Mei This is Liv and Mei signing off J
Hi Everyone, Welcome to Day 5 of our voyage. Overnight and during the early hours of this morning we continued to enjoy a great sail around the southern Tasmanian coast with all of the watches kept busy with setting and furling sails and doing some practical navigation. By sunrise we were located just to the south of Bruny Island now just sailing under fore & aft sail and hoping that the day would get warmer, which sadly it didn’t. But the cold and a little rain hasn’t dampened our spirits and we have still managed to fit in a lot of great activities today and our young mariners continue to impress with their endless energy and motivation. That’s enough from me I will now handover to Riley and Jack who have done a great job of writing tonight’s Log. Until tomorrow, take care. Captain GavV03/23 – DAY 5
This morning the youth crew of the STS Young Endeavour woke to the frightening sound of red watch singing a parody of Riptide by Vance Joy over the ships intercom. This was then followed by the message that blue watch, the watch that was on guts the night before, could have a well-deserved sleep in. While members from blue watch went back to sleep the rest of the crew made their way down to the galley to enjoy another one of Haydos fantastic meals. After everyone had had breakfast the morning brief was given at 0900 which involved informing the youthies of the day ahead and a very educational story by Matty on the origins of the nautical term “two six heave”. After the morning brief the crew went below decks for Chucky’s favourite part of the day: Happy Hour! (Also known as cleaning the ship hour). In the afternoon the three watches conducted rotational tacking stations. This involved the watches rotating through the positions that the other watches fill when we tack which helped the crew get a better idea on what happens when we tack. Captain Gav came up on deck to give us a crash course about sailing theory and the ships history. This was very interesting and gave the youth crew a helpful insight into why different sails are used depending on different wind conditions. Round 3 of the famous Rope races were then commenced at noon with a twist of the round being worth double points. This highly non-competitive competition ended with Blue and Red watch drawing making it a close race for the rest of the trip The biggest highlight of most people’s day was sailing through the straight between Tasman Island and Cape Pillar in the afternoon. We all gathered at the bow of the ship as we gazed upon the spectacular columnar basalt edged cliffs rose up on either side of the narrow passageway. We had to furl all the sails, which involved sending two youth crew members up the main mast in rough swells and high winds to gasket the sail. Engines where turned on for the first time that day so we could safely pass the straight. The effort was truly worth it as we passed the resident seal colony and schools of dolphins. One of the greatest things about the STS Young Endeavour is even though the ship may sway from side to side and youth crew struggle to walk straight without getting knocked into a wall; the ships Chef continues to work hard and impress us with meals made from a kitchen which is smaller than the size of most people’s laundry room. It continues to amaze me how he keeps this quality in these rocky conditions. Not enough praise can be given to the hard work this man puts in keeping everyone happy. Go Haydo!Hi mum and dad I’m still alive, somehow we are already halfway through. See you in six days. Jack. You probably won’t see this but love you to the moon and back mum and dad. Riley. Until next time… Youthies Jack & Riley
