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Day 7 – Captain’s Setting & Furling, Captains Challenge and Broughton Island!
Ahoy Shipmates. Overnight the comfortable conditions have continued whilst the Youth Crew completed an activity titled Stop, Start, Continue (a feedback exercise they complete amongst themselves). We also conducted a number of tacks/wears to hone their skills in preparation for Command Day. The morning was filled by Captain’s setting and furling (see below), morning brief, happy hour and a meteorology brief. After lunch rope races and the infamous egg drop had most of the crew in hysterics. The day at sea was wrapped up with the Captain’s Challenge before we proceeded to anchor on the western side of Broughton Island. I then gave the Command Day brief, advising the Youth Crew of their roles and responsibilities, and after another delicious bbq, the Youth Crew held their elections with the results as follows: Captain-Jackson, Sailmaster-Jessie, Navigator-Aaron, Watch Officer-Pat G, Red Watch Leader-Sarah, White Watch Leader-Finn, Blue Watch Leader-Kieren and Chefs Charlie, Elliott and Pat T. Fair winds and following seas to all. Captain K———-
Day 7, It was finally our chance to showcase the skills of sailing that we had learnt over the last week in the Captain’s Setting and Furling task, leaving responsibility in the hands of the watches. Overall each of the watches successfully completed the task, demonstrating they are capable of calling orders and handling the lines and sails of the ship, leading to a well deserved reward of a family size bag of Tim Tams for each watch. As we travelled from Broken Bay, the youthies learnt all about meteorology with Tracey and how it ties in with the ship’s desired navigation plan. We learnt about factors such as wind directions, high and low pressure systems, swell and trade wind. After this informative chat, the youthies split up into our coloured watches to begin round 5 of Rope Races, trying to identify random objects around the vessel. A bonus round was the conducted, where the groups were given a bucked filled with a paper bag, orange floss, some pegs and a latex glove to save their respective watch leader (or the fragile egg) from imminent death, being dropped off of the lower top. Two of the three groups managed to save their leader with only one eggy fatality.
As we are approaching Command Day at a fast rate, the youthies need to prepare for what awaits them. A lead in to this was the Captain’s Challenge where prospective youthies were demonstrating their sailing prowess! In short, the ship was stopped and we needed to all work together as a team, set the sails again, and get the ship underway!! This meant we needed to use effective communication and put all the skills and knowledge from all of the youthies together to make it to the end of the challenge. In total this took approximately 40 minutes which in our opinion was quite quick. After the completion of this activity we received a quick brief from Captain Kenny about things to expect moving forward into Command Day, and the responsibilities of each Command position.
To end the day at sea, we anchored off Broughton Island, having yet again another delicious BBQ from Chef Marcus and the other staffies. We were then able to vote our crew into the Command group for the day that follows with Youthie Captain Jackson guiding all in the right direction home. Stay tuned, we’ll let you know if we successfully arrive where we’re meant to, or if we accidently end up sailing to New Zealand!..
Georgia, Kai, James.
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Wind: NNE at 9 kts Weather: Overcast Sea: Calm Location: At anchor Broughton Island
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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”
