Day 7 – Farewell Great Barrier Reef, and Whales!

Ahoy Shipmates…well after 3 months we have finally bid farewell to the Great Barrier Reef (until next year at least). We made an early departure from Lady Musgrave Island and have spent the day motorsailing towards Noosa Heads, hopeful of arriving before a southerly front arrives in the early hours of Sunday morning. And a busy day it was, with the YC comleting Captain’s Setting and Furling, Sail Theory, Captain’s Challenge and holding their Command Day elections…congratulation to Captain Monty, Sail Master Ryan and everyone else elected to positions of responsibility. Command Day is upon us and the forecast is for strong winds, storms and rain in…all part of the adventure. I’ll take my leave here and hand over to the very eloquent Frosty…fair winds…Captain Kenny –

DAY 7: Fine tweaking. That’s what we were doing in the first few hours of that beautiful Saturday morning. Fine tweaking of setting and furling sails in preparation for Command Day, a day in which the Youthies of Young Endeavour take over the ship for 24 hours. We do everything; the cooking, the cleaning, the setting and furling of sails, the watches, the timetables, the navigation plan, the engineering rounds. A lot to do, with a lot of responsibility. After spending most of the day on the deck practising our commands, we had a debrief from our hero Captain Kenny about the position election that would take place that evening. At 1830 our crew gathered, minus the staffies, to hold our own private election for the leadership positions on Command Day. Oddly enough, the runners of this election, Harry and Claudia, decided to randomly put in a mini dance competition for the candidates before they could even be voted for. I dabbed, bad idea haha. Then we were asked why we wanted to be leaders; what makes a good leader? Good leaders set goals, they set them and they keep them and they go for them, 2-6 heaving them closer and closer until they can reach them. A good leader, in my opinion, has the exact same traits as a good person. A good person is selfless, and thinks about others more than, or before themselves. A good person is also resilient. They can adjust to change, “make it work”, problem solve and find new solutions if the old ones are no longer an option. You can only pull through change if you’re determined, and good people are, they set goals and strive to achieve them, they push themselves and others higher up. People are also compassionate, they care, they worry, normal human emotions, but so powerful. You can’t say it doesn’t mean the world to you when one of your shipmates offers to get a jacket for you, or takes your plate when you’ve finished at dinner, or asks if you’re ok. This is what good leaders do. This is what our leadership team for Command Day has, Monty most of all. Our “Captain for the Day”. I’m super proud of all of my friends who got leadership positions, no one deserves it more than these Youthies, they’re the best people in this whole damn ocean. We’re setting sail for Noosa and stopping offshore to handover to the staffies after command day, it should be a great day. I saw a couple of whales today too, so that was pretty cool. Ok, signing off, Youthie Frosty (of the STS Young Endeavour).