Day 7 – Whitsunday Passage to Cid Harbour

Ahoy there Shipmates,Overnight the Watches were kept busy undertaking the ‘Apples and Onions’ activity as well as preparing for the ‘Captain’s Setting and Furling’ assessment. During the first watch the Ship’s Navigation Gyroscope began performing erratically and necessitated the Ship anchoring in Stonehaven Bay on the north-western side of Hook Island at 0200 to allow it the opportunity to settle.A Navy Ship, HMAS LEEUWIN, who was anchored nearby, offered some technical support to help diagnose the problem with the gyro. Accordingly we had a visit from three of their sailors at 0730 who concluded the gyro had been damaged in the heavy weather we had experienced during our passage from Cairns so far. The three LEEUWIN sailors, who we told the youthies were from Sea Patrol, attended our morning brief and heard Salty’s explanation of the origin of the term ‘Hi-jacked’ and met Nana, who today taught the youthies the song ‘I’m a little rocket ship’.We weighed anchor at 1300 and on departing our anchorage an I issued the youthies with my Captain’s challenge, which was for them to set all the fore and aft sails, that the conditions would allow, within 30 minutes. This they achieved with a few minutes in hand. Once clear of Stonehaven Bay we realised how much shelter we had enjoyed there as we encountered 35 knots of wind and 2 metre wind waves coming from the south-east up the Whitsunday Passage. This only enabled us to set the Main Staysail, Fore Staysail and the Mainsail.At 1400 Lindsey and I commenced the Captain’s setting and furling assessments of the watches. Each watch was assessed as competent to set and furl the sails with a reduced level of supervision and the staff crew only there to monitor safety. This will enable the watches to progress to Command Day tomorrow.Once the assessments were completed the staffies anchored the Ship in Cid Harbour. Before dinner I sat everyone down for a brief on Command Day. We then tucked into another fantastic dinner, which unfortunately couldn’t be prepared on the BBQ and eaten on deck due to the regular stream of passing showers. On completion the youthies held their Command Day elections.Congratulations to the Youth Crew who were elected as follows:Captain – ZacSail Master – BryceNavigator – AlexWatch Officers – Tim, Shane and JoeWatch Leaders – Alice, Troy and BrayChefs – Mozza, Lachlan and Monica.To finish off the night Dougie put on a movie in the cafe about sailing a Tall Ship around Cape Horn. The Ship was the famous ‘Peking’ and the film was narrated by Captain Irving Johnston.We shall remain at anchor overnight with the Youthies keeping anchor watches and recharging their batteries for tomorrow when they take charge of the ship.Until tomorrow, yours aye,CAPT Mike PS. From Mon: Dear Mum, Happy birthday. I hope you have a fantastic day. Make sure you save me a piece of cake for when I return. Love Mon XX    “