Day 8 – Sails, Dolphins, Submarines and Helicopters!
Ahoy shipmates. Day 8…another wet one. After an early morning (0700) departure from Broken Bay we spent the better part of the day motor sailing (sails and engines) to Port Hacking. It hasn’t been dull though…sightings include a submarine, dolphins, a shark (it is the ocean) and a rescue helicopter that paid us a visit hovering off our stern for training purposes…very cool! Excitement is building…Command Day tomorrow! As I write the youth crew have just finished their Command Day elections…a hearty congratulations to Captain Andrea and her crew: Sailmaster – Saskia, Navigator – Davo, Watch Leaders – Whitney and Olivia, Chefs – Tash, Ruby and Brendan…adventure awaits! I’ll handover to Sas and Ollie now. Until tomorrow (a day off for the staffies!), fair winds, Cap K. Howdy ground residers! How is the solidity of the still earth going for ya? Quick question…What is better than day 7? DAY 8!!! The day started off like most of our favourites…at 6:30am, walking around the deck half asleep, freezing cold and begging for the music to be turned off. We then jumped straight into today’s adventure; sailing south to Port Hacking. With reasonably tolerable seas and winds not threatening to blow us away, our journey was quite enjoyable. We can’t quite say it had the thrill of our day 6 sail, but Cap K and Reggie still provided us with enough stress and anxiety from our command day practice test. Our ability to furl and set the sails were challenged and perfected to ensure we are adequately prepared for our big day. Our watch rotations began as we set sail and headed off towards our destination. We were lucky enough to see a pod of dolphins (thanks to the summoning of blue watch) leaping alongside the boat – so close we could almost touch them! Everyone thankfully participated in various naps throughout the day as we had some free time to catch up on some zzzs. After arriving in Cronulla around 1400 and spotting a shark, we jumped start into ropies. While white watch continues to stand in front, the blueys and reddies are coming in hot with only a 3-point difference between 1st and 3rd as we close in on tomorrow’s ropies finale. Huge shout out to Ollie (Liv???) for pulling through for the Blueys with a incredible rendition of the upcoming hit ‘TJ the Egg’ (coming to iTunes as a limited release on March 19th). We absolutely can’t leave today’s log without a special mention to Keely for another delicious feast including beef stroganoff, taco Tuesday and chop chip pancakes for brekkie. We can’t believe our journey on the Young Endeavour is coming to an end, as the friends we’ve made are becoming more like family and the reality of only knowing our shipmates for 8 days seems absurd. The nerves are kicking in as command day approaches tomorrow, but our excitement to finally put our skills to the test pushes us forward. Until tomorrow, asta la vista baby! Message to the loved ones: Sas/Ski: My loved ones have no idea the Captains log exists (I’m pretty sure they don’t even really know where I am) but I love you and I miss you. To Chris, I can’t wait to see you at HMAS Waterhen with kronk in tow (fingers crossed) and some Zappos xxx Ollie: hahah hope you all figured out it was me, Liv! naw I miss you all so much and can’t wait to recount every detail of this trip which I know you will all enjoy sooo much! hehehe Love you all so much :)) xx
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Wind: SE at 15 knots Weather: Overcast, passing showers Sea: Calm Location: At anchor off Bundeena, Port Hacking.
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Thank you Tarvi, Kaeden and Matt for your narrative of today's events. Intentions are to remain at anchor in Hunters Bay, just off HMAS Penguin, home of the RAN Diving School, a place close to my heart, having spent many a day there under training as a young Officer! The plan is to weigh anchor and proceed to HMAS Waterhen, in Waverton, to pick up our Community Day Sailors from the Windgap Foundation and take them for a sail around the harbour for 3 hours. The Youth Crew will help us host our visitors and give them an experience of Young Endeavour. We will drop them back to Waverton and then proceed to anchor in the harbour where we will have a good view of the Bridge and the Opera House for the Youth Crew's last night onboard. Until tomorrow. Yours Aye, Captain Mike