DAY 9 – COMMAND DAY CONCLUDES

Hello again this is Youth Crew Captain Francis,After a terrific first half of the command day we continued to sail through the night and with a couple of challenging turns of the ship we were able to manoeuvre through 5 waypoints before heading to our final destination. Throughout the night our biggest challenge was the wind, contrary to the rest of the voyage, we were faced with a balmy night of little wind. With wind speeds of only 6 to 8 knots we did our best to maintain boat speed, only reaching a maximum of 3.7 knots. This made navigation difficult but our navigator Harry along with watch officers Matt, Geraint and Freya were up to the challenge.After passing through 5 waypoints we set sail for Magnetic Island at 0430. This proved challenging as variable wind directions meant sailing into the wind. Luckily we were able to make use of the ships starboard engine, allowing us to sail closer to the wind. We managed to reach our destination of Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island at 0530 and with the help of the staff, achieved a safe anchorage.At this stage in command day we still had multiple tasks to complete before handing over the ship to the staff so by 6:45 the Youth Crew not on watch were chomping their way through breakfast in preparation for a busy 2 hours of chores and creativity; this entailed, completion of “happy hour”, the drawing a chalk mural on the ships deck, polishing all the brass on deck, cleaning away all the rust stains on deck and planning an entertaining morning brief. Thanks to the excellent effort by all on board we managed to complete these tasks by morning brief.Our morning brief proved very entertaining with Youth Crew impersonations of Young Endeavour personalities Salty Seadog, Hansel, Nana and the navigation penguin. Prior to handing over the ship, we had to tick one more task off the list, that is, to sing the Australian National Anthem to the tune of 5 well known songs. Thanks to the creativity of the Youth Crew we managed to sing the National Anthem to the tune of ABC by the Jackson 5, YMCA by the Village People, We will rock you by Queen, Mambo Number 5 and 99 bottles of beer on the wall.After an extremely successful Command Day we were able to hand to Young Endeavour back to the staff at 0900 hours with all Youth Crew accounted for. It was a very challenging 24 hours for all on board, bar the staff who I believe enjoyed their 24 hour holiday. I would officially like to thank the entire Youth Crew for their efforts throughout the day and night, particularly when the going got tough. Without each individual effort, this Command Day would not have been successful. Specific acknowledgement needs to be given to the chefs in the galley, who provided the entire crew with outstanding meals throughout the 24 hours.Everyone is eagerly looking forward to what the last couple of days on board will bring.Youth Captain Francis Ahoy there everyone from Captain Damien, Welcome to day nine, as detailed by Youth Captain Francis the preceding 24.5 hours was an outstanding journey of exploration, challenge, self realisation and achievement whilst the Youth Crew controlled the ship.After debriefing the previous 24 hours, and completing lunch, all crew were transferred ashore to conduct a sports afternoon on Horseshoe Bay beach prior to unleashing themselves on the local shops. On return to the ship the next round of ‘rope races’ was conducted prior to a ‘teak deck’ BBQ framed by an absolutely stunning sunset. The evening culminated with a ships concert during which many first class acts were preformed before the crew turned in for a much deserved rest.The ship will remain at anchor overnight, in order to achieve a good night’s respite in anticipation for tomorrow’s half day sail when we host a special needs organisation for a short exposure to life in Young Endeavour.Yours AyeCaptain Damien