Fearsome Captain Smiley

Ahoy there Shipmates, After a restful night at anchor in Hungry Bay, within Broken Bay, the crew were awoken by Sail Master Evan at 0700 and mustered on deck for an early morning activity to get the body warmed-up and the mind active which was followed by another swim and rope swing session. We then dined on another of Marcus’ delicious breakfasts prior to the Morning Brief, which included a dramatisation, narrated by Salty and ably assisted by our willing volunteers, depicting the origin of the Naval expression ‘Son of a Gun’. This led into, as usual, the ‘happiest hour of the day’. At 0900 we held ‘Opposites’ where the elected Youth Crew talked with their opposite number in the Staff Crew. This is aimed at enabling the youthies to get an understanding of the full scope of the duties of each position to enable them to perform better in their role during Command Day. At 1300 my Staff Crew and I got dressed-up in our best holiday outfits and conducted the handover ceremony at which I handed Young Endeavour over to Captain Dan W and his able-bodied crew to use for Command Day to achieve their tasks and most importantly to have fun!  Until tomorrow at 1300 when the adventure of Command Day draws to a close! Yours Aye Captain Mike ————————————————————————————————– Hi Everyone,Good evening ladies and gentlemen! At 1300, the Youth Crew took command of the ship from Captain Mike; with our esteemed Sailmaster (Bridget), unflappable navigators (Nathan and Peter), and inescapable Watch Leaders (Toby and Coby – collectively, the ‘Obys’ and a source of more than their fair share of confusion) all lending their sailing skills, honed over the previous week at sea. With the freshly-bestowed Captain’s Cap firmly on my head (lest the wind snatch it away), the ship moved into a selection of afternoon activities from our newly assigned task lists; our three youth crew chefs slaving away with commendable determination all the while (Ash, Gabbie, and Laura.) 1500 found us with another task complete – a ship-devouring hammock entrenched at midships, and very shortly thereafter subjected to the unenviable task of carrying the entire weight of the youth crew – a task that it performed admirably, thanks to the excellent ropework of our Youth Crew.We weighed anchor at 1530 and proceeded, under power, to the mouth of Broken Bay, the last eekings of assisted sailing we will experience until the end of our command day at 1300 tomorrow. Some delays were encountered- a man overboard drill took the Youthies aback as our plans required some reconsideration. Luckily the engines could manoeuvre us in a full circle to retrieve the valuable life ring. As our engine time was coming to an end at the edge of the headland, we encountered numerous difficulties- the wind changed direction forcing us to make quick alterations to our route- I would have liked to leave the fact we executed a loop-de-loop out of this log, but I think everyone on board learned too much about leadership, decision-making and good seamanship to leave it out. Suffice to say, after a fair deal of valuable tacking practice, 1750 found us underway and in good trim, with a favourable thirteen knot wind off our port beam and our crew well-fed, courtesy of the youth chefs. We will proceed under sail to our navigation waypoint just outside Sydney Harbour overnight, and from there on to Little Manly Cove, where we plan to lay anchor at midnight. From there, the crew will take some well-earned rest, before moving on to more exciting command day activities in the morning. Yours aye, Sailmaster Bridget Lunn & Captain Dan ‘Smiley’ Wise