Fitzroy Island

Ahoy shipmates, The Youth Crew of Voyage 14/18 have handed back the Ship after a very successful Command Day. We are now at anchor off Fitzroy Island, and will have an early departure for Cairns in the morning to pick up our half day sail guests from ARCS Disability, Woree State High Special Needs, and others. All up we will have approximately 50 guests onboard, with the Youth Crew playing hosts…it promises to be a fun day! Although I have returned from my short vacation (of sorts), the gang below are probably best positioned to tell you about their day.Fair winds,Captain Kenny Ahoy there,Today was the day that the Staffies took back the ship from us Youthies. We had an amazing 24 hours –  watches through the night making sure we were on course and tasks getting done to achieve our goal. As apart of Command Day we where given a list that was to be completed by 1300 (1pm). We arrived at Fitzroy Island at 0700 – this was a relief as we had reached our destination. In the morning brief run by us Youthies we had some local fisherman (Louise) visit us to give a detailed explanation of the local wildlife that can be found within this area, this was one jam packed brief for all. We had started the morning with a beach assault team being launched from the ship to the island, their task was to blare out their best national anthem and have it transmitted back to the boat via radio. This was a successful mission but unfortunately to our disappointment no beach goers would sing along (language barrier). At the same time we had a mural being completed on midships (middle of the ship) where our local artist had started drawing what we have enjoyed about the ship so far. Our last and final group task was to create a hammock at midships, all Youth Crew had to be supported off the deck, and this was scary as when we started moving onto the ropes to support all our weight it was creaking, this made everyone anxious but we all had a laugh at the same time. After the Ship was handed back we were all sent ashore to explore Fitzroy Island, many went snorkelling and found a wide variety of aquatic animals in the water such as turtles. We got debriefed about how things could have been improved and focused on positives rather than negatives. Once briefs were done all Youthies started planning our  upcoming performances in SOD (Ships Operatic Directory), we started the show with a good few laughs from our hosts Jonah and Alex S rolling out with many dad jokes! Our first performance of the night was done by the Staffies with an amazing play that left us all in stitches, then we continued with Red Watch giving us a lovely show, starting with them all singing in the jungle, following with a heart felt poem written by Sheena. Blue watch sung to a song from Moana and gave an amazing hula dancing lesson which got the entire crew up and dancing around. Following Blue watch, White Watch took the stage with an amazing upbeat tune demonstrating creative new dance moves inspired by regular tasks completed daily on the ship. We finished the night by getting our Staffies to show us yet another hilarious jig witch ended in many laughs as we start our night watches and say our goodnights  Kell, Ian and Stuart.