Happy Birthday Lukey

Situation at 20:00- This morning at 08:00 at a formal ceremony command of YOUNG ENDEAVOUR was turned over to the Youth Crew and Command day got underway. They lost little time in weighing anchor and setting sail.After several hours of beating to windward, the ship was in a position where the Beach Assault Team (BAT) was able to land and claim the area on behalf of the youth of Australia. The village of Seventeen Seventy provided a most impressive total of 124 Humans, 2 Mackeral, a Green Parrot and a Dog, all of whom joined the BAT in singing the National Anthem (the Mackeral were given the benefit of the doubt).We are now heading North and shaping a course for several of the waypoints that will earn the Youth Crew bonus points as they sail towards their goal at the Gladstone Pilot boarding station. All handshave had a very steep learning curve as they come to realise that sailing a tallship involves not only technical knowledge but an understanding of how to coordinate a very diverse and dynamic team.There are still 12 hours left in Command day so there will be plenty of opportunities to exercise the different interpersonal skills they have learnt onboard. Command day is also a valuable experience for the Staff Crew as it always is surprising and rewarding to see the changes that the Youth Crew go through and how the natural leaders emerge.YOUNG ENDEAVOUR fact file: The Ship is operated by the Royal Australian Navy on behalf of the YOUNG ENDEAVOUR Youth Scheme. The scheme includes an Advisory Board made up of Senior leaders fromGovernment, the Navy and the business community. The Advisory Board is responsible to the Minister Assisting the Minister of Defence to ensure that the aims of the scheme are met.Thought of the day: Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print and experience is when you don’t. Pete SeegerHappy Birthday to Blue Watch Leader Luke.Yours, AyeJohn CowanCelebrity Captain’s Log Contributor-Chef PollyHey there all, well it’s that time of the voyage again where I get a bit of a break and do the paper work due to the 3 wonderful cheffos from the youth crew taking over the galley. Lunch and dinner were great and breakkie to come, with a touch of morno’s as well mmmmmmmmm. I would like to say a huge hello to my girlfriend Mellissain Ireland and and my son Liam in Nowra. Miss you both heaps. The voyage has been great so far and all the more enjoyable due to the fact that it’s not rough any more and EVERYONE is eating again. How could they not after being up here in Nth QLD in the sunshine and fresh air.That’s about it now and I have to pull the meat out of the freezer for tommorrow.Ahoy again from Dr Sue,So here we are again, hot on the heels of Flinder’s Investigator, as the Youth Crew sail the boat north out of Bustard Bay. Hopefully thenight will not be anything like the one Flinder’s had!! If you check his charts you’ll see a track that zigzags all over the place, even though he had a good wind from the right direction (just like tonight). You’ll also notice that the zigzags are confined to a fairly small area of ocean.The problems were twofold. Firstly, the Investigator was sailing in company with the Lady Nelson, at least, she was trying to. The investigator had a few problems, including a permanently leaking hull, but even so, she was a much better sailing ship than the Lady Nelson. So Flinders had to keep tacking and back tracking to stay with the slower vessel. In addition to that, Flinders was fully aware that the Australian coast was rather close to his western side, and he also had a strong suspicion that there were islands and reefs to the east. Neither had been adequately mapped, and goodness knows what was lurking just below the surface. I’d imagine that the lookouts up in the rigging had their work cut out for them.Thanks to people like Flinders, and the surveyors like Philip Parker King who continued the mapping of our coastline, voyages like ours can be enjoyed in safety.Until next time,Dr Sue.