HOW ABOUT A SWIM IN THE NORTH SEA?

Hi everyone,Welcome to day 4 of our voyage. The crew of YE awoke to another beautiful sunny morning here in the North Sea and surprisingly it was quite hot. Given these beautiful conditions the first thing asked by the World Voyagers at morning brief was can we stop the ship and have a swim? After checking the water temperature, which by the way was a cool 18 degrees, I decided to approve this request so we handed in all sail, stopped the ship, then the majority of us had a refreshing 15 minute swim in the North Sea (58 degrees latitude) which I think is pretty cool!As expected the conditions have remained fairly light throughout the day but have now just started to freshen. In a way this is good because I think that most of the World Voyagers are now ready for some stronger weather which looking at the forecast we may get during the next 24-48hrs.Most of today’s news is well and truly covered by Scout, Sam and Kylie from White Watch who kindly volunteered to write tonight’s log so I won’t steel their thunder. Enjoy!Until tomorrow, take care.Yours AyeCaptain GavCAPTAINS LOG – 06 AUG 15AHOY there, Scout, Sam and Kylie here reporting for duty!We were awoken by the lovely sounds of ‘Morning Train’ a highly unpleasant song to wake up to. We did not want to take the morning train. But alas, we awoke and hustled to a quick breakfast before our shift on watch at 8am. Breakfast proved to be amazing with an assortment of pastries like the Bremerhaven blueberry and custard scroll and sultry scrambled eggs. I would like to put Chef Marcus in my luggage to take home. The first lesson of a Young Endeavour Youth Crew member is to limit portion control as the food is so amazing you do not want it to end up on the side of the boat#Seasickness.This experience so far has been a whirlwind of information and learning how to run a ship! Today was no exception with our watch setting, furling and checking lots of sails. We are yet to master any of these although we are trying our hardest.A delightful treat for today was a swim in the North Sea. This was a special opportunity to enjoy the amazing weather that we are experiencing! There were many crew jumping from all parts of the ship, particularly challenging was the jump from the bow sprit. The water was like jumping into a glass of icey cold water – mmm refreshing! After a quick splash we were back on deck; as staying in longer than 15 minutes will result in hyperthermia (just kidding…or am I?).The Captain is a generous man, allowing us a chance to catch up on our beauty sleep (which is much needed) – many lay in the sun and others took to their beds for some rest.At 2pm we had Ropies which is a challenge for each watch group against each other. This is a knowledge based challenge and our watch is particularly good. Along with this we heard from Taffy about the road rules of the ocean – which are much harder than driving a car, that’s for sure!Captain Gav also gave us a great talk on his career in the Navy, the Young Endeavour’s recent adventures and our upcoming events at Sail Bremerhaven and Sail Amsterdam. We were particularly inspired by his talk about reaching his goals and the important of perseverance.Sea sickness is finally subsiding after some horrible evenings like when Kylie vomited her lasagne up – her favourite food no more. Sam and Scout swear by their sea sickness bands.Still early days but we are making the most of this opportunity. We have 6 more days at sea so we are putting our best sea leg forward.Stand by for more adventures -You just have to sail with it,White Watch.