Mallory Seamount

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day five of our voyage. The weather did improve overnight but this morning found us close to the Mallory Seamount which due to the unique weather conditions has a very unusual swell which we found ourselves in the middle of. To be honest it felt like being in a washing machine and it didn’t matter what course we altered to we continued to be tossed around. Needless to say we got away from there as quickly as possible and by lunch time had cleared this area and were enjoying a much more pleasant sea state.Given the improved conditions we reactivated our program today conducting our second round of rope races, a lesson on navigation by Dr Nick and a sail theory presentation given to Red Watch by me during the first dog.All signs of seasickness have now disappeared and you can see our World Voyagers settling into their watch routine and becoming more confident with everything onboard which is pleasing to observe.Currently we are located 300nm to the south east of Cape Town motor sailing due to the light conditions. We have now reached 37 degrees of latitude and will continue on our south easterly course until we start to pickup the stronger westerly trade winds which are forecast in the next couple of days.Writing the Captains Log for this evening is White Watch, please enjoy!Until tomorrow, take careYours AyeCaptain Gav CAPTAINS LOG 27 NOV 15On our fourth day at sea we woke to slightly calmer conditions and the lockdown of only entering the deck via the staff mess was dropped. New faces emerged at meal times as sea sickness finally began to clear. The café was a buzz with new energy, chess and card games. White Watch guided by their fearless leader Dougie, pulled off a solo watch wear the night before, Bec, Brig, Jack and Hamish, with the assistance of the knot bible, tackled a new knot to tie up the storm jib. But there was no rest as the morning brought new tasks as Matt, Hamish, Bec and Tam scrambled up the main mast to sea furl the main sail. With two swells it was time to take down the sails and rely on the engines until conditions improved.Nana made her first appearance at morning brief, bringing with her a collection of World Voyage crew items found (or stolen) scattered amongst the berths, from the night’s rocky weather. As punishment for being an untidy bunch we joined the crew as they instructed us in a classic Young Endeavour tune of crabs and seashells. Happy hour was in full swing after a day off cleaning stations due to rough weather conditions. A wet weather gear intervention was required after many World Voyagers struggled to find their allocated gear each time they went on watch. Kate after her hard work in the galley rejoined white watch, as Nick and other ‘voluntolds’ from each watch made up the new galley crew.Another delicious lunch was followed by a few hours of down time before rope races on the deck. While Red and Blue watches were able to gain a few points, white watch was again victorious -overwhelming the other watches with team work and smooth efficiency, although we need to be wary as another watch was spotted working on their sail theory in an aim to take our title in rope races to come.Dr Nick presented the world voyagers with an initial navigation briefing at midships. He began with an introduction of instruments and techniques used by early sailors and explorers moving to the equipment we currently use on Young Endeavour. The sun was out and a few took to the deck to exercise or simply play chess in the sun. Meanwhile downstairs some serious card action was underway. Sail master Kenny, teamed with Matt C ‘team Manny’ attempted to take on Bec and Tam ‘the Tack attack’ at 500 with the boys staging a momentous comeback to take the lead at game end.It is now a pleasant evening as we write this Captains Log on the last dog watch. A challenge has presented itself as Horto services the oil in the engine and we have been given strict instructions to keep the helm on a course heading of 115 degrees. For every degree you fall outside you must complete a push up with Dougie matching each push up to return home a fitter man.We are excited to see what the next few weeks hold with friendships forming, our knowledge blossoming and sea sickness now conquered.Team Tack Attack out!Shout Outs!!!Hi Weatherburn Clan – Mum, Dad, Daniel, Grandpa, Jenny, Ruth, Kiwi, Todd and Noodles! I’ve finally kept my food down today yay and having a wonderful time! Miss you all lots and can’t wait to see you at Christmas! ïŠ ïŠ Lots of love Tam (white watch)Hi Mum. Can you please check my post. From Matt Harland (red watch)Rose (red watch) sends a shout out to Jenko for making her potato, mushroom and leak pie for dinner – her favourite. Yum, yum, yum!
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Currently located 300nm to the SE of Cape Town and experiencing light to moderate ESE winds with a 1.5-2m SE swell. Our current speed is 6kts and the temperature is 15 degrees.
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Hi Everyone, Welcome to Day 6 of our voyage. The strong northerly’s experienced yesterday moderated overnight and by the early hours of this morning we had entered Great Oyster Bay and were now motor sailing due to the light conditions. Just before sunrise we altered course to the east and transited through Schouten Passage which gave the morning watch an opportunity to view the western side of the Freycinet Peninsular and witness a spectacular sunrise. Once safely through the passage we altered course to the north, handed in sail, then proceeded directly into the famous Wineglass Bay where we came to anchor at 0830. Once at anchor we conducted the normal morning’s activities and have spent the rest of the day enjoying this beautiful part of Tasmania. That’s enough from me I will now handover to Liv and Mei who have done a wonderful job of writing tonight’s Log. Until tomorrow, take care. Captain Gav Ahoy there! This morning started off with a “funny” parody of “Let It Go” from “Frozen” featuring a memorable yet un-relatable line: “the vomit never bothered me anyway”, created by Red Watch. Thankfully, White Watch could sleep through this as they were on guts watch from 0000 to 0400, where they worked as a team to set the storm jib in a record time of 40 minutes! Other highlights of the night included learning about navigation, steering the helm by the wind for the first time and our famous midnight café featuring a lot of vegemite. Some very special guest dolphins swam around the ship and looked truly majestic as they glowed with bioluminescence. We anchored and woke up to the stunning view of The Hazards at Wineglass Bay, which we later hiked up and saw a spectacular view of Young Endeavour looking gorgeous in all its glory. But before this, we had mid voyage chats where we evaluated our goals and how we’ve progressed since the beginning of the voyage. We then played the inaugural bin ball championships created by Bucky at Wineglass stadium featuring a sand court. Unsurprisingly, White Watch won with a tight score of 3-2 in the finals. After the hike, which we were told was going to be around 20 minutes but ended up being more than an hour, some Youthies took the chance to have a quick swim before going back to the ship. Tonight’s dinner menu included lamb satay curry and grilled chicken, as well as a special addition of Hoppy’s Sundae Bar, which proved to be very popular. Most of us decided to have dinner on the deck and take advantage of the picturesque view of Wineglass Bay. As always, a big shoutout to our Head Chef Haydo and Masterchef assistants for keeping our bellies happy! After dinner, we had a self-reflection “Stop Start Continue” workshop in our watches where we wrote about certain aspects we want to work on to improve ourselves. Hopefully we will see that we have been able to make progress on our goals when we get to read them again in six months’ time. We believe in you, you got this! Currently, we’re waiting to start the anchor watches (our favourite) and preparing to set sail again tomorrow. Finally a shoutout to Mum, Dad and Ruben miss you guys so much. Remember I’m looking at the same moon and stars as you are, Love you - Liv Shoutout to Dad as I live out his dream of “enjoying good food on a navy ship”. Mei This is Liv and Mei signing off J

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This morning the youth crew of the STS Young Endeavour woke to the frightening sound of red watch singing a parody of Riptide by Vance Joy over the ships intercom. This was then followed by the message that blue watch, the watch that was on guts the night before, could have a well-deserved sleep in. While members from blue watch went back to sleep the rest of the crew made their way down to the galley to enjoy another one of Haydos fantastic meals. After everyone had had breakfast the morning brief was given at 0900 which involved informing the youthies of the day ahead and a very educational story by Matty on the origins of the nautical term “two six heave”. After the morning brief the crew went below decks for Chucky’s favourite part of the day: Happy Hour! (Also known as cleaning the ship hour). In the afternoon the three watches conducted rotational tacking stations. This involved the watches rotating through the positions that the other watches fill when we tack which helped the crew get a better idea on what happens when we tack. Captain Gav came up on deck to give us a crash course about sailing theory and the ships history. This was very interesting and gave the youth crew a helpful insight into why different sails are used depending on different wind conditions. Round 3 of the famous Rope races were then commenced at noon with a twist of the round being worth double points. This highly non-competitive competition ended with Blue and Red watch drawing making it a close race for the rest of the trip The biggest highlight of most people’s day was sailing through the straight between Tasman Island and Cape Pillar in the afternoon. We all gathered at the bow of the ship as we gazed upon the spectacular columnar basalt edged cliffs rose up on either side of the narrow passageway. We had to furl all the sails, which involved sending two youth crew members up the main mast in rough swells and high winds to gasket the sail. Engines where turned on for the first time that day so we could safely pass the straight. The effort was truly worth it as we passed the resident seal colony and schools of dolphins. One of the greatest things about the STS Young Endeavour is even though the ship may sway from side to side and youth crew struggle to walk straight without getting knocked into a wall; the ships Chef continues to work hard and impress us with meals made from a kitchen which is smaller than the size of most people’s laundry room. It continues to amaze me how he keeps this quality in these rocky conditions. Not enough praise can be given to the hard work this man puts in keeping everyone happy. Go Haydo!Hi mum and dad I’m still alive, somehow we are already halfway through. See you in six days. Jack. You probably won’t see this but love you to the moon and back mum and dad. Riley. Until next time… Youthies Jack & Riley
