Nelson Bay, Sun, Dolphins…and First Climbs.

Ahoy shipmates…Day 2…a busy one. We arrived in Nelson Bay at 2330 last night, much to the relief of a few of the youth crew who were a bit green during the transit from Newcastle. Staff crew then kept anchor watches overnight, allowing our young adventurers an opportunity to recover from their first introduction to life at sea and to get a good night’s rest. As promised, we have kept them busy…but I’ll leave it to Noah and Khushi to elaborate below. Tomorrow we will resume our passage north, with westerly winds over the next few days likely to make for some awesome sailing. That’s it for now…until tomorrow, fair winds Captain Kenny———-
It’s strange to think that we have been on the Young Endeavour for more than 24 hours at this point – both because we feel like we only just arrived, and because we’ve downloaded about a week’s worth of information in that time. With the onset of seasickness that affected most of us on our first night, we had already overcome our first challenge as a youth crew by morning. Walking on a moving boat for the first time was one thing, but we also had to figure out a way to fall asleep while Young Endeavour was bobbing up and down en route to Nelson Bay – which was easier for some than others.
As the sun rose and our “I’ll be Riding Shotgun…” alarm went off at 0630 (courtesy of Jemma), we found ourselves anchored and feeling a lot less sick. We kicked off the day with some precision walking around the boat in our PJ’s and a funky icebreaker that involved us passing around a plush banana. Captain Kenny had told us last night that this would be a big day – “big” turned out to be an understatement. The boat may have stayed still, but our knowledge travelled leaps and bounds. Before lunch and after some safety training, we found ourselves climbing the 30m-tall foremast with our harnesses. Each member of the Youth Crew made it up and down without a hiccup – which we discovered afterwards was a rare feat. We made it down in time for a beautiful lunch courtesy of the Young Endeavour chef Keely – steak sandwiches and roast duck with plum sauce, yum.
After lunch, we launched into learning more about the specifics of setting and furling the sails. Each Youth Crew watch rotated around the ship, learning what to call out and where to be when something is called out, as well as all the names and procedures that go into putting the sails in place. Initially, it all seemed to go over our heads but a couple of hours later, we had all successfully set and furled three sails. Later that afternoon, many of us jumped back up on the foremast to watch the sunset before our barbecue dinner. After filling ourselves up with everything from chicken to kangaroo meat, we used our free time to hang out in the café and eat some cookies while waiting for ANCHORSS training with Emma. And that brings us to this quiet couple of hours as we wind down and prepare for our first overnight rotations as we keep watch on the anchor, weather, engines, and radar…
A pretty crazy day that has us feeling accomplished and excited for more 🙂

~ Noah and Khushi