Never a trial

Ahoy there Shipmates,We had another busy night at sea with the crew monitoring the safety of the Ship throughout. As the wind remained a relatively constant 15 knots from the NE we motor-sailed to ensure we would arrive at our planned anchorage at Trial Bay on time. During the morning watch, as we approached our anchorage the breeze freshened and backed to a southerly so we furled and brailed the fore-and-afts and motored the rest of the way, anchoring off South West Rocks at 0745.We all mustered on the bridge at 0900 for the morning brief. Salty explained, with assistance from some fine Staffy actors, the reason we ‘split the Dog Watches’, after which Nana paid us her first visit and gave the crew some more pointers on the importance of tidiness and cleanliness onboard. After that she taught the Youthies the song, ‘Crabs and Sea Shells’.The crew then launched into ‘Happy Hour’ while the Staffies prepared the boat for transporting the watches ashore. After another of Cinnamon’s delicious lunches the Youthies were then ferried ashore in the Ship’s RHIB (rigid hulled inflatable boat) by Watch Officer Evan. The carrying capacity of the boat is 8 and the wharf was a 10 minute trip so it took us an hour to get everyone ashore. The purpose of the visit to South West Rocks and the Arakoon Gaol, the owners of which generously waived the addmitance charge for the crew, was to give the crew a short break off the Ship, a chance to see some local sights, get some exercise, go for a swim, go to the shops and also to prepare for tonight’s activity known as the 3-way-chat. The crew were broken up into groups of 3 and had to learn about each other to enable them to speak for 2-3 minutes on either of their group members. It is a very effective way for the whole group to learn more about each other as well as providing a public speaking challenge to everyone.The youth crew returned onboard by 1630 and we then prepared for our ‘teak-deck’ BBQ, cooked by me and served on the deck, allowing us to enjoy the views of Trial Bay foreshore at night. We kicked-off 3-way-chats at 1900 and I was very pleased that everyone had taken the task seriously and had learnt enough about each other to be able to talk for the 3 minutes. During discussions I had with the crew about their ‘run ashore’ many commented how friendly and interested in talking about the voyage so far, that the locals were.After 3-ways Navigator Adam briefed the crew on their duties during anchor watches, which the crew began on completion of the brief and continued through the night. We have planned our anchorage to allow for the expected wind to freshen during the night.It is intended to weigh anchor and sail in the morning straight after breakfast to take advantage of the expected southerlies to set the square sails for the first time during this voyage and continue making ground northwards.Until tomorrow evening.Yours AyeCaptain Mike