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South Percy Island
Greetings all,We continue to be blessed with glorious weather. After making a comfortable  overnight transit from Great Keppel Island we have arrived at the Percy Island Group, approximately  70nm south east of Mackay. This will be an excellent starting point for tomorrow’s Command Day. From all reports ‘Apples and Onions’ went well last night, and the way this group have come together, both in their individual watches, and as a Youth Crew, was very evident in this mornings “Captain’s Setting and Furling’ activity. For the uninitiated, this involves me challenging each watch to set/furl a variety of sails unassisted, and assessed by myself and engineer Brett. As reported below all passed with flying colours, an important achievement prior to Command Day. After lunch it was a trip ashore to a remote beach for fun and games, returning for another ‘teak deck BBQ’, Command Day elections (run by the Youth Crew themselves), and the inspirational movie ‘Around Cape Horn’. They have a big 24 hours coming up and we are all looking forward to seeing how they face the challenge of taking Command of Young Endeavour (don’t worry…staffies will be keeping a close eye on proceedings). I will let the gents explain more…Until tomorrowCaptain Kenny Ahoy there land lubbers! Today it is Ayden and Raife reaching out to you all from Percy Island.Today we set anchor at the striking Southern Percy Island. We started the day with good old classic Bacon and Pancakes, just the bit of energy we needed to keep us going. After breakfast, the youth crew divided up into their watches for Captain Kenny’s “Setting and Furling†exercise. We are happy to report that each watch passed Kenny’s test with flying colours. After this activity the youth crew and the Staffies worked together to get the crew set for our day ashore. Once ashore most of the Youthies jumped straight into the water without realising just how cold it was. Once we got all of the snorkelling gear ashore most of the Youthies and some Staffies went for a swim and a snorkel – we sighted a few stingrays, some fish and a whole lot of oysters!! Some Youthies were lucky enough to see a majestic green sea turtle swimming and observing them from the depths below. Due to the tide receding we then competed in a ‘friendly’ game of touch football. We won fortunately! After a few hours of soaking up the tropical rays we headed back to the ship in order to be ready for some more of Captain Kenny’s infamous Barbequing. For the past couple of days the youth crew have been thinking about what positions they would like to do on Command Day. As the hour loomed ever closer, the time had come for the Youthies to elect their own command team for Day 8. We are happy to report that all roles have been filled by capable hands. The Staffies still have the helm of this mighty vessel… until tomorrow! We’ll fill you in tomorrow evening for how the first afternoon went – we’ve learnt a great deal of mariner skills and we’re sure, in the words of Captain Ervin Johnston, we’ll all make ‘super mariners’ ☺ Captain-Elect Ayden and Sail-Master Raife off comms!
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Course:  At anchor    Speed:  0 ktsWind:  ESE at 6 knots    Swell:  SE at 0.5 metres   Weather:   Fine
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Ahoy followers of our Young Endeavour journey! Command Day. We made it.
The beautiful weather at our anchor point at Jervis Bay made for a spectacular day under the command of our fellow Youth Crew! A morning stretch and some wise words from the Ship Crew gave Captain Waz and the team a step in the right direction.
With the new watches all set and ready to go, Captain’s Setting and Furling gave all our youthies the chance to prove their abilities on the high seas. Strong performances from all three watches; Sharkies, Chompers and Narwhals!!
Morning brief gave the Sailmaster a chance to give us the daily orders and help get everyone on the same page. With the staff crew getting ready for a holiday and giving us the ship, floral shirts and party music filled the deck and, with some final preparations, the ship was ours.
The Captain was given a small but very significant envelope that contained the essential, non-essential and completely optional tasks to be done over the course of the next 24 hours. 2 tacks were to be made at a minimum before leaving the bay and safety checks were the essential tasks to start our journey. However.
More amusing, optional tasks allowed some of our youthies to become part of the “Beach Assault Team” while others were put to the task of making a slideshow of the voyage, tying all the knots on the list, etc. These were some activities that bided the time for our incredible navigator - Ruscoe to set out a plan and work together with the Sailmaster - Hugh to create a sail plan.
Tacking stations were the focus for our late afternoon, preparing to weigh anchor and leave such a beautiful bay, for our last stretch of this incredible voyage.
Happy Birthday to the Capitan, Warwick, who turned 24 today! The wonderful MasterChef’s created a “cherry ripe” cake out of rice crispies, coconut, chocolate, and love. With a beautiful ceremony to end our day.
Sailing into the night leaves us the ability to see the lights from our destination. Sydney, here we come!
Wish us luck! From Nat and Tom!!
ARRRGH, ahoy there from the spectacular Jervis Bay! We’ve all been taken A-back by the crystal clear blue waters and snow white sands.
After a well deserved sleep in these sheltered waters which was a refreshing change to clinging to our bunk racks for dear life for the past few days, the ship rose to another banger of a morale tune “sung” by Blue Watch. Brekkie was fun after the early morning activity to get us all up and moving. We held another round of competitive not-competitive rope races which culminated in smashed eggs on deck and the mummification of said egg smashers.
Roast lamb for lunch was prepped by the staffies in the absence of our culinary wizard Steve. Once cleaned up, we took the RHIB’s across to Captains Beach bordering HMAS Creswell which was a mind-blowingly beautiful little spot. Pretty much everyone had a dip in the drink and a roll in the sand and played some creative beach games run by our Suitability legends, Speedy Sam and Eggs.
A few hours at the beach made everyone ready to head back home and attack a teak deck barbeque, devouring cheese platters, steaks, sangas, and salads. With our full stomachs, us youthies initiated the highly anticipated elections for our command day roles. Which will commence sometime around midday tomorrow. We held a vote for each available role that all willing youthies put themselves forward for.
The following roles were voted as follows: Captain – Warwick, Sailmaster – Hugh, Navigator – Ruscoe, Officer of the Watch – Dan, Watch Leader – Nick, Ben, Bridget, Master chef – Emily, Mackenzie, Alyshia
We were greeted after our elections by a low flying anti-submarine MH60-Romeo Helicopter which did a cool fly around our ship. *Thanks Squizz!!* And then watched an amazing film about the rounding of Cape Horn back in 1929 on a 7 story tall sail ship.
Signing off from our anchor watch, Ben and Giles.
“I believe that positive energy and optimism help us to take up any challenge in life and to succeed in even the most difficult tasks. I also believe that positive energy is contagious: We can transmit it to others”
