South West Cape

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day two of our voyage. The Youth Crew awoke to a clear and sunny Tasmanian morning and were called up on deck by Sail Master Dion for their first Early Morning Activity (EMA). This consisted of an ‘ice-breaker’ game of getting to know a little bit about your shipmates before we let them loose on Chef Zac’s delicious continental breakfast. We had our first morning brief after observing the ceremony of colours at which the Australian White Ensign (Navy ensign) was hoisted aft on the ensign staff and the Australian National Flag was hoisted forward on the Jack Staff. It also included eight bells on the Ship’s bell and the ‘Still’ being piped on a Bosun’s call.The Staff weighed anchor at 0900 and the Ship got underway commencing our passage towards Port Davey. Cleaning stations (Happy Hour) followed then it was straight into a ‘Leaving Ship’ stations exercise followed by a detailed Safety Equipment brief given by Karly, our resident Safety Equipment specialist. On completion of that Dion handed the Youth Crew over to their Watch Leaders for sail setting and furling drills.By late afternoon the Youth Crew were proficient at setting and furling most sails so we called the ship to tacking stations and in light conditions completed our first set of tacks as a crew which consolidated an extremely good day of sail work.Early this evening we passed South West Cape just as the wind backed to north-westerly and freshened to 20 kn, just as forecast. By then we had reduced to motor-sailing with the Fore Staysail, Main Staysail and Storm Tri-sail set. The wind is expected to increase to 35 kn overnight and back further to south-westerly.Overnight we plan to stay at sea riding-out the strong winds sailing westwards under the reduced sail plan. It is intended to tack during the night, altering course to close Port Davey, which we expect to enter about 0900 tomorrow morning and proceed to anchor. Yours ayeCaptain Mike