STORM SAIL PRACTICE

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day 31 of our voyage. Following yesterdays ‘Sunday Routine’ it was business as usual today but just for something different we through in the setting and handing in of storm sails. Young Endeavour only has two storm sails which are the storm tri-sail and the storm jib; both are bright orange in colour and normally only come out when the weather is extremely bad (40kts+), not that we are expecting this kind of weather but you never know what you may get when sailing in these latitudes and crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Having now observed our World Voyagers undertake a time trial to set both of these sails and I can assure you that they are extremely good we are now well and truly prepared should we run into some heavy weather.You will notice again that Chef Marcos get a number of mentions in tonight’s log as he continues to amaze us with his culinary skills and his ability to mix up the menu which is something all of us enjoy. So that we can give Marcos a well deserved a sleep in the watches have taken it upon themselves to have a bit of a breakfast cooking competition which started this morning with Red Watches Israeli breakfast. I am not sure what will be on the menu for tomorrow but if this morning’s effort was anything to go by I am sure that we are in for something good.As forecast the wind has continued to moderate which has meant that we have had to start one engine so that we can maintain the 5.5kts required to get us to Mindelo on schedule on Friday morning. Looking at the latest forecast these light conditions will remain with us for the next 24-36hrs before freshening again so hopefully we should still manage to get in some more sailing prior to reaching Mindelo.In tonight’s log I have added some photographs taken by the World Voyagers as part of Dougies Photography Competition and I am sure that you will agree that we have some very talented photographers in our crew.Volunteering to write tonight’s Log are White Watches Axel and Gilly, please enjoy. Until tomorrow, take care.Yours AyeCaptain GavCaptain’s Log, Saturday 21 SeptemberWhite WatchAxel and GillyAfter a relaxing Sunday sail our Monday morning kicked off with a breakfast shakshuka, a delicious Israeli dish prepared by red watch (Steve). Morning Brief at 0900 revealed that white watch had done what many claimed to be impossible and taken out the title for most distance travelled for the third night in a row.All watches then joined in on a united effort to prepare the ship for a brief and practical on using storm sails. This included brailing the main, bracing the yards, furling the Jib, fisherman and centring the main staysail. We followed this with happy hour and then went into a brief with Dougie on the Storm Jib and Storm Tri-Sail. These sails are mainly reserved for use in storm emergency situations, so Dougie had our undivided attention, hopefully we won’t need to put what we learnt into practice.Lunch was the next order of business; Marcus was back in galley and had prepared a feast which included pork chops, spicy chicken and a creamy carbonara. We thought this menu was unbeatable, little did we know what he had in store for dinner. After eating so much many of us made use of a couple of hour’s downtime for a siesta. While many were on deck relaxing a shout came over the pipe that Shaun had hooked a monster fish. We raced to lower the sails in order to improve our odds of reeling in this behemoth but unfortunately Poseidon had other plans. The fish got away much to our dismay.Following this heartbreak we tried to get back on track with some friendly non competitive competition. The first round of Shaun’s happy time with Shaun (nothing like rope races………..) was upon us! After playing a few rounds of a peg game with less rules than a street fight we ended up playing charades but a final challenge of creating our own original Haka and performing it in less than 5 minutes was used to determine the winner. From memory red watch won the title but it could have been blue, it wasn’t white so we don’t really care.After Shaun’s happy time with Shaun we went straight into applying our new knowledge of Storm sails and we set both the Storm Jib and Tri-Sail a number of times until Dougie was happy with our efforts. The only time our eyes strayed from our work was to stare excitedly at the schools of flying fish darting along the surface before disappearing back into the depths. We also have a bird (which Gilly has named ‘Pepito’ that is constantly stopping for a rest on various lines around the ship.We then made our way below decks to dinner where Marcus blew us away with an amazing dish of Nasi Goreng and the famous sausage rolls that no one can get enough of. And for desert we gorged on freshly baked churros with vanilla ice cream and delicious chocolate sauce which had us all on our feet giving Marcus a long and deserved round of applause.White watch is in charge of breakfast tomorrow and we have an amazing menu planned that hopefully everyone will enjoy!Until tomorrow, from all of us, stay classy.Axel and Gilly.Shoutouts:Gilly: Happy Birthday to mum!!! It’s a bit early here but hopefully you’re waking up to this on your birthday morning! Have a good day, and I’ll talk to you in Mindello! Love you! xxooDan: A Massive Happy Birthday to the best big sister in the world! Have a great day Teresa! Make sure you take some time to celebrate and get Lassie to give you a hug for me! Wish I could be there with you, but sailing is pretty darn awesome! Stay Classy, Love Heaps and Heaps! XX