STRONG WINDS AND A LARGE SWELL

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to day 21 of our voyage. Sundays are meant to be a day of rest for the Young Endeavour Crew but that certainly hasn’t been the case today. With the exception of a mysterious lull in the weather this morning which saw us becalmed for just over an hour we have all been kept extremely busy fighting the elements and everything the Indian Ocean wants to throw at us. That has meant numerous sail plan changes in 25-35kt winds and trying to stay on our feet while the ship is thrown around in a large 4m swell.
Our World Voyagers are holding up very well and to e honest appear to be really enjoying the challenge of sailing the ship in these conditions. Most of the crews throughout the World Voyage have all stated that they wanted a really good storm during their voyage and I can assure you that Passage Eight have gotten their wish.
We are now into day three of our five day sailing run for the Boston Teapot Trophy and have continued to make good speed the only thing being that due to the gale force conditions we did have to reduce down to storm sails which did reduce our speed for a number of hours overnight. That said, we are now back sailing under fore staysail, 3 squares, main staysail and storm tri-sail and getting along quite nicely so we will keep doing the best we can.
Currently we are located 1425nm WSW of Fremantle sailing on a very broad port reach and maintaining a boat speed of between 9-12kts.
Volunteering to write tonight’s Captains Log is Jack and Brig from the recently formed Tahiti Watch, please enjoy!
Until tomorrow, take care.
Yours Aye
Captain Gav
CAPTAIN’S LOG – 13 DEC 15
Greetings from an incredibly wet Indian Ocean (Ocean bit aside, it’s just raining a lot). Tahiti watch were woken by a very soggy Hawaii watch for the forenoon watch this morning with the news that conditions had eased somewhat. This was a small victory as we were smacked by a big squall as soon as we got up on deck. First order of business was to furl the storm jib and send Jack and Hamish up the mast to cast loose gaskets on the course. This happened just as the wind backed and we entered the ‘eye of the storm’, meaning conditions got very unconducive to walking in a straight line. These relatively calm conditions persisted for about an hour and forced the furling of the jib, the topsail, the course and centring of the main staysail. It also gave ‘jack of all trades’, engineer Horto the chance to fix a damaged jib sheet. We were eventually forced to start up the engines to get us moving again. This must have sent a signal to Huey who immediately restarted the wind and the rain.
Moving to lunch provided yet another challenge to all on board, we must however be getting better as nobody hit the deck and Rose stayed safe from any mysterious swinging arms. After lunch a few of us settled in to watch one of the greatest films of all time. What’s that you’re saying Goose? You feel the need for? Ohhhh, the need for speed! The showing of Topgun meant that a few World Voyagers were compelled into pretending to be fighter pilots for the rest of the afternoon. Things soon quietened down as we settled into a delayed siesta and watches continued to march on up to the bridge.
Dinner of roast pork and spag bol was served by fill in chef Marcos, giving Jenko a well earned break. His day was not without incident however as he was seen marching about the deck looking for the potatoes. These were immediately assumed by Jenko to have been stolen. On further investigation and some querying Kenny came forward with a revelation. It is now accepted that as water rushed on deck last night it filled the potato footlocker with water opening the lid and spilling the spuds across the deck and into the drink. This means no more potato skin chips unfortunately.
BREAKING NEWS!
As we write this captains log we are interrupted by the announcement that we as Tahiti watch have just broken the World Voyage speed record! Reaching a staggering 15.6 knots under sail with Rose at the helm, we are now very pleased with ourselves and announce Tahiti as voyage 08/15’s speed demons.
Watches are now continuing overnight as we look forward to a couple more days of good sailing conditions before a lull forecast to arrive on Wednesday. This may spell the end of anymore real sailing for the voyage but who knows we may get some more favourable winds as we approach Fremantle.
That is all from your scurvy sea writers,
Jack Attack and Brig the Flying Dutchwoman
Shout Outs
Hey Jack! Hope you received my post card. Eleven!!! Missing you like crazy xx Not long now. Wish your Mum happy birthday from me. Love Rhianna xxxx P.S. The playlist is perfect.
Greetings friends and family! Experiencing some big waves and some awesome sailing. See you soon, Bec xx
Hello family, having a great time in some rough weather, see you in Melbourne, Hamish.
Hi, from Café Corner- Matt Harland
Hi Charles, Thank you so much for my journal, I’m loving it. I’m looking forward to reading you a few passages from my adventure. Merry Christmas- Matt G
Hi, Tim’s girlfriend. Please forgive Tim for his rude behaviour the other day. Despite what he says he really does love my beard. He hopes to one day have a beard of such stature. Peace out homie, Jack
Hi Mum and Dad. Had some crazy weather overnight, all very exciting (except for lack of sleep) still having a great time! Glad I packed that extra jumper and thermals but it’s starting to warm up again as we get closer to Aus. Keen to see you in WA! Love Brigida
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Currently located 1425 nm WSW of Fremantle and experiencing very strong 25-35kt WSW winds with a 4m NW swell. Our current speed is 10kts and the temperature is 10 degrees.
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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”
