A Bit of a Funny Story

After completing two excellent tacks in very difficult conditions, the Youth Crew completed the first part of their mission to pass through the assigned waypoint. Unfortunately just before midnight the wind backed into the south and increased to 40 knots. This had us immersing the lee rail in a flurry of spray as we surged ahead with the wind howling in the rigging. This proved to be more than just a passing gust and I reluctantly concluded that conditions were getting too rough to continue with the Command Day, so at 2330 I advised the Youth Crew that Staff were now resuming control of the ship. Youth Crew responsibilities obviously didn’t stop and they were soon handing sail in the strongest winds we have experienced thus far on the voyage.It took a good two hours before we had the ship snugged down and making some semblance of a course back towards Fremantle. Much of the night was spent slowly motor sailing into the strong southerly. This morning the winds had abated to about 25 knots so we increased speed a little but the big swell rolling in from the Great Southern Ocean was right on the nose and, as well as retarding our progress, has made the ride very uncomfortable. For most of today it has simply been a case of hanging on and trying to catch up on a little sleep when possible. Despite the setbacks our crew are now veritable shellbacks and are taking it all in their stride.We hope to be in Fremantle some time tomorrow morning but it will be no resting on our laurels as we have a busy day planned, but I’ll tell you about that later.Cap’n BobYouth Crew entry by Matt Templeton aged 17 from Canberra.As the mighty red watch leader Sal would say, this is a bit of a funny story”. The day started rather ordinarily when I was woken at 2330 by the youth crew skipper Ben