The Demands of Life at Sea

Situation at 20:00- Last night the watch-on-deck was busy sail handling and wearing theb Ship. Each watch made very good progress as the Ship continued South towards Coffs Harbour. There was some excellent work aloft sea furling the T’Gallant and Topsails when the wind backed around to the Sou’West.Today’s morning brief started off with Navigator Phil showing us the progress made over the past twenty-four hours. He noted that the ‘Spewometer’ reading had fallen and was likely to work its way down to zero before too long. The Salty Sea Dog described the nautical origins of the phrase ‘Hijack’. This proved to be very entertaining and colourful. Engineer Stewy produced a respectable harvest for his scranbag. The guilty culprits were soon doing their best Frog impressions at ‘midships. Happy hour was very well attended today. Some music from the Staff mess CD player made cleaningstations a bit more enjoyable an experience. After morning tea,Navigator Phil delivered a lecture on navigation. Before long he wasimpressing the Youth Crew with terms such as ‘Lines of Position’,’Mercator Projections’ and ‘Bearing Amplitude’. He got so carried away that he almost revealed the secret navigator’s handshake.Once the lunch dishes were cleared away, XO Paige led the Youth Crew in the second episode of Rope Races. There was stiff competition but Blue watch emerged victorious. The next activity was an exercise in effective communications. The Youth Crew were divided into three groups and the objective was to have one group pass a set of instructions through the second group for the third group to complete. Each group had to communicate through different mediums, yet still get the message across. This proved to be a valuable demonstration of how important good communications is for any group activity. At 16:00 YOUNG ENDEAVOUR anchored in Coffs Harbour.The Youth Crew have just completed the three-way talks. In this activity, they are divided into groups of three and given thirtyminutes to learn the life story of the other two members of their group. They then have to role play the life story of one of theirgroup, chosen at the last moment, to the remainder of the Ship’s Company. The aim is for them to learn more about the members of the other two watches as well as gain a small amount of experience in public speaking. The Youth Crew have just been assigned their anchor watches. They will only need to be on watch for an hour, which will give them a chance to catch up on some of the sleep they have missed out on over the past few days. We have had a great sail down from Brisbane and the Youth Crew have adjusted well to the demands of life at sea. YOUNG ENDEAVOUR Fact File: The Ship is fitted with two 444kg anchors. These are attached to 5 shackles (450′) of 17.5 mm anchor cable (chain). YOUNG ENDEAVOUR has anchored safely in winds up to 50 knots.YOUNG ENDEAVOUR Glossary: Naval Pipe- The pipe connecting the cable locker with the capstan. They lead the cable from its locker to the foc’sle where it is rove around the gypsies on the capstan. Hawse Pipe- The opening in the bows of the Ship where through which the cable runs outboard. The anchor is rigged outboard of the hawse pipe and fits into it when secured for sea.Thought of the Day: Do not pray for easy times, pray to be stronger. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your task. John Fitzgerald Kennedy.Yours, AyeJohn CowanLCDR, RANGday Mum, Dad, Stephen and Lara and sundry others. Having a great ime. Wish you were here. Been up the mast and loving it. Love Ya AllDavidHi Mum and Dad…having a great time, the sailing has been great and I am learning heaps about sailing a tall ship. Its a bit different to our boat but the concepts are pretty much the same. I’ve climbed right to the top of the mast and out to the end of the topgallant yard…very scary but exciting at the same time. This trip has so far been a lot easier and much more enjoyable than my trip up the coast at Easter.Love to champas.Nick.