The Journey of a Lifetime

My voyage was from Brisbane to Sydney, I was recommended Young Endeavour by a friend and, to be honest, I had no clue what to expect, I had never been on a tall ship. I arrived in Brisbane and caught an Uber to the navy base, after a bit of searching around I managed to find it, it was not what I was expecting but I was incredibly excited to get on board.

I got to meet the people who I would be sailing with and they all seemed really friendly! I got along with a couple of them pretty much immediately. We boarded Young endeavour and started slowly venturing out into the cove we did some Ice Breaker activities that allowed us to get to know our fellow crewmates a bit better before we started learning the ropes. Over the next few days, we learnt all the basics as we made our way down to Sydney. With a lot of help from the staff, we started to feel a lot more comfortable on the ship, and it’s a good thing the staff were there too because the first three days in open waters were fairly stormy.

The boys’ dormitory was located at the very front of the ship below deck, by the end of the storm we all got very used to the feeling of falling as the ship bounced over the swell! it was a trial by fire but by the end, we all had our sea legs, so much so that when we were next ashore in Nelson Bay we weren’t used to the dry land and couldn’t walk in a straight line! That day in Nelson Bay was a good one, we got to visit the local stores for some confectionary supplies and we were able to do a hike to the top of Mt Tomaree which had amazing views in every direction you looked.

We returned to the ship and continued our journey, over the next few days we made our way down to Jervis Bay, along the way learning the rest of the skills needed to run the ship on our own without help from the staff. We anchored in Jervis bay for a day and a night, spending the day doing team-building exercises at the local navy base and the night enjoying an amazing BBQ with a selection of Kangaroo, Emu, and crocodile meat that all tasted amazing.

The next day we were officially given command of the ship and I was voted in charge of the schedule and daily operations of the ship until we arrived in Sydney. It was lovely sailing back to Sydney as we had a following swell and a following wind, which made for very smooth sailing and allowed us to open up almost all the sails, it made for quite the view at 01:00 am when we finally managed to get the Course sail up under the moonlight. I really enjoyed that watch, even though it was the graveyard watch.

We arrived in Sydney in record time and without having to wake up the crew in the middle of the night to conduct a tack, which they were all grateful for! We had a final night anchored at balmoral in Sydney harbour and spent the final day conducting a community day sail around Sydney harbour before finishing in Wooloomooloo.

My voyage was an unforgettable one, you may think I am being cleché saying that, but I am writing this recount of my experience in 2023, 4 years after my voyage and I still vividly recall everything about it. Since then I have told all my friends and family about it, encouraging them to have the same unforgettable experience I did.

Marcus Karozis

Voyage V12/19