Captain's Log

V01/22 Hobart to Geelong

10 January 2022

Day 7 – King Island

Welcome to day 7 of our voyage. Again it has been an action packed day with Demonstrational Tacks and Captains Setting and Furling Drills completed during our passage over from Hummock Island to King Island, in what I would class as perfect conditions.

Once safely at anchor in King Island’s Sea Elephant Bay we conducted Command Day elections followed by a sunset climb of the foremast before settling into anchor watches overnight ensuring that our young mariners are well rested for tomorrow’s Command Day. Please enjoy a full narrative of today’s activities written tonight by Jo from Red Watch.

Until Tomorrow, take care.
Yours Aye
Captain Gav

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The past 24 hours have been some to remember. We started off the period with a movie called “Around Cape Horn” by Captain Irving Johnson. There is now a scholarship in his name for tall ship sailing around the globe. The movie was shown as it demonstrated the readiness of those previous generations of sailors to go around
the Cape in the wrong direction (east to west) rather than with the favourable trade winds of west to east.

The ship was one of the P Line style ship. 4 masts and something like 7 square sails to a mast. They were amazingly large ships carrying cargo all around the globe. We then went off to our racks, and for some of us (that’s me) got a pretty good sleep in. I was out of it until my 0530 anchor watch.

An anchor watch is normally 1.5 hours, but with the day how it is, the 0530 anchor watch finishes at 0630 with wakey wakey. Breakfast was a fare of pancakes with cream, fruit, jam and other condiments. We then upped the anchor started motoring in almost glassy seas from Three Hummock Island towards King island. A gentle zephr started to blow, the main staysail was unfurled, along with the forestaysail. At this time we also
braced the yards to starboard.

After some demonstrational tacks, where our esteemed Captain, Captain Gav, took the youthies through the process of tacking and wearing the ship at the helms position in groups of 3-6 people (1-2 from each watch) it starts with the sailmaster calling helms to lee, at which the helm puts 30 degrees of rudder on, then the mainsail is hauled to windward which unbalances the ship, pointing the nose into the wind. At the same time, the headsails are eased, to create less counter force to the mainsail.

Off turns is called, when most but not all youthies come down to half a turn of the belaying pins or cleats. The between mast staysails are let draw, which are the main staysail, topgallant staysail and the fisherman’s
staysail (if carried). The red watch then lets the braces out to green on the sheets, cause “GREEN IS GOOD” and “RED IS DEAD” then the blue watch takes up slack on the lee sheets. “ALL BRACES WELL” means to stop hauling on the braces, and just to take up slack.

Once the squares/braces have been set, all spare hands are called to the jib, where the most muscle is needed. Wearing (gybing) is very much similar to tacking but with a few less steps.

After the demonstrational tacks, we had lunch, which was chicken breast and Morrocan style lamb cutlets. There were wraps for those who preferred them.

After lunch it was time for our “Captains Setting and Furling” where each of the watches furled and or set our fore and aft sails (main staysail and forestaysail). The Captain’s Setting and Furling was started by red watch furling the main staysail. Carl called, I was heaving in on the furling line with one of our esteemed staff watch leaders Theresa. Kenny was the “dumb muscle” tailing after the belaying pin. Both Oli and Sari were checking away on the sheets. I can not remember who was on which one.

After furling the main staysail, Captain Gav gave us the rundown of what could have been better and what was amazing. It was all amazing.

We were then set to unfurl (or “set) the main staysail which saw Me of the lazy side heaving in. I’m pretty sure Oli was checking away on the furling line, and Sari along with some more dumb muscle was on the working side heaving in. All went smoothly with setting the main staysail. We did it in about 20 minutes or so, for both setting and furling, so the Wonderful Captain Gav got us to furl the forestaysail.

With this one, we had a slight malfunction of the winch, where the winch was no longer ratcheting. This just gave me no resistance when checking away on the sheet, and it also meant that the sheet wound up the
winch, making it wrap on top of itself – effectively creating a clove hitch. Even with this slight mishap, we got the forestaysail furled and completed the task, earning us a packet of TimTams. The other watches then completed a very similar set of sail changes, but I do not know which they did as I was down below eating TimTams!

After everyone had finished Captain’s Setting and Furling, we had almost arrived at King Island, where we anchored for the night in Sea Elephant Bay. No elephant seals seen yet.

We had a lovely dinner cooked by our illustrious Chef Jarod – blue dory, rib eye steaks, chicken something and vegetarian nachos. I tried both the rib eye and the nachos, and both got a 10 star review.

After dinner, we had to decide on positions for Command Day. We have Soph as Captain, Carl as sail master, Sam as navigusser, and Willy G and Niamh as Watch Leaders.

This Captains log is coming out a bit late as I went for an almost sunset climb up both the main mast and the
foremast when I definitely did not have time to do that.

As I am writing this I am hearing the Watch Leaders of the youthies stitch me up with the anchor watch, purely as I have had two nice ones before. (Best was this mornings, as Kenny let me off after only half an hour 0530-0600).

This Captain’s Log brought to you in story book fashion from the wonderful Jo of Red Watch.

(Due to a system glitch – Position: LAT 39 54.8 S / LON 144 07.5 E; Conditions: Currently at anchor in Sea Elephant Bay and enjoying moderate 8-12 SSW winds with a .5m southerly swell.

To follow the ship check out the GPS tracker at Where is Young Endeavour now?

Latitude/Longitude:

39 54.8 S / 144 07.5 E

Conditions:

Currently at anchor in Sea Elephant Bay and enjoying moderate 8-12 SSW winds with a .5m southerly swell.

AUTHOR: Commanding Officer STS Young Endeavour

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Day 10 – Community Day Sail Sydney Harbour

Good evening shipmates, After a well-earned quality night’s sleep at anchor in Hunters Bay, Sail Master Sara woke us with another of her soothing tunes to get us on deck for a quick early morning activity. After breakfast the staff crew weighed anchor and conducted the transit to HMAS Waterhen, at Waverton. We berthed there at 0900 and prepared to embark our guests for the Community Day Sail. At 1015 we cast off our berthing lines and departed with our 34 guests and commenced our 3 hour tour of the harbour. Our Community Day Sailors were a group 30 members and staff from the Windgap Foundation. We also embarked some defence personnel as well. We again passed under the Harbour Bridge and then proceeded into Rose Bay where we set some sails and commenced sailing back towards Waterhen. Whilst on the harbour our fantastic youth crew helped us host our Windgap special guests. They encouraged our guests to participate in setting the staysails and a square sail by helping to pull on the sheets and clewlines. The youth crew also helped Chef Ash to prepare and deliver the food to our guests on deck. At 1300, after 3 fun-packed hours on the harbour, we berthed back at the southern wharf at HMAS Waterhen. Once we had farewelled our guests it was time to commence our end-of-voyage activities and preparations. The staff crew managed to organise a visit to the RAN Ship MATV Sycamore, which is crewed by a mixture of civilians and Navy staff, is a multi-role aviation training vessel. The youth crew embarked with their watch leaders and were given a 45 minute tour of the ship by some of the Navy crew. On completion they returned onboard and Young Endeavour sailed and proceeded to our anchorage in Athol Bay, which affords a great view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. During the transit to the anchorage the Youthies undertook their end-of-voyage chats, facilitated by their watch leaders, to examine if they had achieved everything in their full-value contracts they had completed at the start of the voyage. After the traditional last voyage dinner of home made pizzas, Sara gave the Youthies the Harbour Furl brief, who then donned their climbing harnesses and laid aloft to undertake the ‘Harbour Furl’ of the square sails to make them look immaculate for our ceremonial arrival at the end of the voyage tomorrow. Once that was completed, the youth crew then finished off their final outstanding Command Day tasks, which were planned for the last night onboard. These included the Voyage Slide Show compiled of photos taken by everyone. This was excellent and provided a touching reminder of what we had experienced and the beautiful coastlines and islands that we had visited during the voyage. The final activity of the day was the end-of-voyage administration, which for the youth crew included a feedback questionnaire asking for feedback on their experience of the voyage, as well as a letter for each crew member to write to themselves on their experiences during the voyage, which the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme will post to the youth crew in 6 months time. The aim of this is to help reinforce what the youth crew have learned about leadership, teamwork and about themselves from the experience of the voyage. Once these were completed the crew were encouraged to go to bed. The Ship will remain in Athol Bay overnight and weigh anchor and sail in the morning at 0900 and undertake the transit to HMAS Waterhen, where family and friends will meet the Ship on arrival at 1000. Until you hear from me tomorrow for the final instalment of Voyage 04/24. Yours aye, Captain Mike

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Day 9 – Command Day Part 2

Ahoy from Sydney! For today’s Captain’s Log: the Youthies took over and completed several tasks including singing the national anthem in three different tunes as well as giving salty sea facts to start the day in a nautical way. We finally made it! After a long and weary effort of the command team and watches, we were able to fully sail into Sydney Harbour. At approximately 11:50 we anchored in Hunters Bay. To celebrate we had a groovtastic disco in the 12 berth due to excessive rainfall but the youthies made it work, having a blast dancing to Billie Jean. Afterwards, the youthies as well as the staff reflected on our efforts during command day, following the handover of the ship to the Staffies, where we highlighted what we did well, what we could improve on and what lessons we can take back to our normal lives, of which there are many. Continuing on from the previous log, with command day still ongoing. We encountered multiple problems. One of which being that mother nature didn’t bless us and gave us little to no wind to work with. However with the efforts of the Youthies we were able to successfully gather up to 8 knots of speed after a 4am tack in which the youthies persevered despite a lack of sleep enabling us to make our way into Sydney. Before our reflection the Youthies finished their day strong with a ‘Happy Hour’ cleaning session and one final dance. The afternoon was spent relaxing and recharging from ‘Command Day’, going aloft and furling the square sails. For dinner, Ash prepared a barbecue with steak, sausages, chicken kebabs with buns and an assortment of salads with a delicious chocolate cake for dessert. The Youthies are looking forward to the Community Day Sail tomorrow which will be a great opportunity to give back to Australia and put our sailing knowledge to the test. We have learned many lessons during ‘Command Day’, we pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone and together a crew of 24 youth were able to sail a tall ship into the harbour of Sydney. Today’s score: 9 camels and a donkey (Amazing) Until next time Rock on! Tarvi, Kaeden and Matt. P.S. Happy Birthday for tomorrow little bro, love Lil xx P.S.S. Kai, sorry I didn’t do the thing for Meg. I just remembered and will do it when back.

Thank you Tarvi, Kaeden and Matt for your narrative of today's events. Intentions are to remain at anchor in Hunters Bay, just off HMAS Penguin, home of the RAN Diving School, a place close to my heart, having spent many a day there under training as a young Officer! The plan is to weigh anchor and proceed to HMAS Waterhen, in Waverton, to pick up our Community Day Sailors from the Windgap Foundation and take them for a sail around the harbour for 3 hours. The Youth Crew will help us host our visitors and give them an experience of Young Endeavour. We will drop them back to Waverton and then proceed to anchor in the harbour where we will have a good view of the Bridge and the Opera House for the Youth Crew's last night onboard. Until tomorrow. Yours Aye, Captain Mike

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Day 7 – King Island

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