Day 5 – Bay of Fires and Wineglass Bay

Ahoy from Simoné and Aiden and… THE ONE, THE ONLY RED WATCH!!!!!!
From an early start at midnight to an early morning at 3am we are so happy to be reporting and sharing day five with you.
Day five started at midnight with a beautiful stargaze from the lower top on a crystal clear night. We then handed over to the morning watch who were so incredibly lucky to start their day from the lower top with the sun rising behind them and highlighting the bay of fires right ahead of us at 2 nautical miles. The amazing views from up the mast during the silent hours is truly inspiring.
Waking up to the tune of live bag pipes on main broadcast, and Hutchy leading us on the trumpet, we roused the rest of the ship with a salty sea shanty. The Navigator tried not to tell us but eventually let slip that our destination was to the one and only Wineglass bay!! Ready for a picturesque view and a dip in the ‘BIG pool’ we set our sails and glided along.
Turns out that seals basking in the sun with their flippers in the air look a lot like they have rolled over to say Hi as we sailed past! They were beautiful and really easy to see in the smoothed out glassy seas.
Captain Leups and Navs Matt gave us some detailed sail theory and Navigation Plan training. Turns out there is more than one way to skin a cat and we all learned a thing or two about a thing or two. Who would have thought us Salty Dogs would know all about points of sail and how to set a sail plan to get from A to B!
The afternoon routine of having lunch and then a deck nap siesta in the sun is great until Hitchy gets us all moving with Rope Races, finding all the lines for all the square sails (red watch knowing them all of course) we consolidated our learning from the previous day. The bonus round was a tough challenge resulting in brain freezes all over the ship as each team had to eat a Zooperdooper as fast as they could.. Fastest team (red watch) wins. Shout out to Lucy for her impeccable Zooperdooper eating skills.
We then anchored at the unreal beach of Wineglass Bay, with all Youthies ready for a swim and some ‘pool’ fun we all got ready and swung right in. With many back flops on the rope swing, and many laughs to be had, we all froze in the Tasmanian waters together. We can definitely say that the rope swing was the real winner today with everyone getting amongst it.
We are looking forward to our first night at anchor in the voyage so far! We have been sailing every night! Youthies are able to take lead of some watches on their own and truly showcase some of the skills that they have learnt.
With an exciting night ahead of us and hopefully lots of sleep we are ecstatic for the days ahead of us and looking forward to many wins for red watch to achieve.
Yours Aye, Simoné and Aiden +
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Weather: Sunny Wind: 10kn NE Temp: 21C
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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”


After a rather nonchalant guts watch with the Bluies, Reddies came in guns a blazing, setting our beautiful square sails preparing us for a speedy and eventful day at sea. Scaling (laying aloft) the Foremast, whilst the ship swayed kept the Reddies on their toes, holding on for dear life as they let out the gaskets for the Topgallant and Topsail Yards. A challenging activity to start off our day rewarded with a beautiful sunrise over Starboard.
During the day we participated in a Meteorology Brief led by our resident Nav guru TOMO, learning everything there is about fluffy, rainy and stormy clouds. This was followed by Lunch and a needed Siesta.
Whilst some slumbered, Bluies kept watch. They had brave volunteers to climb both main mast and to the topgallant yard to sea furl the sails.
In the afternoon, our Watches came together to have Mid Voyage Chats, where we had the opportunity to reflect on our voyage goals, experiences and discuss our hopes for Command Day. There were some very heartfelt talks, from overcoming fears, to gaining confidence in working as a team, and we set our eyes upon what we want to achieve in the rest of the voyage.
The first dog (Reddies) (from 1545 to 1745) was full of excitement, with over 50kn winds and up to 50 degrees on the OOOH AAAH meter (heel). Watching the waves break higher than the rails was an exhilarating experience and kept us holding on tight. Sites of sharks and a Cargo ship kept our lookouts entertained, while Callum lead an engaging activity on Charts. At the end of the first dog watch, Nick and Phil braved these treacherous conditions to lay aloft on the mainmast to wrangle the mainsail!
Rockin and rolling, Youthies (the newest salty sea dogs) Hugh, Bridget, and Nick!!