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Day 11 – Small pieces combine to make the impossible possible.
Ahoy there armchair scrollers and vicarious adventurers! We made it. The ship has returned to the Noakes Shipyard for a short maintenance window after an amazing Summer Sailing Programme. We have had nearly 100 Youth Crew onboard in the last 7 weeks for four incredible adventures. Voyage 04/25 has now left us, it was a proud moment farewelling this crew as they had a very real and very exciting 11 day Voyage of self discovery and blue water challenge.
We left Hobart, anchored in Coles Bay while the northerlies blew themselves through, weighed anchor on Day Five and made best speed for the South East Coast of NSW. Across Bass Strait we were met with a beautiful point of sail as we were full and by 120 degrees on a well balanced broad reach. The winds and seas built and we had some thrilling moments with 50 knot gusts and 5m seas reminding us that we are a small ship in a large ocean. Young Endeavour’s pedigree saw us through as she has done countless times in the past and we felt safe, secure and exhilarated as we averaged over 11kn on our long stretch from Coles Bay to Jervis Bay.
We anchored up and recuperated on Captains Beach. HMAS Creswell made for a tendresse backdrop as we had a BBQ on the teak deck and a swim at anchor. We rested and readied as our next stretch was Command Day with Captain Waz and his team sailing the ship over 96nm to get us home. Amazing voyage, inspiring Youth Crew and a resilient Ship Staff Crew made this adventure possible. I’d like to share some words of inspiration written by Mackenzie and Nick when they were asked to put pen to paper and summarise “teamwork” on Young Endeavour;
“Teamwork, a word so often spoken, but its true meaning so rarely understood. Young Endeavour has shown us its authentic truth, that everyone has something to share; a small piece of an unfathomable puzzle, and it is only through working together with each of our small pieces combined that we are able to achieve what many would conceive an impossibility.
10 days ago, 24 Young Australians embarked on this journey. Today, we the youth crew brought together our small pieces to take Command and sail North to Sydney. Never underestimate yourself, you may just be the final piece that makes the impossible possible”
Time for a rest and then we are onwards and upwards Circumnavigating Australia from April-October 2025. See you on the next voyage!
Captain Leups Out +
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Weather: Sunny Wind: 15kn SE Temp: 22C
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Ahoy followers of our Young Endeavour journey! Command Day. We made it.
The beautiful weather at our anchor point at Jervis Bay made for a spectacular day under the command of our fellow Youth Crew! A morning stretch and some wise words from the Ship Crew gave Captain Waz and the team a step in the right direction.
With the new watches all set and ready to go, Captain’s Setting and Furling gave all our youthies the chance to prove their abilities on the high seas. Strong performances from all three watches; Sharkies, Chompers and Narwhals!!
Morning brief gave the Sailmaster a chance to give us the daily orders and help get everyone on the same page. With the staff crew getting ready for a holiday and giving us the ship, floral shirts and party music filled the deck and, with some final preparations, the ship was ours.
The Captain was given a small but very significant envelope that contained the essential, non-essential and completely optional tasks to be done over the course of the next 24 hours. 2 tacks were to be made at a minimum before leaving the bay and safety checks were the essential tasks to start our journey. However.
More amusing, optional tasks allowed some of our youthies to become part of the “Beach Assault Team” while others were put to the task of making a slideshow of the voyage, tying all the knots on the list, etc. These were some activities that bided the time for our incredible navigator - Ruscoe to set out a plan and work together with the Sailmaster - Hugh to create a sail plan.
Tacking stations were the focus for our late afternoon, preparing to weigh anchor and leave such a beautiful bay, for our last stretch of this incredible voyage.
Happy Birthday to the Capitan, Warwick, who turned 24 today! The wonderful MasterChef’s created a “cherry ripe” cake out of rice crispies, coconut, chocolate, and love. With a beautiful ceremony to end our day.
Sailing into the night leaves us the ability to see the lights from our destination. Sydney, here we come!
Wish us luck! From Nat and Tom!!
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”
