V05/13 Day 8 – Port Hacking to Sea

Ahoy there Shipmates, After a restful night at anchor in the approaches to Port Hacking, the crew were awoken by Sail Master Rick at 0630 and mustered on deck for an early morning game of ‘Knights, Mounts and Cavaliers’. We then dined on another of Luke’s delicious breakfasts prior to the Morning Brief, which included a dramatisation depicting the origin of the Naval expression ‘2 – 6 heave’, followed by a visit form Nana. This was followed as usual by the ‘happiest hour of the day’ and then a deck game called ‘Spiderweb’ which requires particular contortionist and balance skills to be successful onboard a rolling ship. After lunch the my Staff Crew and I got dressed-up in our best holiday outfits and conducted the handover ceremony at which I handed Young Endeavour over to Captain Tom and his able-bodied crew to use for Command Day to achieve their tasks and most importantly to have fun! Until tomorrow at 1300 when the adventure of Command Day draws to a close! Yours Aye Captain Mike Greetings Shipmates! Youth Crew Captain Tom here, we are well and truly into command day and so far it has been very eventful! We took charge of the Ship at 1300 after a moving rendition of ‘We’re all going on a summer holiday’ by the staff crew. With a Captain’s cap on my head and the original Ship’s spy glass under my arm, the command team and I started the planning phase before setting sail. The task list Capt Mike had presented to us seemed a tall order with 5 way points and 24 tasks to complete before we handed the Ship back in 24 hours time. We began to delegate tasks and the Nav, Radar, began to plot our course and members of the crew began preparations for the demonstrations, brass polishing, song writing and beach landing parties, to be judged by the staff crew. At approximately 1430 the anchor was hauled in and once outside of the heads the youth crew took the con. After several ‘practice tacks’ we made the correct heading and made the first two waypoints in good time. Unfortunately all our practise meant that we were late for the beautiful dinner that our chefs Jack, Bree and Amelia had prepared. Night watches are now taking place with a wear expected to take place within the next couple of hours to remain on course for our 4th waypoint. The 5th waypoint should be reached during the early hours of the morning thanks to the great efforts put in by the crew. With command of the Ship not being handed back until 1300 we are expecting to drop anchor during the night and start knocking over the task list in the shelter of the harbour, during the morning. Plenty of smiles amongst the crew and all looking forward to tomorrow. Until tomorrow night when I will report on the second half of command day. Best Youth Captain Tom     “