Day 4 – Farewell Port Stephens. Thanks for having us

Last night the youthies participated in ANCHOR watches throughout the evening/night of Day 3 and the morning of Day 4, in which they were organised into groups of 3 or 4, this time from different watch colours.

In these anchor watches the youthies would check the position of the anchor, monitor the navigation system and complete the rounds log.

At 0630 we were woken up to the deep fried speaker audio of Hoodoo Gurus “A Thousand Miles Away” along with a walk around deck until all youthies were awake. A competitive game of Ubuntu helped wake the last of us up, with the staffies pleased to have won their second ever voyage Ubuntu game.

Hoisting of the flags or ‘Colours’ was conducted 0800. White watch was tasked with raising the flags and ringing the bells prior to a rendition of the national anthem.

For breakfast we had eggs benedict, on english muffins, with a side of bacon and baked beans. Following this great meal we conducted our second Happy Hour, splitting into the same groups as the first time to clean the ship.

Navigation tutorial with staffie Matt followed, in which we learnt to triangulate our positions using three known and stable points of reference, among other methods of seafaring navigation.

We had a ten minute break before we went into another talk, with Karsen. During this talk she taught us the basic ‘road rules’ of the ocean (eg. giving way port-to port-to avoid head-on collisions, signals/lights red over green to indicate a sailboat ‘red on green is a sailing machine’).

Lunch consisted of nachos and meat pies. We learnt how to set and clew square sails, which made a large proportion of the youth crew feel like pirates.

We set sail 1430 and conducted tacking drills, rotating between the stations of the three different watches to experience the roles of the other watches.

We had a large break (‘siesta’) after setting the sails as required for the course.

For dinner we had penne bolognaise and salmon in hollandaise sauce. Thank you so much to Steve for such delicious meals! A great way to finish of the day before we started our watches for the night at 1830.

Damien and Scarlett.

– Hey Mum, dad, Alex, Darcy and Harrson. I’m having a great time out here! Loving every second of it. We’ve been doing lots of stuff and I am missing you all so much. Time has been moving so fast, I can’t believe that It’s already day 4! I love you all and please say hello to the pets from me. – Damien

– Love you Mum, Dad, Kate, Tom, Inca and fish! I’m having a great time. Haven’t been ‘catatonic’ once and after the initial sea sickness it feels like I’ve ‘always been here’, if you know what I mean :). – Scarlett.