Day 7- Captain’s Challenge

Ahoy dear readers! Day 7 of the voyage found the ship anchored securely in Broken Bay, in the vicinity of Hungry Beach, part of the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Hands were called at 0630 for an early morning activity on deck followed by breakfast and morning ablutions. Morning brief took place at 0800, which was followed by cleaning stations. A clean ship is a happy ship after all!

Staff Crew weighed anchor at 0900 and proceeded out of the Hawkesbury River and into the Tasman Sea once again, enroute I gathered the Youth Crew at midships and introduced them to the next activity. A little thing we like to call “the Captain’s Challenge”. For this activity I set a challenge for Youth Crew to accomplish – without Staff Crew direction – which involved climbing and setting a sail plan, and requiring time management, teamwork, communication and leadership skills, not to mention climbing and sail handling skills. I can proudly say, ladies and gents, that the Youth Crew did successfully complete their challenge safely, efficiently and without incident. “Bravo Youth Crew”, I told them. “But wait, there’s more!”, Phase II was to hand-in all sail and sea-furl topsail and mainsail. New leaders and climbers sprang into action for this one, and again, they completed this second challenge successfully and without issue. Coincidently, Command Day is tomorrow… what a great way to demonstrate and/or witness certain strengths and abilities prior to, don’t you think? We thought so too 😉

We then returned to Broken Bay and found a lovely anchorage in the vicinity of Cottage Point, in Cowan Creek. What a spectacular spot!

Once the anchor was secured, Watch Leaders took charge and conducted a self-reflection activity with their watches and then I rounded them up and told them all about Command Day. Elections took place after dinner whereby several key positions were voted for, and the successful elected Youth Crew members are: Captain – Jason. Sailmaster – Liam. Navigator: Anthony. Watch Officer – Scarlett. Watch Leaders – Ava, Riley and Alice. Chefs – Will, Nick and Xena. Congratulations one and all. I’m sure they will all serve their crew well. Youthies then watched a movie at the teak-deck-cinema-under-the-stars (tallship movie obviously!) and now they have turned-to anchor watches to keep us safe overnight. Intend handing over Command of the ship at 1000 tomorrow, where I will give Jason and crew their Command Day Task List and Navigation Instructions. How exciting! Tune in tomorrow night to see how our young tallship sailors have fared, commanding their ship. Until then, stay safe.

Captain Adam Charlie Farley – Out+