Day 6 – Bermagui to Sea

ARRRRRRGH, Ahoy there land lubbers.
Pinch and a punch for the first of the month!
We began our day finishing up out anchor watches, giving everyone a little more sleep and a break from our normal routine of watches. We were all awoken at 0630 to the blaring sound of ‘My Island Home’ and Evans cheerful voice. Breakfast was extraordinary as usual, brought to us by Chef Haydo and our Masterchefs. We then headed to our morning brief where White watch raised the flags for the youthies and staffies, and we and the staffies sung a rendition of Advance Australia Fair to Working Class Man tune. We were all excited to head on land and feeling grass once more at Bermagui, NSW so we sped through happy hour cleaning and out the transport and run ashore brief. While waiting for our turn to head ashore as we engaged in the Macarena and Nutbush, all laughing and having a jolly ol’ time.
We spent the morning exploring Bermagui, enjoying the small things like a fresh hot coffee, fish and chips, swimming at the beach, cute dogs and shopping at woollies for snacks.
Fun fact of the day the ships name Plaque is hand crafted with flowers of every Australian state and territory and from the countries of the United Kingdom who gifted the YE to us!
For today’s lunch menu we had beef burger chicken pesto pasta bake. As we weighed Anchor we spotted a pod of dolphins.
We set off north to sail past Sydney in preparation for command day. Unfortunately no swimming as the water surrounding us is famous for its great whites as Bermagui was once a whaling town as it is located close to the continental shelf. All youthies gathered at midships to set the jib, main staysail, mainsail and topgallant staysail, great effort and teamwork from everyone. After today’s round of Ropies, all teams are neck and neck even with our attempt at acting out an advertisement for bonus points, coincidentally we all chose KFC as our ad, competition was fierce.
We are well on our way to Sydney, having passed Montague Island, and soon passing Ulladulla, with swells reaching 2 metres high. We are now passing around seasickness tablets and strapping our bunk meshes to keep us tucked in, desperately fighting to stay in bed and stay upright as we walk around on-board. And as usual, plates were flying as Haydo cooked us a meal short of nothing but delicious, complete with tim tam chocolate ripple cake and curried sausages at 1715.
We are now heading into the night, also while on our watches tonight, the blue and red watches we going to have to stay up longer as daylight savings comes to an end. We are writing while White Watch (Tom, Ben, Hunter Em, Mack, Anna, Ariyah and Kaitlyn) are starting the first watch (2000 to 0000) listening to music (Ariyah’s song Bottled Emotions- Rysiesss) keeping a good lookout, taking turns on the helm and doing rounds.
Stay Salty, from your Salty Seadogs,
Anna and Kaitlyn
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
You might also be interested in

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”
