Day 9 – Final night onboard

Well, it’s almost a wrap dearest followers. At anchor in Athol Bay as I write this, the penultimate log of our fantastic voyage and I must say, it has been a wonderful adventure. Ships staff have completed all post voyage administration, including voyage debrief and a safety team meeting. And now the youth crew are all but in bed… I’m about to shift into pj’s myself, but let me first handover to YC elected Command Day Captain, Declan, to recap our day for you…

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Ahoy eager readers

Command day was at its closure today at 1000 but it still had some surprises in store for us before the handover! Such as the emergency tacking station that was called at the wee hours of 0400 by the discretion of the elected Officer of the Watch (Sam) and one of the navigators (Iain). Rushing up from the decks weary youthies adapted quickly and managed to wear the ship through the wind and alter to course to make it to Sydney before 0800. A wonderful coincidence to this 0400 wear was the appearance of dolphins, which up to this point remained elusive to the eager eyes of the youthie crew.

As we crept closer to Sydney, multiple changes of course were made (7 altogether) to push us close enough to the waypoint needed. When anchorage occurred a morning brief was made to the youthies and the staffies by the elected youth crew on various topics of the day, some in fun mimicry of the staffies own briefs. Such as Nav mum, who made sure people protected themselves from the sun at all times and kept the ship spotless by properly storing their belongings and “Chewing the ham with Sam” who shared the insight that while humpty dumpty was depicted as an egg, it’s never said that he was.

After having some more fun and giving the ship some much needed care through happy hour (cleaning all areas of the ship) the ship was handed back to the staff and we went into command day debrief, where the goods, bads and takeaways were discussed involving the elected positions and the youthie sailors to discuss. The discussion was incredibly insightful and delve into what it truly means to be a leader to people and what it means to be a good team member as well.

Afterwards youthies, no longer in command of the ship, departed to a Sydney beach to write down and discuss what the scheme could improve on and what it had achieved well. The discussion lead to many people realising they had come further then they thought possible and making them realise that the only thing stopping themselves in matters of confidence was themselves.

Youthies then harbour furled the square sails making them nice and flushed for tomorrow and were greeted on their descent by pizza galore! Supplied by the ever wonderful chef Jenko.

Sitting down and eating on mid-ships youthies were presented a montage of some of the highlights of the voyage with the song “Never going to give you up” making many laugh and tear up in nostalgia. Songs and poems made by the youth crew were then presented, one being to the beat and pitch as “The Wellerman”.

After much joy, a more profound moment was shared as Youthies wrote letters to themselves for 6 months on how they were going along in their goals and a questionnaire sheet on what the voyage had done for them.

It was an absolute pleasure serving with this merry band of seadogs and a great honour to serve as their captain for a moment, Cpt Dec signing off.

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Well, that’s that. This is the final night onboard for V08B/22. 9 days ago 21 youth crew from places various, came together to sail this vessel, have fun and challenge themselves. They have not only done that, but have faced and overcome fears and learnt a lot about themselves and each other.

Tomorrow they will leave with new skills, improved persistence, resilience and adaptability, as well as generally knowing they are more capable than what they probably thought. And of course, having made great new friends – most probably, friends for life. It never gets old for us staff members, as we truly love our work.

Captain Adam Charlie Farley+