Day 2 – Happy Hour and Rope Races
Ahoy there Shipmates,
The youth crew of V14 awoke to the startling, true blue sounds of John Williamson’s “Home among the Gum Trees” (Sail Mistress Emma’s pick) at a crisp 0630 for a few brisk laps around the deck. After a scrumptious English breakfast provided by our magnificent chef, Jared, the youth crew assembled on the deck for the flag ceremony, accompanied by the National Anthem.
The morning brief followed, which included a rundown of Emma’s Plan for the Day and Navigator Evan’s navigational plan and meteorological forecast. Next was the Youth Crew’s first experience with Young Endeavour’s version of ‘Happy Hour’, when the youth crew give the internal living and working areas of the boat a good clean. The Young Endeavour Ship’s brass bell also received a loving polish.
STS Youth Endeavour weighed anchor at 0900 and commenced the transit to depart Port Phillip Bay through The Rip and commence our passage to Deal Island. This occurred at 1130, which coincided with slack water to facilitate an easier exit of the bay for us.
Next was lunch followed by a little free time, before we launched into the first edition of ‘Rope Races’ for the voyage. This (competitive) Non-competitive activity between the watches is designed to improve Youth Crew knowledge of the names and location of important safety equipment and parts of the sails and the Ship, in a fun environment. ‘Ropies’ are usually run every other day during the voyage.
The youthies then re-joined their watch leaders for some more deck safety and sail handling training on deck, before we exercised the procedure for responding to and recovering a Man/Woman Overboard. It is important that whenever we have an emergency onboard, the youth crew muster in their watches and report in so that we can account for all personnel. This was one of the aims of today’s exercise.
In the afternoon we also gave the Mainsail brief, set a full press of sail and then took the ship to Tacking Stations, which is the manning state we need to be at to turn the ship through the wind to put it on the opposite Tack. The Youth Crew had obviously been paying attention during the training because they attained the required standard after practicing just two Tacks. This was very pleasing to see and gave me the confidence to be able to sail through the night.
The plan is to continue on passage overnight and anchor at Deal Island in the morning. We will give the crew the chance to go ashore and see some of the island in the forenoon tomorrow, returning onboard for lunch, before we weigh anchor and re-commence our passage towards Sydney.
Captain Mike Gough
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Wind-025/10 knots, Sea 0.5m, Swell from SE/1.0m Weather-fine and Temp-19 deg C
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Thank you Tarvi, Kaeden and Matt for your narrative of today's events. Intentions are to remain at anchor in Hunters Bay, just off HMAS Penguin, home of the RAN Diving School, a place close to my heart, having spent many a day there under training as a young Officer! The plan is to weigh anchor and proceed to HMAS Waterhen, in Waverton, to pick up our Community Day Sailors from the Windgap Foundation and take them for a sail around the harbour for 3 hours. The Youth Crew will help us host our visitors and give them an experience of Young Endeavour. We will drop them back to Waverton and then proceed to anchor in the harbour where we will have a good view of the Bridge and the Opera House for the Youth Crew's last night onboard. Until tomorrow. Yours Aye, Captain Mike