Day 5 – Ahoy Low Island!

Ahoy! And welcome to the Captain’s Log for Day 5!
After a comfortable night at anchor, we woke to the smell of sizzling bacon. We headed up on deck for our usual Early Morning Activity only to find Engineers Shaun and Nobby were cooking up a sunrise barbeque breakfast! What a treat! Then, at Morning Brief we found out there was another treat in store… we were opening the Pool! Soon we were jumping off the bowsprit and swinging from the rope swing into warm (or cool depending on who you asked) tropical water.
Too soon it was time to weigh anchor and start to head south. Once we were under way Chucky got us all to gather at midships for a mysterious brief. Captain Libby was setting us a Captain’s Challenge! We were given a series of tasks to complete before we arrived in vicinity of Cairns. That meant we had just 4 hours to do tasks including: setting as many fore and aft sails as we could (and furling before we arrived), taking a photo of all the Youth Crew, drawing a mural of our voyage, choosing our own Master Chefs to help Ash with lunch and a special dinner and, conducting a Happy Hour to Sail Master’s standards! We jumped straight in with a quick pic on the forecastle then got ready to set sails.
Our 4 hours flew by and suddenly we were getting ready to go to anchor at False Cape just outside of Cairns. We gathered at midships once more to see how we had gone. I’m pleased to report that not only did we work together to get all the tasks completed in the allotted time, we managed to achieve the Captain Libby’s extra task… to have fun!
But the work wasn’t done just because we were at anchor! We were soon putting our harnesses back on in preparation to lay aloft to do harbour furls on the square sails. It was the perfect sunny afternoon to lay aloft with calm seas and barely a whisper of wind.
Once the ship was made ‘tiddly’ once more, Ash and her Master Chef helpers produced the goods with a special Pizza Night dinner! We then cleaned up and gathered to conduct presentations and reflect on our voyage before it was time to head to bed for the final time on board. Where had the time gone?!
See you tomorrow for our Community Day Sail! Captain Libby+
Latitude/Longitude:
Conditions:
Sunny, Wind SE 5-10Kts, Swell S 0.5m
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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”
