Day 7 – Hands to Tacking Stations!

Ahoy there! Hands to Tacking Stations!! Welcome to the Captains Log for Day 7!

We have finally departed Coffs Harbour and are back sailing the high seas! Last night, us Youthies returned to our usual night watch postings. This morning started merrily for most to the delightful sound of today’s wakey-wakey song, ‘Slice of Heaven’. We jumped out of bed to croissants, apricot danishes and, orange and almond loaf slices. It was then our daily Morning Brief covering: the Plan for the day with Chucky, the Weather with Trevor, getting ship-shape with Charlotte, and an inspiring quote from the one and only Captain Libby.

Morning brief ended with mid voyage watch chats to revise, alter, and gauge our group and personal goals. After the happiest of hours cleaning the ship, the Youthies moved onto the “Rules of the Road” with Watch Officer Charlotte to learn how to prevent collisions at sea.
Without fail, Chef Ash cooked up a storm once again with an amazing lunch as we started preparing ourselves for a very busy afternoon. Learning our stations for Tacking and Wearing the ship, us Youthies found perfection in our practice as we finally start to feel a sense of confidence in working our lines. After a quick siesta up on deck, sunkissed faces gathered for Captain Libby’s “Sailing Theory for Dummies by a Dummy” (we disagree with that title!).

Chucky then gave time for the Youth crew to reflect on our time on the ship so far, what bad habits we want to stop, what new goals we want to start practicing, and what we want to continue doing. A lot of us want to start cleaning our rooms as clean as this ship!

The day ended with watches and dinner as we continue to make our way southerly overnight as we sail to Newcastle. Many tired but happy faces were seen all over the ship today as sleep deprivation yet excitement for the remaining few days starts to set in.

As we are reminded of the loved ones at home, we added to our ever-growing nautical greeting.

Are you head wind? Because I luff you (and miss you too)!

• Maya, Caitlin, Aida, Will

P.S Luff is a sail with no wind