Captain's Log

Voyage 19/23

14 December 2023

Day 10 – Community Day Sail!

We rose throughout the night to our last anchor watches with two other Youthies. Can’t say we were all awake through them, but the rounds were done and everyone was relatively happy. We had our last EMA game, where Will and others won the game and became the highest form of life – one of the Veronicas sisters.

We dug into our breakfast made by our stunning Chef Ash … waffles! Whilst the Youthies ate, the Staffies prepared to let students from Goulburn High School onboard.

Our guests slowly filtered in as the Youthies showed them around with no hesitation. We paired up and galivanted from the bow to the stern where we explored the Lower Decks. From meeting Ash in the Galley to Nobby in the engine room, the students met them everyone on board and became familiar with the ship. We soon headed towards, and under, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, giving us space to set sails. This allowed us to show our guests what we had learned over the past 10 days and even let them handle the lines themselves. We set the Main Staysail, Fore Staysail, Jib and Main Sail with help from Goulburn High and started to fly through the harbour.

After our guests left, we cleaned out the freezer and prepared pizza for dinner. With music blasting we enjoyed our last night together. Ramon had previously made a slideshow of photos from the voyage, and we sat down with the sun setting behind us. Unfortunately, we were too early and couldn’t see the screen, so instead Tomo narrated a Christmas Carol competition where Red Watch once again dominated. We sat down and watched our slideshow, a few tears in hand and went straight into our last Command Day task, a disco! We partied the night away.

Every Youthie has had an amazing experience on this voyage, we are all eternally grateful for the Staffies and their dedication, and patience. We were taught well, and we all leave with life lessons in our pockets.

Thank you!

Will – Hi Angus, I tolerate you.

Kian – “To confuse your enemy you first must confuse yourself” Love you bro.

Maddie – Yay we did it!

Ramon – Couldn’t do it without Maddie, Will, and Dhan.

Latitude/Longitude:

33 50.4'S / 151 11.6'E

Conditions:

Sunny, Wind SE 5-10Kts, Swell S 0.5mNW 10-20Kts

AUTHOR: Libby Newman

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