Voyage 11/13 Day 4 – Sea to Coffs Harbour

Ahoy there Shipmates,We had another busy night at sea with the crew monitoring the safety of the Ship throughout. We motor-sailed through the night coming up on the second engine and reducing to just the Main Staysail centred to ensure we could sail close enough to the wind to arrive at our planned anchorage at Coffs Harbour on time.Wakey wakey was provided courtesy of the Red Watch who had the morning watch today (see lyrics attached). We all mustered on the bridge at 0900 for the morning brief. Salty explained the origin of another nautical expression ‘not enough room to swing a cat’, after which Nana paid us a visit and gave the crew some more pointers on the importance of tidiness and cleanliness onboard. After that she added another song to our repertoire.The crew then launched into ‘Happy Hour’ while the Staffies prepared to anchor the Ship in Coffs Harbour. The anchor was let go at 0915 and, before heading ashore we had a Nautical Rule of the Road briefing from Doughie followed by another delicious lunch created by Luke and his three ‘apprentice masterchefs’.The Youthies were then ferried ashore in the Ship’s RHIB (rigid hulled inflatable boat) by Watch Officer Paul. The carrying capacity of the boat is 8 and the wharf was a 10 minute trip so it took us an hour to get everyone ashore. The purpose of the visit to Coffs was to give the crew a short break off the Ship, a chance to get some participate in some beach games coordinated by Super-nummary Aaron, go for a swim, go to the shops and also to prepare for tonight’s activity known as the 3-way-chat. The crew were broken up into groups of 3 and had to learn about each other to enable them to speak for 2-3 minutes on either of their group members. It is a very effective way for the whole group to learn more about each other as well as providing them with a public speaking challenge.The youth crew returned onboard by 1630 and we then prepared for our ‘teak-deck’ BBQ, cooked by Watch Officer Phil and I and served on the deck, allowing us to enjoy the views of Coffs foreshore at night. We kicked-off 3-way-chats at 1900 and I was very pleased that everyone had taken the task seriously and had learnt enough about each other to be able to talk for the 3 minutes.Navigator Rick briefed the crew on their duties during anchor watches, which the crew began on completion of the brief and continued through the night.It is intended to weigh anchor and sail in the morning to continue making ground southwards after we have had a morning swim, breakfast and briefing from me on Sail Theory.Until tomorrow evening.Yours AyeCaptain Mike RED WATCH WAKEY WAKEY SONG – SUN 23 JUNRed Watch is in the Chart house tonightWe’re all spewin’ but we’ll be alrightWe’ve been Sailing just about all nightWe just wanna see you wake up!!15, 15, 15, more minutes, running out of time15, 15, 15, more minutes, get ready, sail on.What time is it? Breakfast time,Get up and relieve us.What time is it? It’s White Watch’s turnGet up and sail on.# YOLO “