Yet another tropical paradise

Ahoy There, The Youth Crew kept the ship safe over night at anchor and 14 keen young souls even volunteered to forgo 45 minutes of sleep to get up early and go for a sunrise climb. They were rewarded with a spectacular sight at the sun rose across a clear horizon as far as the eye could see, producing the full spectrum of colours to be shown across the sky from one horizon to the other. The rest of the sleepy heads were awoken at 0645 and tempted over the side for an early morning dip. Breakfast was served on deck alfresco once more and the conversation was quite lively between sips of coffee and bites of bacon and egg rolls. The Youth Crew seem to have responded quite well to this new morning routine of swimming every day we are at anchor to get the day started. Once everyone had a chance to dry off and brush their teeth we kicked into the morning brief. This morning it really was a morning brief with Jordo’s (Salty) presentation taking 135 seconds yet another world record for Young Endeavour (If only we were doing so well in the Olympics). So after such a short brief we sent the Youth Crew ashore to enjoy what has to be the picture perfect tropical island (there is actually a photo of Heron island on the Voyager Space ship to show how diverse our planet is). The Youth Crew were treated to a tour of the research station by the station staff and were then let loose on the beach and the coral reef. Snorkelling was a very popular option and the number of rare or endangered fish that were sighted was amazing. Those who preferred a more sedate approach to the morning were rewarded by the rich diversity of fauna to be found on the island. Lunch was a picnic ashore provided by the ever resourceful Chad. Once the Watch Leaders had finally dragged the Youth Crew back onboard we squared away the ship and made all preparations to get underway. We weighed anchor at 1400 and set all fore and aft sails as the wind had finally come. We had an amazing 8-9kts of wind so we capitalised on the opportunity and split the crew in half with some going to learn about astro navigation and the other half coming with me for a more in depth lesson on sail theory and trimming. Once both activities were completed we set the topgallant and topsail and sent the ship to tacking stations. We completed a good set of demonstrational tacks where 3 people from each watch came to the bridge to see how we tack the ship from the bridge’s perspective. All the Youth Crew got a lot out of the experience and enjoyed watching all their fellow shipmates doing some of the hard work as I explained tacking. Once the demo tacks were completed we sent the watch below to dinner and the on watch crew cast loose on the course and made all the preparations to settle the ship down for the night. We will sail towards 1770 overnight that is 38nm away and due South of us. I never thought the day would come on this voyage that we would be going to fast but tonight I need to extend the track to slow the ship down. This will however also give the on watch navigator assistants a bit more of an interesting problem on how to best sail the ship overnight. I look forward to an enjoyable nights sail under all three squares. Until tomorrow, bonne nuit CAPT Matt Its not who you are that holds you back, Its who you think you are, so start believing in yourself and you will never fail Unknown Never be afraid to try something new, remember that armatures build the Ark and professionals build the Titanic! Wolfgang Marx