Youth Crew Take Command

Ahoy there, Captain Kate at the keyboard of Young Endeavour,After a night of anchor watches just off Dunk Island, this morning began with the promise of more wind and it was decided not to open the shipside ‘pool’ due to the apparently breezier conditions. Instead, just after Wakey wakey we played a game to get us going – involving us running around in various phases of evolution from eggs to robots or Kylie Minogue! Breakfast was served, followed by the always entertaining morning brief followed by Happy Hour. However, this morning’s brief lacked information on the plan for today – mostly because for today the crew are not in charge. During the morning there were meetings with the various Command Day elected crew to determine plans and to get last bits of information from their equivalent Staff member. By 1300 we had our list of tasks, and the Staff Crew ceremoniously handed over command of the ship to the youth crew. Our overall mission is to take the ship to Cairns, while having fun, staying safe and completing as many of these point-scoring tasks as we see fit. One of our first tasks was to take a 6 man Beach Assault Team (BAT) to Dunk Island, hoist the Australian flag (claiming territory for the youth of Australia) and get locals/tourists on the beach to join in singing the national anthem. Our BAT successfully paddled one of the inflatables ashore and gathered a crowd of 20 to sing (to us via radio) the Australian anthem. Our second task successfully completed before setting sail was to construct a ‘hammock’ at midships to support as many youth crew and for extra points staff crew as possible. We wrapped, tied and wound ropes back and forth to create a hammock that looked rather like a giant spider’s web and held all youth and staff crew – around 39 in total.Not long after completing those two tasks (and running to our preplanned schedule) the youth crew remembered what we’d learnt already and successfully weighed anchor and set sail. Despite the promised wind, progress away from Dunk Island was slow as the wind was closer to 8 knots than 10/15 predicted and our speed has been around 2-3kts. As we progressed through the afternoon and evening watches we’ve put up more sails and currently are sailing under 9 sails with plans to set the final sail, the fisherman sometime soon.Our outstanding group of 4 chefs have already proven their worth by providing cupcakes for afternoon tea and a spectacular theme meal. The ‘tribal night’ came complete with decorations in the galley and a delicious array including ‘minced heart’, ‘brain bread’, ‘sacrificial chicken’ and ‘teeth of rat’ (actually very tasty spaghetti Bolognese, fish curry, apricot chicken, garlic bread and bread and butter pudding!)Despite our slow progress, all seems to be going well and our Command Team are doing a great job keeping the whole crew working together and encouraged. Best of all, spirits are high and all seem to be having fun and enjoying the experience of commanding a tall ship.Thought of the Day: The pessimist looks at opportunities and sees difficulties. The optimist looks at difficulties and sees opportunities. Author unknown.Signing out as Captain for todayKate