Australia All Over

At 4am this morning we rounded Cape York, the most northern tip of Oz. We did a lot a sail handling last night, adjusting our speed so that we would arrive off Possession Island at 8am. I spoke this morning via satphone on the ABC Radio program ‘Australia All Over’ with ‘Macca’. Youth Crew members Matt Love and Felicity Friend also had a chat and explained the Voyage and our Circumnavigation of Australia. The visit to Possession Is nearly did not eventuate as the tide was out and we couldn’t find a place to land. We persisted and finally got ashore to visit the monument. The island was very rocky and difficult to get around on – in stark contrast to our last beach visit on Morris Island. The monument proclaimed that on August 22nd 1770 Captain Cook took possession of the land from Latitude 38 South to this place in the name of King George III. It was an interesting monument (obviously not an original). He then departed the area after discovering that Oz was not part of Papua New Guinea and continued on to Batavia (Jakarta).At 6pm we sailed from the anchorage and out through Endeavour Strait and overnight we will travel down the west coast of Cape York and into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Youth Crew entries:The reason I applied for the Young Endeavour was mainly to help kick-start my career. I wanted to become an officer in the airforce and to do this good leadership abilities were required. That is why I accepted to come on the Young Endeavour, to hopefully improve my ability in leadership skills, communication, confidence and teamwork, and this is what the Young Endeavour is all about. My only fear was that 30 metre fore mast. My expectations to what the voyage would be about were that I really had no idea. I thought the staff would be strict and stern, the food tasteless and the workload huge. How wrong I was. When I first hopped on board I was a little nervous, there were 35 complete strangers on board that I was spending the next 10 days with. To make the greeting progress easier we were split into groups and were given a group watch leader. Our watch leader Chris was brilliant at calming the nerves and settling everyone in. I didn’t expect the staff on the Young Endeavour to be so casual and humorous, they were great and soon the whole crew were like one big family.Woody the chef was absolutely fabulous and we probably put on more weight then we lost, and the whole crew were just so laid back and blissful. The abilities I felt that I learnt from this voyage were leadership skills, confidence, teamwork and better human relationship skills. The chance to become watch leader for a day was brilliant and really tested your knowledge on the ship, your teamwork ability and the confidence that you held within yourself. To achieve the set goal everyone had to have the same goal in mind, once this was possible there were no limitations to the goals we set. I have gotten to know every crewmember on board and everyone of them are unique and interesting in their own way. But finding out this was only possible by finding the courage in myself to go up to a complete stranger and strive to become friends, this was made much easier by the close communal environment. The people I met and the skills I have learnt will stay with me forever and the experience, a lifetime. PS As for the mast, I conquered it! ��� Andrew Toy, Townsville It was like a dream rather than reality, that I had overcome my fears to be at this great height of the top gallant yard and fulfil beyond expectations. As the stars shone brightly upon my wary eyes, I felt the adrenalin throbbing inside, as I climbed down starboard side. Then came the wobbly feeling standing on the deck below, all at 3am, on Tuesday morning. Heaving and tugging, 2, 6 heave they call, as we tack and we weave across the seas, the greatest food I’d tasted for awhile. Living in close quarters, with 24 other youth crew, living from far and wide across the great land of which we call home. Away from our comfort zones, away from our homes, in the most gorgeous surrounds you could believe. Working with others hand in hand, alive but sleep deprived, it makes one feel one’s really alive. With the seas rolling, the sails lifting, the ship rolling from side to side, as I close my eyes in the cabin with 11 other girls, rather stuffy. The time does seem to fly, the days meld together, hour by hour. Our lives changed all for the better, will never be the same ��� Annette Schlub, Cairns.Stay tunedAndrew Davis