Command Day Complete

Ahoy there, Captain Jake here,This evening sees Young Endeavour at anchor in Cairns Harbour and safely back in the hands of the staff crew. We are all exhausted after a successful 24 hours of being in command of a square rigged tall ship. Having had calm seas and less than ideal winds we struggled to make the midnight waypoint where we scheduled to be for hand-over between the two youth command crews. However, later on the wind swung around catching us unprepared but allowing us to practice and perfect tacking and wearing (turning the ship). At first this was just with the watch on duty but then we called ‘all hands to tacking stations’ and got everyone out of bed for the extra practice. The enthusiasm shown by everyone belied the lack of sleep and lack of progress. After we sorted out our correct course the wind picked up and we could make could speed on broad reach. The extra speed and distance covered during overnight watches encouraged all of the youth crew as we woke to enjoy pancakes and other choices prepared by our youth chefs. Breakfast was followed by the youth crew version of the morning brief – featuring community announcements, updates from executive officers, first captain and the navigators as well as the well dressed ‘Nanna Chisel’ with some ‘lost property’ belonging to the staffies. They were made to join in with the macarena as penalty for their lost property – just as they usually make us sing and dance for them! We achieved our final way point just off Cairns in good time and handed over the helm and navigation to the staffies so we could make our way up the channel. Once at anchor we could relax knowing that we had achieved our goals of arriving in Cairns safely and in good spirits. By this time we were all ready for the youth crew chefs final meal consisting of shepherds pie, chicken stir-fry, salads and dessert. We just had time to fit in our final point scoring task which was to lay aloft all 24 youth crew and take a photograph of us all in the riggings. We got everyone up to the various yard arms and platforms – some much preferring the conditions of climbing while anchored.At around 1400, Kate and I ceremoniously handed back command of Young Endeavour to Captain John passing back the symbolic telescope. The afternoon then consisted of the cleaning stations we’d missed out on in our Command Day, a debrief session to discuss high points, low points and take home lessons from our experiences of Command Day. We tallied the points for our various tasks and had managed to score 3380 points – which pleased everyone. After another delicious meal (‘its all about the food’ onboard Young Endeavour!) from Chad we had our final Rope Races to decide that Blue watch was victorious over White watch and then Red watch came third. After one last exercise about communication involving blindfolds and miming we are all ready for sleep safe in the knowledge that together the youth crew sailed Young Endeavour to Cairns. Thought of the Day: It is not from ourselves that we will learn to be better than we are. Wendell Berry.Signing outJake