Day 35 – Favourable Winds

Hi Everyone,    Welcome to day 35 of our voyage. Overnight we safely transited through the Strait of Gibraltar and are now sailing across the Bay of Cadiz.  Weather wise it has been an interesting 24hrs with light and variable winds as we departed Gibraltar then strengthening to 35kts as we entered the Bay of Cadiz to now being back to a pleasant 10-14kt Easterly which is allowing us to sail downwind under all three squares.  Tonight we have a different (Kiwi) style of writing the log and I am not sure whether it will catch on but as with everything onboard Young Endeavour we are always receptive to new idea’s so please enjoy tonight’s Captains Log ‘with a difference’ written by Harker and Jess (Tim and Vicky).  Until tomorrow, take careYours AyeCaptain GavCaptains Log: 28 May 15  H: KIA ORA! (Hello from our resident Kiwis) And from Harker and Jess, a hearty welcome to day 35 of Voyage 4!  J: And what an exciting day it has been!  H: We found out tonight that we have a real live celebrity on board! Young Derry Doyle of folk band The Seals piped up quietly over some pre dinner chats with his album Ruckus Juice (get into it!), and there followed a knee-slappin’, toe-tappin’ good time down in the café.  J: Ah it was a humbling moment indeed to meet such a renowned musician. But this was far from the only highlight of the day. Am I right Harker?  H: Sure are Jess! Today we finally made it out into the big, blue Atlantic Ocean! After a hard slog through the currents, against the wind, making 2 knots through the night, and fearing the worst after hearing Voyage 3’s tales of horror at not even being able to make it through on their first try, Voyage 4 proved they were obviously just made of better stuff, and picked it up to a racing 6 knots around the mouth of the strait!  J: Boy, it was exciting to finally hit some real ocean swells and feel that perfect sailing breeze whip up behind us, but unfortunately, much of this morning’s watches were spent furling sails to slow us down.  H: Jess, mate, I guess we’re just too good at sailing, and have been making too much speed! And we sure wouldn’t want to get to Southy early and have to leave the old girl any sooner than we absolutely have to.  J: Too true Harker. But you know, it wasn’t all boring on the bridge, it was good to see that a few of our crewies haven’t given up on their old past time of feeding the fish, and we got a good surf in there too!  H: It’s true, we were riding those 16m swells better than Kelly Slater in Hawaii! And speaking of being amazing Jess, how good was ropies today!?  J: Ah Harker, man, it was brilliant. Having been shuffled into a new set of watches (Jaffas, Minties and Bubblegum) we Jaffas immediately set about showing the others how ropies are done, and took home every single round, and a personal commendation from Lindsey on our general excellence.  H: It’s true, all true. But you know, those highlights just kept rolling on in as Shaun gave us the Engineering brief up on midships, prefaced with a comment on how the whole crew usually fall asleep during it, and we once again proved ourselves to be the most outstanding crew the Young Endeavour has ever had, by all remaining awake through it.  J: It was enlightening, but you know, it really had nothing on the excitement of the skipping competition that followed.  H: Ahh the skipping, what an event! The competition was fierce, the skills unparalleled!  J: Look, I wasn’t even aware that you could skip from a push-up position, but eight is a fairly impressive number of push-up skips!  H: Well, I am a pretty impressive person, Jess.  J: It’s true, you really are. But you know what’s more impressive?  H: Nothing?  J: Close, Spain!  H: Ooh how good were those few days away?  J: Look, they weren’t worse than a kick in the head, that’s for sure! What’d you get up to?  H: Me, Luce, Mitch and Sarah went to a beach front bungalow on the southern-most beach of Spain, clocked up 600km’s checking out Cadiz, Seville and Ronda in our rental car, affectionately known as Jeffry. We rode around on bicycles, jumped in front of bridges and participated in a bull fight.  J: Sounds rad!  H: Sure was Jess. What’d you get up to?  J: Oh geez, what didn’t we get up to? First port of call in Gibraltar was a bit of local wandering and a Red Hot Chilli Peppers tribute band night at a local sports bar, where we represented Australia with class and decorum. We then got up bright and early at 11am the next day to wander across the border to Espana, which was a bit weird, we didn’t get checked, and all the lights were off in the border control office. But we got ourselves a van and a car and drove up to Ronda with all the intentions in the world of continuing through the country as our week progressed, but upon arriving at our stunning villa, situated right in the heart of the most picturesque valley you could possibly imagine, we were done, and with the exception of a few afternoon outings, we mainly just lounged around soaking in the spectacularness of it all.  H: Ripper. I hear you might also have had a cheeky hike…  J: Oh yeah, myself, Captain Yak Sparrow, Lach, Buddy (Kirra), Cam, Boring As Cardboard (Tom) Ailesh, James, Derry Doyle and the Loose Canon herself (Monica Danger Zed Possee) found a random mountain, decided to scale it, and like, I don’t want to boast, but it does make Everest look a bit like children’s play equipment…  H: Nice, and you stuck to the four cardinal rules of mountain climbing? 1. Take water, 2. Stay on the track, 3. Tell someone where you’re going, 4. Don’t throw rocks at your mates?  J: Duh, what do you think we’re stupid or something?  H: Nah, you guys are pretty profesh mountaineers I reckon.  J: Too true, Harker, too true. Anyways, that’s probably enough mind blowingly awesome stories for the folks back home, wouldn’t want to overwhelm anyone with our amazingness, so I reckon we might sign off now.  H: Good call there Jess, time to go swing from a rope on the yards, have a sword fight or take over another ship or something. You know, general pirate business.  J: Harker and Jess out.  BUT WHO WERE THEY REALLY???  It’s Tim H and Vicky!!!  Shout outs:  I know it’s 2 days late, but a massive happy birthday to my big sister Lib, see you in Durham! Love James.  Hey Willi mate! Thanks for all the good times, we loved staying! Love those crazy Australians.  Yo Meg Styles! Happy birthday!!!!! I’ll be seeing you soon! Xoxox LeBron  Hi everyone back in NZ! Would like to say a big get well soon to Ros! Hopefully you will have made it home by now! On the final stretch now but we have still got a lot of time at sea! So lots more fun times ahead! Take care! Tim H  Hey Mum and Lauren, been back onboard less than 24 hours and already feeding the fishes! I don’t think I’m destined for a maritime career somehow :/ on the home stretch now, 16 days left onboard until the next adventure begins! Thanks for all your hard work mum, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you, and Lauren I hope your excited for our adventure! Love you both lots, Zach.  PS shout-out to Lauren, Lauren, Maddi, Amanda, Sarah, Tom, Andy, Ash, Jess, Kate, Emma, AD, Meg, Alex, and all you NZ race youthies. This has been one hell of a trip and I can’t wait to share it with you all.”