Day 5 – Coles Bay, Rope Swing and Square Sails!

Ahoy shipmates…Day 5 already…time flies. It has been another busy day, as described by the gang from White Watch below. We have departed Coles Bay and are making our way south towards Tasman Island and tomorrow’s destination…Port Arthur. We are currently under sail in a light north easterly breeze, enjoying a fantastic twilight…sunset will be speccy! That’s it from me for now…until tomorrow, fair winds, Captain Kenny.———–
Day Five – Wednesday 8th January 2020
This morning we woke up undisturbed by pirates following the night of anchor watching, which involved groups of three youth crew ensuring the safety of the ship by monitoring its position and various gauges. Other than these short shifts, the night was peaceful without the rocking of the sea swell, as we were anchored in Coles Bay. This allowed us to take advantage of the lack of seasickness in the foreseeable future by eating as much of the scrumptious breakfast as we could. The morning brief was populated by much needed explanation of some terms we had been using for days now, which included the conversion of a youthie into a harpoon gun, loaded with coconut as gunpowder and cherry tomatoes as harpoons. This hilarious charade was followed by a visit from a special guest who looked suspiciously like our ship’s engineer, Benny. This woman, known by the crew as Nana, had kindly cleaned up after some of the more careless crew, and was happy to give back the lost items in exchange for them performing a mortifying dance and song. Scarred from the experience, we enjoyed our incredibly happy happy hour, in which we were very happy. We then learnt how not to crash into the land from our trusted naviguesser, Daz from Tas. We were then pleasantly surprised to find that our request to swim in Coles’ bay had been approved!! The Youthies and Staffies had a chance to go on ship’s rope swing with many successful and not so successful attempts at flips, and in some cases flops. Thankfully, we all returned to the boat in one piece, but very cold. For lunch we indulged in some fantastic ribs with tzatziki sauce. Yum! It was so good that the plates were licked clean and all of the meat was eaten off every bone. Then we had Ian, another navigator / historian, teach us about the ocean road rules. It was here we learnt how to identify different ships and how to avoid a mid-sea crash. Afterwards we finally got the chance to set the square sails on the foremast. We got to set all three sails, which consisted of the Course, Topsail and Topgallant. This undertaking required us to lay aloft on the yards and release the sails, an opportunity we were all eagerly awaiting. Unfortunately, the sails were unable to propel the Young Endeavour forward due to sudden change in wind direction, so we had to adjust the position of the yards. Our hard labour was rewarded by a visit from a pod of majestic dolphins, which amused themselves swimming around the ship. Orders were then sent for the youthies to attend to their tacking stations. We rotated around with the other watches on different tacking stations to broaden our sailing skills. Once again our master chef Adam then provided us with a scrumptious dinner, consisting of spicy curry and succulent steak. Back at sea, we returned to our night watches to keep the boat on the right course. We can all agree we had a terrific day and eagerly await the adventures of the next week.
George, Fergus and Jack from White Watch (the best watch), out.