Day 9 – Command Day Part 2 and Hunters Bay

Ahoy shipmates…we made it…and that’s it from me. Over to Youth Crew Captain Paige (who is feeling a bit better tonight…no green goblin!) Fair winds, Captain Kenny——

Captains Log Day 9
Recapping on command day, last night was rough. The endeavour had the easterly swell pushing us towards land as well as the wind and the southerly swell pushing us north. These swells made for a pretty bumpy ride and a seasick crew. Between 2300 and 0030, it was all hands to tacking stations in the middle of a storm. The command team had to wake up most of the crew to change the sails in order to set our course back to where we needed to go. Even during the pouring rain, fatigue and seasickness, everyone pushed through. It was the roughest sea we had encountered as we had midships filling with water and the boat going up and down and side to side. However, through every frustration this was the time when we came together closer than ever before and achieved our goal. As it turns out, this is probably going to be the most memorable part of the whole voyage. After we changed our sails, got our navigation on the right course and made a smoother ride. At 0100, we had reached 41% of our distance but used 55% of our time with up to 3 knots of current (EAC) against us and at 0110, one engine was turned on. Our ride became much smoother and we were on our way to reaching our goal of being at our 4th checkpoint at 0930 and then in Sydney harbour at 1030. After an amazing breakfast prepared by our chefs, it was all hands on deck again as at around 0845 we reached our 4th checkpoint and needed to wear the ship as well as bring in all the sails to enter Sydney Harbour. We successfully anchored at 0930. All hard work didn’t end there. We got all 24 youth crew up on the square yards as one of our challenges for Command Day and then headed straight for our disco challenge we called the “rave cave”. Lunch was slightly behind schedule but all crew had some very tasty nachos. Happy Hour was next where we spent half hour cleaning the ship and making sure that when handover came, she was as cleaner than we had received. Unfortunately that was where our fun came to an end since we eventually had to hand the ship back to her rightful Captain Kenny at 1300. Youthies has a well earned afternoon nap and headed to shore where we had more rain come down on our unbreakable spirit. Dinner was served and we had a brief about what happened on Command Day. Summarising our main points, the good things about our 24 hours was that we had a lot of care bears that made sure every person was feeling the best they could and if anyone needed any help. The enthusiasm displayed never faltered and our teamwork and persistence stayed strong. We realised that we do need to work on our planning and decision making. Sometimes we ran around like headless chooks as the command team were procrastinating over a decision or if someone didn’t know how to do something. Fatigue played the biggest role. No one is happy about only getting a few hours sleep; it means that we aren’t functioning at our best. I now know that if we were to take on this role again, we would learn from our mistakes by planning our time more effectively and to try our hardest to get more sleep. Every person on this ship learnt a valuable lesson last night. We learnt that when we are a team, we have got each other’s backs. We work best when we are supported by those who have a similar goal and we more importantly empower each other. “Pressure makes diamonds” is another valuable lesson we have learnt from the past day. Without challenges, setbacks, frustration, we as a group and individuals would never know how capable we truly are. I am very thankful to have come on this voyage with such a brilliant group of people who push me to be my absolute best self and to put my heart and soul into every challenge I encounter now and for the rest of my life. We will never give up and never give in.