Veni, Vidi, Vici

Ahoy there family and friends of the Young Endeavour family and avid readers of this awesome log!Youth Captain Kurt here aboard this beautiful vessel for the second last night of voyage 12/17 JA great deal of action has occurred since my last report and I’m extremely eager to fill you in on our most recent exploits. We continued to sail through the night attempting to tame the challenging weather, rolling swells and howling winds; the crew did and absolutely amazing job on deck setting and furling the fore’n’aft sails and also setting and clewing the mighty canvas squares. For the majority of us youthies it was a rather sleepless night as we were frequently needed on deck through the night.Along with the challenge of sailing to our destination waypoint with Staff Navigator Harry had given us, we had quite a few other tasks that Captain Mike and James had set for us. Fortunately they were extremely fun tasks such as creating a nautical shanty to perform for the crew and turning one of our cabins into a floating nautical disco. Needless to say I digress – after a very tiring night we finally arrived at our waypoint at 0800 with much salt on our smiling faces knowing that we had achieved what most youth would never even imagine, commanding and sailing a 45m square-rigged brigantine (relatively) unassisted for an entire day in the Coral Sea south to Moreton Bay.we entered the narrow channel into Tangalooma Bay at 1318 (11:18) and continued to tick off more of our assigned tasks throughout the day. One of the more fun tasks was to chalk a ocean themed mural on the precious teak deck amidships and rig a rope hammock between the ratlines that could support all twenty four of the youthie crew. We then had an amazing final lunch cooked by our wonderful youthie chefs which consisted of pan fried barramundi and nutty waldorf salad and spicy Asian beef stir-fry.At 1300 we unfortunately had to handover this fine-lined ship back to Captain Mike and the staff crew, and then get debriefed on our collective performance for the Command Day adventure. We finished the afternoon with a brief period of down time and also attempted to completed some more tasks. With the weight of command lifted from the youthies, we found that we had more free time to entertained ourselves by creating playing some deck games. Dinner was another highlight of the day; a big thank you to Staff Chef Marcus, the crispy crackling and plump roast pork was sensational.I once again sit here in the navigation room tired but feeling extremely satisfied with what the youth crew and I have achieved. Mentally and physically tired though we are in fine spirits and our bonds of friendship continue to grow. We are very fond of the Staff crew who have done a spectacular job mentoring and imparting their knowledge of sailing and navigation. I would personally like to thank Captain Mike, our Navigator Harry, Sail Master James, Watch officer Brad and the rest of the Endeavour staff for showing us the way and helping us push through this outstanding journey.I bid you farewell from both myself and all the youthie crew aboard the mighty Young Endeavour.Ciao and Aye—————————————————————- Ahoy there Shipmates,As Youth Captain Kurt explained, the Command day for the Youth Crew was an incredible journey, a day filled with individual and team discovery, challenges, rewards, lessons, friendships and beauty. My intentions are to remain at anchor at Tangalooma overnight, weighing anchor early tomorrow in order to berth at HMAS Moreton, Bulimba, to embark our Community Day Sail guests before doing our three hour Brisbane River cruise.Until tomorrow.Yours aye,Captain Mike