CLIENT: Townsville Grammar School
VOYAGE NUMBER: 20230726
FROM: Townsville to Townsville
DATE: 28 July 2023
POSITION: Lucinda, Hinchinbrook Channel
REPORT: Blue Watch
It was an early morning start for our watch group, we had the 12-4 am shift. Woken up again at 6:30am by our fellow teammate Owen on the bugle. Cold breakfast was served before the first knot tying competition of the day, featuring the ‘figure of eight’ and ‘bowline’ knots. Blue watch choked under the pressure. However, we continued to hone our techniques despite our losses and Cathy’s hash browns turned our frowns upside down! The whole crew worked to hoist the sails, today our watch was controlling the foresail.
The leg between Orpheus and Hinchinbrook Island was a tad choppy, a couple succumbed to seasickness while others had the time of their lives in the spray of the swell. Our first watch kicked off at 10am, rotating between the helm, navigation, record keeping, lookouts and deck check. While on watch we were joined by pod of whales – one surfacing as close as 20m away! The whales were swiftly named barny (short for barnacles) and Jackie (short for Jacqueline jingle berry III). We summoned the whales with some whale calls while munching on delicious beef burgers for lunch.
Rounding the northern side of Hinchinbrook, we pulled down the sails and dropped anchor for a quick dip in the clear blue sea. After a couple of diving competitions off the side of the ship – shoutout to Winnie, Sienna and Sam for winning – we hoisted the sails once again. We discovered the wonder of hot showers for the first time this trip and raced for the opportunity.
Pulling the sails down again, we began motoring down the Hinchinbrook channel, with the sunset behind us. Another knotting competition before dinner (clove knot) – Blue team finally victorious with a time of 45 seconds, thanks to some trusty advice from our watch leader Tim!
Dinner was top notch beef stew courtesy of world class cook Cath, followed by a tasty desert of peaches and custard. Blue watch was on deck again for the 6-8pm shift, kicked off with karaoke while watching the first stars appear. The skipper gave us a hand steering at the helm, successfully navigating the channel in the night.