CLIENT: Silver Duke of Ed
VOYAGE NUMBER: 20230919
FROM: Manly to Hervey Bay
DATE: 19 Sept 2023
POSITION: Horseshoe Bay, Peel Is
REPORT: White Watch
We boarded the ship the night before, so we had a chance to meet everyone prior to leaving. We woke up the next morning at 6am and had breakfast at 6.30am. After breakfast everyone met on the main deck to have a safety briefing and meet the Skipper, Bill.
We set off on our sailing journey around 8.30am and headed to Peel Island. Our group, White Watch, was on the mainsail and in our first shift our Watch Leader, David, taught us all the main components and processes of the ship like the vang, halyards, sheets, gaskets, reefing lines, backstay, down-haul and snotter. Then everyone worked together as a team to raise all the sails.
In White Watch’s first rotation, we did lots of tacking and backstays and despite never having worked together before we worked really well as a team and got along nicely. In our free time we played many rounds of cards below deck, where we got to know people more. Then it was time to lower the sails, so everybody was up on the deck again.
After the sails were lowered, we had a rope race! The first knot we learnt was the round turn and two half hitches and although our group didn’t win, we had lots of fun and are determined to win the next round – the reef knot!
After dinner it was our turn to do the night duty where we recorded the cardinal bearings. So far this has been a great trip, and everyone really enjoyed the first day!