CLIENT: Youth School Holiday Voyage
VOYAGE NUMBER: 20190707
FROM: Cairns To: Townsville
DATE: 8 July 2019
POSITION: Sudbury Cay
REPORT BY: White Watch
The morning started for the white watches at 0500 by the unbothered Gabriel and Josh, followed by the rest of the watch rising one hour later at 0600. This early morning shift dubbed the “Brass cleaning” which literally involved the cleaning of the brass of the boat. One of these brass items of the ship’s inventory was the already infamous bugle which woke the entire cabin the morning prior. Much to the regret of the resting members of red and blue watch, Gabriel gladly took over the position of bugle player, playing his solo piece at 0630 waking those who had not had the pleasure of hearing the restless Dakoda who was ready to start the day.
What followed this early morning wake up was a delightful first breakfast giving a choice of cereal, toast, and an unexpected surprise of warm porridge, which was in great demand. After this was the daily morning rope tying competition where the best team, the white team, destroyed our competition by a brutal 20 seconds, setting a precedent for the entire trip. After their embarrassing defeats, red and blue continued down to enjoy the second warm breakfast, involving scrambled eggs and baked beans with toast.
After the crew was well fed and rested, we started our day by using the ships dingy to ferry across everyone to Fitzroy Island, where we went for a steep hike up to summit the mountain, with a possibly too long photo opportunity and an interesting history lesson from the Captain. We then returned to the ship to some expertly made burgers by the wonderful chef, Cath, and then started our sailing, but not before a factory line type of anchor raising which involved our groups’ Bosuns calling out for the crew to switch from a capstan which pulled up the anchor click by click, to a sort of tug of war between two lines to pump water to wash the chain.
All groups then helped pull up the sails, and then left white watch to carry the crew again. The white watch took care of the ship’s location logging, deck checking, helming, and the supervision of both port and starboard sides. Some members of the blue watch used this time to mock the white group by enjoying their time on the ship, sitting at the bowsprit with harnesses, getting occasional splashes from the cold water and almost falling off only a few times. Then it was the white watches time for fun, so when we ended and the blue watch replaced us we dashed to the harnesses to attach ourselves to the bowsprit to cool off from the day, yet by the time we got settled in to our new home, it was time to lower the sails as we had reached Sudbury Cay, where we hooked onto a mooring buoy ending the sailing for the day. The day was finished off with a fantastic dinner of roasted potatoes, pumpkin and gravy, accompanying a beautifully cooked steak, followed by a cheesecake dessert. Gabriel, Josh and Amiel