CLIENT: St Johns College
VOYAGE NUMBER: 20191015
FROM: Manly To: Coffs Harbour
DATE: 15 October 2019
POSITION: Horseshoe Bay, Peel Is
REPORT BY: Blue Watch
The group arrived last night and got a brief introduction to the South Passage and our plan for the next 4 days. The ship stayed docked over the night while we slept and then this morning after breakfast and our safety briefing we left the dock just with the motor but as soon as we got out of the docking area we set sails for the first time.
The blue watches job was to set the jib and stay sail and then when we did our first tacks it was also the blues job to pull the jib onto the new tack and release the old sheet. After a few tacks the blue group moved back to the foresail and practiced getting the backstays ready when it was time to tack, again after a few of these the blue group moved back to the mainsail and did the same thing. Then the red and white group were on watch for two hours each and after them it was the blue groups turn so we rotated around the different positions on the ship. The blue group did one tack on watch and then did a bear away and practiced a few gybes.
Another memorable moment for so many was putting the harness on and sitting in the netting on the bow of the ship and going up and down with the ship rising up with the waves to then come crashing back down was quite exhilarating. Eventual we got to Peel Island we were going to drop anchor and everyone on board had to work together to drop the sails and then the anchor.
When the ship was packed up for the night we got a chance to jump in and go swimming in the beautiful refreshing water, bringing a nice end to a successful day of sailing. We had dinner and desert, and began our anchor watch at 2000, which continued until midnight. It was almost a full moon anchored off Peel Island, with a cool light breeze on a calm night.