CLIENT: Seven Day Youth Voyage
VOYAGE NUMBER: 20250421
FROM: Gladstone To: Manly
DATE: 21 April 2025
POSITION: Pancake Creek
REPORT: White Watch
For the first day on the water, it was pretty unforgettable. We started off by hoisting the sail up, but when we eventually got them up, there was no wind… there was the motor. As we moved through the waves, it did start to get a bit rocky but the view stretched endlessly into the horizon which was absolutely stunning. In the distance, the shore was all different colours… the perfect photo opportunity.
After raising the sails, the first thing we thought about was definitely food. The lunch, salami and ham sandwiches, was absolutely delicious and was our favourite meal of the day. Along the way, we did a ‘South Passage salute’ which was the name that Rachael came up with… it has definitely stuck. On our watch, there were all different tasks. I really liked tracking our location on the map and steering the ship the most.
When we anchored at Pancake Creek, we went onto shore to trek to the lighthouse. It took a while to find the footpath because the undergrowth was everywhere, but after a lot of searching and realising we had been searching on the wrong beach, we finally found the track. The part that we won’t be forgetting anytime soon was surprisingly not the lighthouse, even though the view from the top was beautiful, it was the hundreds of mosquitos. I will be shocked if someone got away with no bites at all. It was amazing how far the lighthouse shines despite the source of light being half the size of a thumb.
When we got back to the beach, the sunset was amazing, and we all went for a swim. The sky reflecting on the water was brilliant with hundreds of different colours. The sunset definitely made our day.