CLIENT: Youth Voyage
VOYAGE NUMBER: 20260928
FROM: Hervey Bay To: Manly
POSITION: North White Cliffs, Fraser Is
DATE: 29 September 2026
REPORT: Red Watch
Weather conditions were improved from the day before, from <10 knots up to 20-25 knots. This meant regular sailing resumed without the need of a motor. Notably this reduced the humming sound of the engine, and meant the ship was at around 9 knots comfortably throughout the voyage – a grand total of 39 NM sailed today.
Initially, since the forecast was between 20-25 knots, it was decided to keep both the main and fore sail up, but lowered considerably by using reefing. However, higher than expected wind speeds brought our speed quite high, well above the 9 knot average, and tilting the ship uncomfortably, leading to a decision by the skipper to lower the main sail, and by extension left the Red Watch jobless for the final remainder of the anchoring.
The start of the trip consisted between K’gari and a point in the bay, where the student crew could practice tacking. The main sail was lowered around halfway through the first turn. The primary length of the trip was covered after this.
A highlight of this day was the massive whales spotted off our starboard side, nearly concerningly close but still within a safe range. This was during the Red Watch’s duty, around 1130 hours. After dropping the anchor, some of the crew went ashore onto K’gari, where they spotted crabs, dingo footprints, snails, worms, plankton, and some dolphins.
The knot competition this morning (fig. of 8 and reef knot) was won by Red and Blue Watch respectively, and the competition in the evening (bowline knot) was won by Blue Watch. Also, Somesh really wants to see a squid. He has not yet succeeded. Somesh and Jonathon