Getting under Sail -1- Young Endeavour Voyage

1830 30/1/17

• No watches kept yet.  

• Climbed to the topgallant (pronounced t'gallant)
• Learnt calls ("White watch standby to set the main s'il") and tacking positions (heads'ils). 
• Got the ship under sail- Yay!

The t'gallant is the top horizontal beam (horizontal beams are called yards). The heads'ils are those at the front of the ship.  You can see one of them (the jib in fact) flapping in the foreground here.  Photo credit: Jimmy Potter

How am I feeling?
At this point I'm glad to be under sail.
Can't help my awe at the size of the sails.
Very glad not to be seasick.
We're on a pretty steady 15 degree keel, bobbing over the swell and its pretty comfortable until you're under the ship and trying to eat dinner or put on a harness.
We can see Victoria on the left (port side) and are on a starboard tack through/across bass strait from Port Phillip Bay.

The ripples and smooth whirlpools of THE RIP out of Port Phillip Bay were quite spectacular.

We got the entire Youth Crew on to haul on the jib sheet (i.e. a rope connected to the jib sail).  At the same time as 17 people were trying to pull on one rope the ship tilted towards them.  I rescued two drink bottles that made the leap for the sea.