Chilly Challenges - 8 - Young Endeavour Voyage

6/2/2017

(written 7/2/ 0325)

Watches Kept:

• 0000-0400 Middle Watch (a.k.a the Guts)

• keeping warm on guts watch again
• hammock built to sustain 21 youthies
• I lectured on crochet
• assaulted Kingston Beach
• command day finished - handover and debrief
• Jimmy (an egg version of our watch leader) jumped and did not make it
• learnt astronavigation basics

How am I feeling?

Fatigue and cold really set in for the guts watch and continued as we weighed anchor at Kingston Beach.  

Command Day was challenging on so many bizarre front that on debrief and hindsight I can be really impressed at human perseverance and the necessity to keep learning and adapting as a team, thanks to increased multi-directional communication.

Morale was pretty low over the 24 hours but as with all challenges we've convinced ourselves that it was amazing and rewarding even if oftimes our mood swayed from hating cold to pessimism about seemingly pointless activities.  

Its proper wintry weather here now, exposed on the water.  Kingston Beaches lights cluster like fairies or fireflies on the shores in many directions.  

Storm Bay Command Day- 7 - Young Endeavour Voyage

5/2/2017

(written 0318 7/2/2017)

Watches Kept:

• 0300-0400 Anchor watch

• Rest up
• Hand-over to youth crew (start 24h of youth command)
• Retrieve command day instructions from Isle of Dead
• Photo of everyone aloft
• Chalk mural
• woken up for tacks at 2100 and 2300

I decided waking up via swing into the Tasmanian sea was actually not the bet so I resisting urging to jump in.  

Up the mast an icy wind buffets us, chilling us, youth prepared for milder conditions.  It was a sign of what was to come.  As streaks of white foam painted lines across the increasing bay swell we held on for dear life.   Entering Storm Bay once more we reached rocky seas again.  

That was fine but on waking up for the first tack we found the rain was all too ready to soak our gear and at times the ship seemed like to throw us.  The frigid winds sapped my enthusiasm for the adventure although being responsible for calling the jib was a highlight.  Even with my breaking sleepy voice I directed the crew to heave it in against violent 30 kt winds with shouts of "2, 6, Heave!"

Sunrise Dolphins and Sunset Ghosts -6- Young Endeavour Voyage

1747 4/2/2017

Watches Kept:

• 0400-0800 Morning Watch

Sunrise behind the ship.  Photo credit: Sammie Costin

Unconsecrated church Port Arthur.  Photo Credit: Jimmy Potter

• Talked about teamwork
• Apples and Onions (Brought up Good and Not so Good things about people in our group)
• elections for command day
• demonstrational tacks (seeing how tacking works from the bridge)
• Came in to Port Arthur
• Ghost Tour

Preserved house Port Arthur.  Photo Credit: Jimmy Potter

How am I feeling?

Not scared by the ghost tour although the room in the parsonage was pretty creepy.  Great hot chocolate on return to the ship.  

Feeling pretty confident on the calls for setting (bringing out so you can sail) and furling (putting away) sails but I will inevitably make some mistake.  That's okay, I'm sure we'll all make mistakes.  

Land dizziness is crazy! (You get seasickness moving from land to sea and moving back the other way you start rocking back and forth on land.)

I chucked up my hand for sail master (I was getting pretty keen for it after demonstrational tacks) but Gus (a more experienced boater) got the vote.  I did get watch leader though.  It was disheartening to see the factions created by the watches (red, white and blue).  

A pod of large dolphins greeted us in the morning and some seals watched out adventure past Tasman island.  

Tasman Passage.  The seals were too shy to be photographed. Photo Credit: Jimmy Potter

Swimming in a Wineglass -5- Young Endeavour Voyage

2030 3/2/17

Watches Kept:

• 1800-2000 Last Dog

• Early morning swing off course yard
• Then in to the beach
• Climbed Dove Mountain to lookout
• Weighed anchor about 1400
• Will sail overnight
• Massive nap
• Dolphins

Swimming in Wineglass Bay before being ferried back to the ship. Guess which person is me.  Photo Credit: Jimmy Potter

How am I feeling?

Waking up to "Take a chance on me" was fantastic. 

Wineglass Bay was beautiful so I went for a swim up to the waist (still pretty cold) before coming back.  

Watched dolphins from the bowsprit - its so cool that every day they have come to see us and swim in the wave before the prow.  

Found a pink bruise over my eye; guessing I was elbowed while heaving in on the sheets (though I didn't notice at the time). 

Water was cool but not as icy as Lake Macquarie in winter.  

Contemplating positions for command day (when youth crew take control of the ship for 24h).  I like having a bit of responsibility but total decision making scares me a bit.  Still I'm thinking Sail Master (second-in-command), Navigator or Watch leader (manages one of the three watches (or groups) of deck hands whilst its their turn on watch).  I'd also be find to be a basic deckhand.

View of Wineglass Bay from the lookout.  Photo Credit: Jimmy Potter

Sailing made Easy -4- Young Endeavour Voyage

2/2/17
(written 2030 3/2/17)

Watches Kept:

• anchor watch 0100-0200
• 1600-1800 First Dog
• anchor watch 2200-2300 (means uninterrupted sleep Yay!)

• weighed anchor at St Helens point (i.e. pulled up the anchor to leave)
• sailed to wineglass bay, manning the helm as we entered
• watched film about Peking (fully rigged barque ship)

Photo from:
 https://www.amazon.com/Peking-Battles-Cape-Horn/dp/0930248066

How am I feeling? 

So tired by the time I got to bed. 

Setting the sails and climbing the masts in the morning was a good workout, stretched out all my muscles.  I did some stretching nearing sunset in wineglass which was much needed.  

The size and beating that the Peking took (in the film) was incredible.  

Climbed the tops'il yard (the middle one) to undo gaskets and it was stupidly easy after the high seas.  Helming in to wineglass was a huge highlight and the view of the whole coast was beautiful.  Sat on the bowsprit for a full hour, watching the other boats around us, including the "Enterprise", a smaller, tubbier tall ship.

I think this is by the entrance to Wineglass Bay.  Photo credit: Jimmy Potter

Beautiful Binalong -3- Young Endeavour Voyage

2200 1/2/17

Watches Kept:

• prev. day 2000-0000 First Watch
• 0800-1200 Morning Watch

• sea-furled the course sail (tied it up)
• shore trip to beautiful Binalong
• 3-way chats
• changed positions to near St Helens

Course yard is the lowest horizontal beam, but it has the biggest and heaviest square sail. Photo credit: Jimmy Potter

How am I feeling?

Great, the vibe on the ship is fantastic with no one sick now that we've reached the eastern side of Tassie.  

Our watch had the fastest speed/furthest distance travelled last night (29.9 nm or 7.5 kts the whole way).  

The crust of salt on my rain jacket after being left out on
 deck in Bass Strait.  I could never forget that it was salt water that
 was spraying across the ship.  It would dry on all surfaces into salt
and sting my face.  

Food is a great joy atm, the cook Marcos is fantastic (I was galleyhand yesterday and this morning).  Makes not being sick double worth it.  

Binalong was beautiful: turquoise water and fiery orange moss on the rocks and white-white sand.  The bay was called the Bay of Fires, which could have been due to the moss (but actually because there were fires blazing on the shore when the English decided to name it). Had a lovely mocha from the restaurant and sat in the sun on the beach.  The wind and swell had picked up by the return trip in the shore boat and I was splashed all over with salt.

Aloft in the dark and topsy turvy -2- Young Endeavour Voyage

1827 31/1/17

Watches Kept:

• 0000-0400 Middle watch a.k.a. "the guts"
• 1200-1600 Afternoon watch

• Was watch leader for white
• Undid gaskets on t'gallant s'il
• learnt how to set square s'ils
• 1st round of rope races
• chef's assistant

Imogen and me, climbing in the dark.  Photo credit: Jimmy Potter

How am I feeling?

Still very glad I haven't succumbed to seasickness, however there were a few dizzy moments while idle below deck.  But right now the wind is still pushing us along quickly and the sun is shining so I'm happy.  Proud that I climbed to and undid the gaskets (the ropes holding the sail down) so high up on a tilting ship.  

The seasickers all lined up on the lee side of the deck and slept like the dead there.  They still look utterly hopeless.  The ones who didn't lie in the string of 5-8 people but sat up, staring silently at the horizon, were almost worse.  

Though of course the MOST exciting thing was undoing the gaskets on the t'gallant.  It was by far the scariest thing I've ever done.  

View of the deck from aloft.  Photo credit: Jimmy Potter

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.

Sailing on the wind @Urunga

Sailing, with the wind full and fast is probably the closest feeling to flying I've ever had. Each sport out there gives you a distinct sensation when you're doing it just right. Canoeing its peaceful; a gliding sensation that you feel as you balance and in the muscles as they bunch for another stroke, keeping rhythm and time.

Yet sailing is different. Leaning out over the water, under your torso there is air and spray and wind in your hair. You're sailing not just through the water but over it, flying so near to able to reach out to the ripples below you. It's a rush of speed and freedom because you know what it is that makes you move like that because its in your ears, loud and cool. There are no fumes or petrol. No chug-chugging or spluttering behind you. Its just wind and water. And you're part of it.

Two weeks ago I signed up for a sailing course with the Urunga Sail Training Club and today we had our first lesson. I was intensely excited as you might imagine from my description of sailing above but walking inside surprisingly I wasn't anxious like I might have expected. It was the third time I'd been to the clubhouse and there is something about it that sets me at ease.

When I'd stepped into the clubhouse two weeks ago I felt an instant connection. Maybe it was the ancient plaster board, thick with layered paint and patched together into geometrics. Or perhaps it was the brick fireplace and the proportions of floor, rafters, windows and doors. It was only when we got "the tour" that my eyes had picked up on the flag, green for scouts and above it the familiar portraits of Baden Powell, Our Queen Elizabeth and another more damaged.

It became more obvious even without the explanation, "Yeah this used to be the Urunga Sea Scout Hall." The structure and its paraphernalia had a commonness with all scout halls, probably across the country. Certainly it reminded me of a down-sized copy of my own group's hall up at Coffs. Surveying the tiny kitchen behind the window, the random old furniture and the murals across the walls it was like meeting the siblings of an old friend.

So here was this new hobby I had come to explore and though I wasn't sure about all the booms, vangs and curled up white material I felt an intimate knowledge of the place already.

Outside too was a tangled memory of camping, canoeing, swimming and late night games of spotlight. The Russell buildings I found today felt so much smaller like a doll's house of the originals, a brick boat house facing down the ramp to the river and the square hall above the skewed concrete dock. As scouts, when we were still allowed to stay in them, I remember camping clustered on the grassy patches between them. The Russell buildings had been like a second Station Creek; a place for water activities and exploring the river during the day and the vista of the golf course for nocturnal wide games.

As we gazed out over the river to view our sailing conditions today I glimpsed to my left around the boat shed the fig swinging low over the high tide where I'd climbed like a wily monkey. To my left in front of the veranda I could almost still see a Venturer chilling in his hammock while exuberant scouts chased rabbits.

Now in my head I know the river pretty well too, having swum my way across its heaving currents between the island and the shore several times on scout camps. But I have a feeling that it will be another thing when I am trying to steer a sailboat along it. I've learnt some of that sailing lingo today as we tightened the d-shackles to the boats up to set them up on land today. Then we capsized them to learn how to un-capsize and I tried to wrap my head around the way to adjust the mainsail, jib and steering in order to properly harness this invisible force we were dealing with.

The others may still be anxious about the sailing part, and though I don't really get all those details I'm not. I'm keen and can't wait to get out on the water next week!