Young Endeavour: Voyage of a Lifetime

Okay, so I have realised that it has been an impossibly long time since I last updated this blog of mine. I have also realised that a ridiculous amount of events has occured since I last posted, so I am going to attempt to update anyone reading with just what on earth has been happening in my rather busy start to 2011 - which, by the way, I wish everyone a Happy (belated) New Year!

So the big news of this year is that earlier in the month I went aboard the STS Young Endeavour for an eleven day voyage from Hobart to Devonport in Tasmania. Despite the incredibly bi polar weather that we experienced, I had a wonderful time that I don't think could ever be topped. I have learnt many things from that voyage - many of which are life skills and lessons that can easily be applied everyday life situations. I made friends who will always be there no matter what the situation is (we did kinda throw up in front of each other and rained the deck with our stomach contents...), and we've bonded in such a way that sometimes the friends we have on land are a little second rate. It isn't that we don't love the friends we had before the voyage, it's that we've shared so much together, having lived in such tight quarters (six females each in two six bunk cabins - the six births -, and twelve males in the twelve birth), and seen each other at our worst (passed out on deck, throwing up over the side, keeping stomachs at bay during meal times, etc.) and best. I guess that the saying "You've gotta have been there to know" applies a lot to the Young Endeavour situation.


Anyway, moving along to the whole story: I joined the crew through Navy Cadets, and as such was flown down from Melbourne to Hobart courtesy of the Royal Australian Navy (thanks folks!). It was two days after New Year so I was pretty excited, the whole novelty starting to catch up. I was greeted at the airport by a representative of the Australian Navy Cadets (ANC), along with two other cadets from around Australia - one from Western Australia and the other from Queensland. The rep. drove us around and showed us the sights to kill some time before he chauffeured us to the wharf in Hobart.


When we stepped aboard, we were greeted by the staff crew or "staffies" as they were called, and shown our sleeping quarters. We were then told to pack away our belongings and come up on deck to be introduced to the crew and say our goodbyes to families and land.


The staffies that we had were:

Commanding Officer/Captain (CO): Damien
Executive Officer/Sailmaster (XO): Kenny
Navigator (Nav): Joel
Officer of the Watch (OOW): Matt
Red Watch Leader: Carly
White Watch Leader: Penny
Blue Watch Leader: Dan
Chef: Snowy
Engineer: Lindsay

The youth crew were all appointed to watches; myself being appointed to Blue Watch, later to be known as "Blue Steel". I was in the watch with seven others - Amy, Bryn, Lauren, Leish, Louis, Nick and Xavier. As a watch we grew incredibly close, and had a brilliant time teasing and fooling around while we spent nights on watch and time hanging from the masts.

The first night we spent aboard was just within the vicinity of Hobart. They took the opportunity to send us up the foremast (the forward most mast), and to the topgallant - the very top of the foremast. We had to sit on the yards while we waited for everyone in our watch to "climb aloft". I was excited about this, and was the first female, and indeed, the first youth crew member to go up. The view was amazing - breathtaking, and perhaps the rocking of the ship was a little bit scary. I got over it in the end, too enthralled with the spectacular experience.

Moving right along, we sailed up the east coast, anchoring at various destinations along the way to play tourist - which is always so much fun. First stop: Port Arthur. This locale is rich in Australian history, much of it quite solemn, but I won't go into detail on here. It is most famous for being Australia's largest prison, in the sense that despite having no wired fencing, has a vast amount of water and trees in every direction. In our watches, we went ashore (hugged a tree as a lot of us had been sea sick getting there), had some chocolate (deprived we were aboard), and then went on a guided tour of the site. Our guide (above), showed us around and explained many things, including what certain buildings were and what was done in them.

After Port Arthur, we took up anchor and made way for Wine Glass Bay, which, might I say, was one of the most amazing places I have ever been to. The waters are pristine (dolphines greeted us; but then they do that every morning mind you), and the sand white as snow. We went for a day long hike around the area, reaching the top by noon and getting to the bottom and back on the ship (with a pitstop at the local supermarket to stock up on chocolate, soft drink and ice-cream) by four. We were basically dropped off in one bay and pickd up in another - Coles' Bay (as in the supermarket franchise, Coles - the guy behind Coles was born there or something), which is on the other side of the island. It was a great view from the top, by the way.

We spent that night docked in Coles' Bay and the barbeque which was awesome. We all slept soundly that night. The day had been warm, and we were expecting it to stay the same.

But ah, good old Tassie weather. The wind picked up and the swells rised when we raised the achor and set off for our next destination. During the whole ordeal in which we were being knocked around constantly along the Tasman, we still managed to have a good time. Our watch leader, in particular, decided that it would be a good idea to send two of us up the main mast to let fly the gaskets (lines that tie a sail in place), then tie them back up again. Silly me, had to volunteer, along with one of the boys, Nick, now dubbed "Princess" for the following reasons:

The seas were choppy - around 3m swells, the wind was horrific, and the bow was constantly slapping down into the water, recreating this image:





That's me on the left, and BK on the right, tying
down the gaskets on that really shoddy day out
at sea.

Not cool for someone who had been sick on and off the entire voyage. Well, silly me volunteered, along with Princess. Climbing up the main mast was pretty easy considering the circumstances. He climbed to the top and untied the gaskets, I climbed half way and did the rest - we do them top to bottom. We took a five minute break, before we ventured up again. This time I went up to the top, with him following behind. Problem: You need to be level with each other to properly tie the sail and gaskets down. You do this with one person either side. One person ties the gasket, the other throws an arm, a leg, whatever around the sail to hold it in place and prevent it from moving. Because the weather was dreadful, Princess deemed the situation crazy - and maybe it was - and decided that he was scared. He didn't say it of course, 'male' as he was, and I gave him an ultimatum: You can go down if you want, but you've got to send someone up. He went down and another female - BK - came up to help me. We tied that sail down, and returned perfectly in tact, save a few bruises and cuts. Females for the win! Princess didn't hear the end of it after that, and was laughingily told by our watch leader, Dan, to "Get amongst it, and stay amongst it." It remained our motto for the rest of the trip.

So after that little debacle, the seas calmed down somewhat and we were all given some rest, thank goodness.

On the Young Endeavour, there is an opportunity for the youth crew to take over the ship in a day known as "Command Day". We had to elect all the roles mentioned above, except for the engineer who stays the same every voyage.

The roles were:

Command Team -

Youth Crew Captain: Xavier

Youth Crew Sailmaster: BK

Youth Navigator: Alex

Officers of the Watch -

#1 Gee (myself)

#2 Claire

#3 Louis

Watch Leaders -

#1 Deb

#2 Nic

#3 Boi

Chefs -

#1 Mike

#2 Amy

#3 Leish

We had a list of tasks we had to complete, a few of which including have a team of six row ashore (somewhere off Bass Strait, yay), and claim a part of the land for the youth of Australia through a flag raising and singing the national anthem at the top of our lungs; draw a chalk montage on midships and sail a certain number of nautical miles to our next destination - which we successfully did with the 24 hour time limit we had.

It was a great day, and really tests our friendships, but we all came through in the end. The chefs cooked us three glorious meals (dinner was the best I think), we created a great montage, climbed aloft and got a photo of everyone on the yards, and claimed a bit of Australia for the youth of the country.

The evening after Command Day, we were given some time to ourselves, and decided that we would stay up on and deck. We were rewarded for our efforts with the sunrise you see in the picture, with many photos being taken and put up on Facebook for everyone to tag. There were many of the same photos mind. I think that was one of the best moments we had during the voyage from Hobart to Devonport.

The final day of our trip was when we were to sail triumphantly into Devonport from atop the yards, singing songs we had learnt from throughout the week. We did so successfully despite the heavy rain, and when we docked there were a few cold, weary faces.

Our final task of the voyage was to patiently wait through the presentations where each youth crew member is awarded a certificate, indicating the experiences that they have been through - valuable information for future employers. At the end of it all there was a final photo opportunity where everyone crammed together and put on their best smiles.

We said our goodbyes to each other, hugging everyone around us. But truth be told, we weren't really saying goodbye. We'll see each other again - heck, fourteen of us caught up at Devonport Airport where we would all be catching flights to get home. In fact, all fourteen of us were all put on a bus to Launceston after our flight was cancelled due to bad weather. It really was a trip of a lifetime - an experience beyond any I will ever come across. I will never forget the amazing time I had onboard the STS Young Endeavour, nor will I forget the friends I made and the lessons I learnt.

The ship's motto is one often used by people, but I like to think that it's an Endeavour thing - and maybe it is, because we did it every single time we woke up and stepped out on that deck, climbed those masts or heaved and checked away on the sheets.

Carpe Diem. Seize the day.