South Percy Island

Greetings all,We continue to be blessed with glorious weather. After making a comfortable  overnight transit from Great Keppel Island we have arrived at the Percy Island Group, approximately  70nm south east of Mackay. This will be an excellent starting point for tomorrow’s Command Day. From all reports ‘Apples and Onions’ went well last night, and the way this group have come together, both in their individual watches, and as a Youth Crew, was very evident in this mornings “Captain’s Setting and Furling’ activity. For the uninitiated, this involves me challenging each watch to set/furl a variety of sails unassisted, and assessed by myself and engineer Brett. As reported below all passed with flying colours, an important achievement prior to Command Day. After lunch it was a trip ashore to a remote beach for fun and games, returning for another ‘teak deck BBQ’, Command Day elections (run by the Youth Crew themselves), and the inspirational movie ‘Around Cape Horn’. They have a big 24 hours coming up and we are all looking forward to seeing how they face the challenge of taking Command of Young Endeavour (don’t worry…staffies will be keeping a close eye on proceedings). I will let the gents explain more…Until tomorrowCaptain Kenny Ahoy there land lubbers! Today it is Ayden and Raife reaching out to you all from Percy Island.Today we set anchor at the striking Southern Percy Island. We started the day with good old classic Bacon and Pancakes, just the bit of energy we needed to keep us going. After breakfast, the youth crew divided up into their watches for Captain Kenny’s “Setting and Furling” exercise. We are happy to report that each watch passed Kenny’s test with flying colours. After this activity the youth crew and the Staffies worked together to get the crew set for our day ashore. Once ashore most of the Youthies jumped straight into the water without realising just how cold it was. Once we got all of the snorkelling gear ashore most of the Youthies and some Staffies went for a swim and a snorkel – we sighted a few stingrays, some fish and a whole lot of oysters!! Some Youthies were lucky enough to see a majestic green sea turtle swimming and observing them from the depths below. Due to the tide receding we then competed in a ‘friendly’ game of touch football. We won fortunately! After a few hours of soaking up the tropical rays we headed back to the ship in order to be ready for some more of Captain Kenny’s infamous Barbequing. For the past couple of days the youth crew have been thinking about what positions they would like to do on Command Day. As the hour loomed ever closer, the time had come for the Youthies to elect their own command team for Day 8. We are happy to report that all roles have been filled by capable hands. The Staffies still have the helm of this mighty vessel… until tomorrow! We’ll fill you in tomorrow evening for how the first afternoon went – we’ve learnt a great deal of mariner skills and we’re sure, in the words of Captain Ervin Johnston, we’ll all make ‘super mariners’ ☺ Captain-Elect Ayden and Sail-Master Raife off comms!