ASTO Exchange Jo Coomber

UK to Australia 2017

A few days after my interview, I was very excited to receive a call from ASTO saying that they were sending me to Australia! I was in the uni café with my friend when I got the call and there may potentially have been some squealing afterwards.

On the first of August, a few days after my university graduation, I flew out to Brisbane with my friend and we spent a few weeks travelling up the coast to Cairns and visiting some amazing places, including beautiful national parks and the Great Barrier Reef and even managed to fit in a visit to my personal waterfall.

At the end of August, my friend flew home and I flew down to Brisbane to join Young Endeavour for Voyage 11/17. I got my first glimpse of her from the ferry as I was travelling to join the boat. I arrived very early due to Brisbane’s public transport being far more efficient than I expected but some of the other youth crew (youthies) were already there so we started to get to know each other as more people gradually arrived. We got onboard the sh ip at 1500, were introduced to all the staffies and split into watches - I was put in Blue watch.

Very soon afterwards, slipped lines and headed down the Brisbane River and across Moreton Bay to our anchorage for the night at Tangalooma. During this time we got introduced to the rest of our watch, did some ice breakers and ships tours, and then had dinner. After a month of mainly eating crispbreads, vegemite and instant porridge, it was amazing to have proper cooked food again! After dinner we had talks from Captain Gav, Sail Master James and Engineer Allan in the café but numbers gradually dwindled as people disappeared up on deck due to seasickness. We then completed our full value contracts as a watch, where we said what we wanted to achieve during the voyage (win, in the case of blue watch!).

We got woken up at 0630 the next morning by SClub 7 blaring through the ship and after breakfast we had a briefing on climbing safety, which included Captain Gav being inverted to show us how safe the harnesses were. We then got to do our first climb up the foremast and out onto the Topgallant yard, which was so much fun. Morning brief followed, where we got told the plan for the day and were also introduced to admiral Salty ‘the rearest of admirals’, who explained the origins of some nautical terms to us. We

then got to partake in the joys of ‘Happy Hour’ before we got underway and headed north towards Lady Musgrave Island, which we would reach in a couple of days. We practised setting and furling whilst we were heading out of Moreton Bay, and got hit by a few squalls so everyone got soaked!

The next day, the wind had backed so we were able to set nearly all the sails and enjoy sailing past Fraser Island under a full press of squares. At morning brief, we were introduced to ‘Nana’ (the Engineer in disguise) who handed back peoples stuff that they had left lying around. We also had the first of many rounds of ‘the most competitive non-competitive game’: rope races, which Blue watch smashed. This is where one member from each watch lines up and the Engineer shouts out a part of the boat and the first person to touch it and call out their watch wins a point.

On day 4 we anchored off the beautiful Lady Musgrave Island, where we had the opportunity to go snorkelling in the crystal clear waters of the lagoon and nearly everyone

saw turtles. The time ashore was also used to prepare for our three way chats in the evening, which is an activity where you get to know 2 other people who aren’t in your watch better. We returned to Captain Gav cooking a BBQ dinner, which was followed by our three way chat presentations. These also included a charade after each one and the staffies were far too good at guessing them so they won by a large margin!

Following a refreshing early morning swim, we had morning brief, which included a colours ceremony (where I was a bit clueless because I didn’t know the words to the Australian national anthem) as well as a visit from Nana’s goth sister, Beryl, because Nana was at a bowls convention. It was then time to set sail and go into rotational tacks, where we got to have a go at the other watch’s tacking stations and had a MOB drill during the last tack. On night watch, we did the BearEx, which is a teamwork exercise and, in our case, it involved setting and furling the staysails within a certain amount of time but we would have to re-do them if we made any mistakes. We had to reset 2 of the sails but were only 2 minutes over time. We then got to go to the lower top to watch the sunrise.

In the morning, the ship was called to tacking stations for demonstrational tacks, where we took it in turns to go on the bridge to see how the crew tack the ship. We then anchored off Great Keppel Island and were run ashore to play beach games and had our mid voyage chats. We had other places to be so weighed anchor in the afternoon and sailed overnight. During night watch we did an exercise

called ‘Apples and Onions’, which is where everyone in the watch says something positive along with a bit of constructive criticism for each of the other watch members. I was slightly disappointed that everyone thought I was too quiet, despite me trying my best not to be.

The first activity of the day was Captains setting and furling, which blue watch completed in super quick time and it was really cool that we had all remembered the takeaways from the BearEx last night. The next task was one that I really enjoyed: the Captains

Challenge. Command of the ship was handed over to the youthies and we had to find out where we were, set all sails, wear ship and navigate to the anchorage of Middle Percy Island within an hour. We did well in completing all of the tasks within the time limit and we also worked pretty well together as a team. We went ashore on Middle Percy in the afternoon and explored the A-frame on the beach, known as the Percy Hilton, where previous visitors had left memorabilia from their boats – we even found a couple of things from when Young Endeavour had visited in the past. Hours of entertainment was then gained from attempting, and succeeding in many cases, to knock coconuts off trees and break them open using rocks, it was very amusing to watch. On our return to the ship, it was time for command day elections. I ran for Captain and didn’t get it but was very happy to be elected as blue watch leader. Elections were followed by an on deck screening of ‘Round Cape Horn’, a very impressive film – they even had rope races!

Command day officially started at 1000 but before that we got to have a go on the rope swing that had been rigged up, which was really fun! The ship was handed over at 1000 along with a list of 22 tasks for us to complete in the next 24 hours. These ranged from holding a dance party in the 12 berth to getting all youthies aloft at one time to having fun! However, to find out where we were meant to go, a beach assault team had to paddle ashore to find the nav instructions.

We weighed anchor after lunch and the engines were turned off as soon as we had cleared the island and there was a scramble to set the sails. We sailed through the night towards St. Bees Island and even had to reduce sail as we were going too fast! We were woken to the call of ‘hands to tacking stations’ because the ship had to be tacked so we didn’t arrive at our destination too early. After anchoring we delivered our morning brief. I was Ivan

the Viking and explained the origins of port and starboard. The ship was handed back to Captain Gav and then we went ashore and chilled on the beach for a bit before returning for our command day debrief. One of my favourite takeaway points from this was ‘you don’t have to lead to be a leader’. We then had a slideshow of some of the pictures from the voyage followed by SODS opera, which featured an act from each watch and an entertaining but slightly disturbing play by the staffies.

The next morning, we motored to Mackay to pick up our guests from two local

community groups for the community half daysail. The conditions were very gentle and it was cool to be able to teach them the ropes. After disembarking our guests, we went to anchor for our final night and were all tasked with writing a letter to ourselves in 6 months, which was an interesting task but I’m looking forward to receiving it!

After sad farewells the next morning, it was time to store ship with an insane amount of food for the next voyage. However, as someone pointed out, it was enough food to feed one person for a year! I went up to Airlie Beach with some of the crew and then it was time to put on a stripy staff shirt and do it all again for Voyage 12/17 from Mackay to Brisbane but this time as an assistant watch leader! I was assisting Jimmy, who was white watch leader.

First we talked through what each staffies role was in the event of an emergency and then did a walkthrough of deck safety and safety procedures. All the youthies came onboard at 1500 and we departed Mackay soon afterwards to head over to Keswick Island. As we conducted icebreakers and ships tours, a lot of the youthies were gradually taken down by seasickness and were glad to reach the anchorage. After dinner, Jimmy split the watch into 2 groups and I took half and taught them stopper drill and the procedure for setting and furling each of the fore and aft sails.

In the morning, after the Captains safety brief, the youthies conducted first climbs up to the topgallant yard. We got underway after lunch and headed towards Middle Percy. Whities had the guts watch from 12-4 and we got them practising setting and furling, as well as stopper drills.

We arrived at Middle Percy in the morning and the youthies enjoyed exploring the A-frame and also played some beach games, which included a game that could be described as a large scale version of table football. Again, much amusement was gained in the pursuit of coconuts. Once back onboard, the youthies presented their 3 way chats. We weighed anchor at around 2000 and whities had the first watch. We took the youthies up to the lower top so they could practice climbing but we were slamming into a head sea and I don’t think all of them appreciated the experience.

Day 4 was spent at sea. Nana made her first appearance at morning brief and we completed a set of rotational tacks in very little wind. The youthies also had rope races and a brief on sail theory from Captain Mike.

Whities had the 4-8 and they did more setting and furling practice. One of the things that I found difficult was taking a step back and letting the youthies make their own mistakes. It was cloudy so there was unfortunately no dramatic sunrise but we did make the approach to Lady Musgrave surrounded by about 7 whales, which was very cool. Today was the first of a few times I was roped into assisting Salty at morning brief. My debut role was as a baby but future roles included Admiral Lord Nelson and Captain Cook’s vicious dog!

We anchored off Lady Musgrave again with promises to the youthies of seeing turtles when they went snorkelling but they chose not to make an appearance, much to the youthies disappointment! We conducted mid voyage chats ashore and some of their goals had already been

met and they were well on the way to achieving the others. We had a BBQ in the evening and Allan taught me the art of Australian barbequing. I didn’t quite perfect the spatula flip and managed to set and egg carton alight so it was only a moderate success.

We remained at anchor overnight and the youthies woke to the excitement of the rope swing in the morning. Once we had set sail, I gave a talk on meteorology to the youthies. We then did demonstrational tacks (the first couple had to be wears instead due to lack of wind) and I got to take the sail masters role of calling them, which was awesome.

First thing, each watch had to do Captains setting and furling, which they all completed. Just before we got to Noosa, the ship was handed over to the youthies for the Captains Challenge, which they had a really good go at. We anchored off Noosa in slightly choppy conditions and there was an epic thunder storm in the evening featuring the best lightening I’ve seen. One of the flashes lit up the sky and revealed a pair of whales about 40m away! The youthies did their command day elections and watched ‘Around Cape Horn’ in the café due to the inclement weather. In the evening, I got taught a bit more about astro navigation by the nav, Harry.

Next morning, we had a visit from some of the teens at Noosa Surf Lifesaving Club who paddled out and had a tour of the ship and then joined in with colours. There was then the option to go and explore Noosa and the run ashore took the term wet landing to a whole new level! The ship was handed over at 1300 for the start of command day. We left Noosa after dinner and still had 20 knot northerlies but were only 40 nm from the handover point so the youthies had to keep reducing sail so we didn’t arrive too early. Command day was a success and the youthies completed nearly all of the tasks and navigated the ship to the handover point at the entrance to Moreton Bay. It was great to see them working together and putting everything they’d learnt into practise.

The last day was the community half daysail. The guests included a group from Centre Care Hand as well as personnel from HMAS Moreton. We then went ashore to conduct end of voyage chats with

the youthies. The SODs Opera and the slideshow of pictures from the voyage took place on the last night. The staffies play exhibited everyone’s truly fabulous acting skills and I got to be an Amazonian pirate on the gantline for the fight scene.

After doing a lap with all the youthies manning the yards, we came alongside and had the end of voyage presentation before disembarking. We then did post voyage checks, including a deck wash with the very powerful firehose, and then went out for a meal.

I was really sad to leave Young Endeavour the next day but I still had a bit of time left in Australia so I went and explored Sydney and the Blue Mountains. My perception of distance has clearly become Australian because I thought it wasn’t very far when Sydney was only 15 hours away by bus! I spent my last evening in Aus having dinner with a couple of the youthies from my first voyage before flying home to a very autumnal UK.

The entire trip was an absolutely amazing experience and I learnt so much, not only about square rig sailing but also about how to deliver a different really successful sail training programme. The staff onboard were amazing and very welcoming so thanks to them for making me feel part of the team. I’d like to say a big thank you to ASTO for giving me this incredible opportunity, especially Marcia for organising everything. I’d also like to thank Trinity Sailing and OYT South for supporting my application and introducing me to the awesomeness of sail training as well as helping me develop my skills and knowledge. It is such a rewarding thing to be part of and I can’t wait to do more!