Endeavour Sailing 20/2/25 Thursday: Back to sea

Last night I went to bed at 10 p.m. and woke at 6 a.m., my normal sleeping hours for a change and it felt great!

Australian military boats from a base nearby.

I came on deck and wrote in my diary while enjoying the view of Jervis Bay with the sun slowly rising in the distance, with no movement from a ship in habour, which seemed very strange after the last few days.

After breakfast Mainmast were on watch from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and this was one super full-on watch as the Endeavour left Jervis Bay.

Standing on the bowspit to set the front staysail.

First up our watch unfurled the foremast topsail, along with the front staysail. I volunteered to go out the front of the bowsprit to do the staysail (triangle sail out the front of the ship) instead of climbing up into the rigging to undo the other two sails. I enjoyed going out onto the bowsprit, but I did miss the opportunity to climb up and release two sails, one after another. Especially as Levi and Ash who are nervous about climbing went up and I would have enjoyed going up to help them.

It is great that Mark our watch leader let us get involved in whatever we want, so we all choose what we want to be involved in, or not involved in as well for those who don’t want to climb up into the rigging.

Once all the other watches had breakfast, everyone was up on deck as the captain wanted to see if we could drift off the anchor under sail and get out of the bay, all without the engine, very traditional. Sailing off the anchor was another great authentic experience that they don’t normally do as the wind needs to be coming from the right direction for this to work without drifting onto shore, and the process does take quite a while.

The anchor rope being pulled aboard, so cool the Endeavour still uses a rope and not a modern chain.

While the anchor still on the bottom of the sea the Endeavour was slowly dragged towards the shore as the anchor rope was taken on board. Once the ship was lifting the anchor off the sea floor, it was suddenly all on as every watch was involved in setting sails across the ship so we could under way as soon as possible, so we don’t drift onto a beach and to sail us out of Jervis Bay.

As the anchor was brought on board, we slowly built-up speed and turned towards the Jervis Bay entrance.

The Endeavor ever so slowly inched itself out of the bay under sail, this was such an authentic and amazing experience.

Endeavour sailing past the headland out off Jervis Bay

Once all the sails were set, most of the other crew disappeared downstairs while our watch tided up all the ropes which were everywhere. I quite enjoying tiding up the ropes. I am, along with the rest of mainmast are getting the hang of tiding up ropes. The tricky thing on the Endeavour is that there are a range of posts of different types, shapes and sizes, all of which have attach ropes differently, all which we need to learn.

Endeavour’s anchor rope

Mark then asked for several people to go below into the front of ship to stow the anchor rope, so of course I volunteered very quickly. So along with Martin, I took off my harnesses and jacket to drop below into a hatchway at the front of the Endeavour to receive and feed in the anchor rope in a tight crawl space.

All tidy, with the fenders on top.

This was hot physical work in a confined space but was also quite a unique experience which I really enjoyed. The rope was of course very wet with sea water having been in the ocean overnight which made it heavy and smelly as well. Once the anchor rope was in place we then placed the ships fenders on top.

It's great to get involved in as much as possible I have found.

I then relaxed a bit on deck before we set the large staysail, more great pulling of ropes. It was now 11:50 a.m. and mainmast have been busy since 8 a.m., a great full-on time to be on watch!

Levi’s birthday cake.

At 12-30 p.m. we were relieved and, headed downstairs for lunch. Afterwards I was back in my hammock for a one-hour nap.

Once I was back awake, I spent the afternoon reading books and writing my diary while sitting on the back of the ship.

Levi birthdays is today, so mid-afternoon there was a birthday cake celebration for him.

At 4 p.m. I climbed up to the top crosstrees of the mainmast and spent an hour relaxing at the very top of the ship, like I do most days.

100 feet up, with the top of the mainmast above me.

And the view below to the deck.

I was enjoying the view of looking down on a sailing ship under sail on the ocean and reading a few news articles on my phone. I have to two bars of reception, it’s surprising to me how far cell phone coverage can go for miles across the open flat sea.

On coming down I felt a bit nauseous, like when you spend too much time on a roller coaster. The ship was not rocking a lot, but when up the top of the tallest mast the motion is a lot more noticeable after an hour.

Dinner was at 5:20 p.m. as mainmast are back on duty between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., a nice short 'dog' watch where not much happened.

By 8:15 p.m. I was back in my hammock and asleep.