Endeavour - under sail

I am writing this as a diary while sitting up in the fighting top on the foremast on the Endeavour tall ship replica, talking about living life to the fullest!

Writing my diary up on the main fighting top.

This morning I woke up early at 11-30pm (really the night before) to get ready for the midnight to 4am shift along with the rest of my watch.

There is no artificial light allowed on deck of the Endeavour, so there was only the light of the stars and the moon to see by (which was slightly below a half moon). It was so calm and relaxing to be on a tall ship under sail at night in gentle wind conditions.

I had a surreal 30s where I was helming the Endeavour at night under the stars – so very cool.

Steering an 18th century tall ship under sail by the stars was something I had not planned for as I was so focused on getting up into the rigging, but what an amazing experience and huge privilege to be on the helm. I was steering by looking under and around the sails which take up most of the view in front of me at landmarks in the distance while using the compass as support to keep her on the right heading – more difficult than you might think as those sails take up most of your view. To think my first helming experience ended up being at night.

I was back in my hammock just after 4am and I was up at 7-30am. I slept quite well considering I was in a hammock for the first time. Unlike a hammock on your deck these hammocks are tied tight and are so are very horizontal and wrap around you like a blanket and even through there are people all around but I didn’t seem to notice once I was in the hammock. After breakfast I asked if I could go up to the fighting top to enjoy the view but was told ‘no’ as stuff was happening, and boy what stuff was about to happen.

First up we had a muster drill with life jackets on, then the most exciting bit and thing I wanted to do the most, going up to the very top of the mast to set the highest sail, the topgallant and I was the only person from my watch who got to go up as by now they all knew I was the most keen to go up in the rigging.

So while the rest of my watch got ready to haul lines on the deck, myself and Warwick our watch 2IC climbed and climbed and climbed, once you get past the fighting top the ladder gets very narrow and even I was getting a bit nervous getting up there for the first time.

At the top of the mast, at the topgallent sail, I’m wearing the green trousers on the left.

At the top I had to step up out onto the horizontal yard arm which is where the sails hang from. I had to climb up over some rope and back onto the single rope that lies below the yard arm which is all you have to stand on. Then you simply hug the yard arm with your elbows while leaning forward over the yard arm which is just below my hip height.

Over 100 feet up at the top of the Endeavour

So while I’m balancing on a single rope while hugging the yard arm I then had to start working. This job was to untie the gasket ropes holding the sail up and then to lose the ropes. As the ropes where untied the topgallant dropped away so the sail was hanging loosely below. The sail was then tightened and put in place by the rest of the watch who were hauling ropes on the deck 100 feet below.

Just a single rope to stand on

The view from the top of the Endeavour is just amazing with the ship rolling below and I simply can’t believe this is an option and something I can do. This is real living history at it’s finest.

After loosening the gasket ropes I took my time getting back down as I simply can’t get enough of this view.

Heading back to the deck, and there is a lot more rope ladder once you get closer to the deck.

Once I was back on the deck I finally got to haul some lines myself. It was strange as the rest of the watch were tying knots, pulling ropes and understanding the calls easily as they have been doing this for the last day but I have spent most of my time up in the masts and I had missed out on all of this so I had to learn quickly.

Hauling the ropes as a team and feeling the Endeavour respond was fun, and being on the Endeavour when she was under full sail and was simply fantastic !

After lunch I went up to the main fighting top to write in my diary.

Relaxing up on the fighting top.

Great view of the deck below.

After getting my diary up to date I headed to the very top of the mast to relax at the highest view. Unlike the fighting top which is a large platform with a railing, up the top of the mast there is only 3 narrow planks to sit on and no space for a railing.

Relaxing at the top of the ship, hell of a view! You can see the fighting top platform below me

View of the sails on the main mast, taken from the top of the foremast.

Heading down from the top of the mast, the rigging here at the top is very narrow.

During the day the wind had died off as we went past the Poor Knights, such amazing views but only limited sailing unfortunately.

One of the waka in the Tuia 250 flotilla

The tucker thompson, another one of the tall ships in the Tuia 250 flotilla

At 6pm it was decided to pull down all the sails, an activity I thought would take all of us a good half a day but they were all down by 8pm. Surprisingly as there are only 16 professional crew and 39 of us amateurs.

My watch had the main mast including the top sail, so I was back up in the rigging again and pulling in a sail is a lot harder than just releasing it I can tell you.

First the four of us who were balanced standing on a single rope again leaning over the yard arm had to grab some of the sail, pull it up, hold onto it and then reach down and grab some more, and repeat until the middle of the sail was secured. Then we spread out even further towards the end of the yard arm and then we pulled up the remaining sides of the sail and secured it.

This was hard work but a heap of fun.

Within a couple of minutes of coming down from the rigging I was asked to take over the helm. Normally someone spends 30 minutes helping out on the helm ‘being the brawn’ and then 30 minutes actually in charge as ‘the brain’ and steering the ship under the direction of the officer of the watch. But as my watch had just started I got to go straight to the leading ‘brain’ position and I was very lucky in that I ended up doing this role an hour and 15 minutes. So I got to helm the Endeavour into a cove to anchor up which included a great U-turn, a full 180 degree’s on a hard port. Only a couple of us got the chance to swing the Endeavour around so sharply, another cool thing I got to do, plus it was at 9-15pm so I did it under the light of the stars.

Once the anchor was away only two people from the watch were needed so I could stand down, and I was quite tired as I had gone straight from dinner to up the mast, pulling up sails and then steering the Endeavour.

We had cell phone coverage so I got to phone home which was nice and I got to hear how Julianne and be boys are and it was exciting for me to share with them all that I have been up to.

I then checked my e-mails and was in bed by 10-35pm – it’s been a long day!