Endeavour Sailing 12/2/25 Wednesday: First day on the Endeavour

Today the excitement starts; I’m back on the Endeavour sailing ship as crew for 12 whole days!

Ant, Master of the Endeavour speaking to us new recruits, wearing our new red Endeavour t-shirts

Last night in my backpackers some idiot turned on the lights in my bunk room at 11:30 p.m., which of course woke me and someone else up, so rude and inconsiderate. The other person who was awake complained and the light went off, but it took me a while to get back to sleep.

I awoke just before 6 a.m. rested for 15 minutes, went downstairs for breakfast and importantly had my last full proper shower for several weeks. I then left the Montacute boutique bunkhouse for the walk down to the Endeavor about 850 meters away. This time I carried my army duffle bag on my shoulders instead of carrying it in my hands, a tad awkward to get on but a far more comfortable way to carry 17 kg, than on my walk to the backpackers a couple of days ago.

On arrival at the wharf, we voyage crew gathered around as we went through the slow process of signing in. I'm in mainmast watch, which is the tallest mast which is great news. Especially as I actually e-mailed and asked to be in the main watch, as I do love heights.

Once allocated to a watch (there are three watches, one per mast) we finally went on board, dropped our bags into the bag room and the morning was spent slowly going through all the required different inductions to familiarise us where everything is on the ship, and what to do in an emergency.

Briefing from Mark, the Leader of Main Watch in the Great Cabin.

It was super nice to get to know the Endeavour again, through they didn't feed us any morning tea. Luckily, I had an apple stored in my pocket. Lunch was chicken drum sticks and rice, from this point onwards it looks like there will be plenty of food.

After lunch it was time for the 'Up and Over'. This is where everyone gets their first time in the rigging. Everyone goes up one side of the mainmast, and down the other side. The tricky bit is the futtocks, which is where you have to climb leaning backwards and then reach out over the platform to get up onto the fighting top. I of course love this, and was the first person up and over, no problems.

Getting the other 35ish people up and over took a long time as for most people this was there first time climbing the rigging of a ship, and some people really struggled. Luckily if you don't want to be a climber, you don't need to. With 12 to 14 people in a watch, there are plenty of people who can go up if required.

Due to the wind direction and a storm out to sea, we will not be going to sea for several days which is unfortunate, but we are at the mercy of mother nature now.

Afterwards there was more ship familiarisation and then dinner. As we are still tied to the wharf we can head into town.

As we now have free time, I of course asked Mark our watch leader if I could go aloft. He said to ask the officer of the watch, but he considered it unlikely, but Bendon the third officer said yes.

So, I quickly got my harness on, and asked to go all the way up to the top of the mainmast, and he said yes again. I was soon up in the crosstrees, perched on three narrow planks about 100 feet up. This provided an amazing view over Hobart which I found very relaxing.

The tricky bit in reaching the very top of the mainmast is not the upside climbing of the futtocks but the very narrows footholds in the rope rigging as you near the top of the mast. I found these narrow footholds which are smaller than my shoe actually the most challenging part of the climb. I spent about 45 minutes on the highest part of the ship. I used the opportunity to phone home and let everyone know I was OK, that we would not be sailing for a couple of days and that I was having a great time. I then took the opportunity to check my e-mails and catch up on the news.

View over Hobart from the top of the Endeavour. Another, much smaller tall ship can be seen on the wharf below.

What I found amusing is that three other people had seen what I was doing and also climbed up into the rigging, but only to the fighting top, about half way up the mast. Finally, I came down for a cup of tea, and found out some people were going off to a pub, so I tagged along, grabbed a beer and got to know some of the other sailors, through most were from other watches.

By 9:30 p.m. I was heading back to the Endeavour, a simple three minutes’ walk from where the pubs are located.

During the afternoon we had hung up our hammocks which was quite a big exercise. The knots have to be good and secure and are hung up traditionally with all the hammocks close together in a very crowded space. Last time I was on the Endeavour I was in the middle of the walkway, near the edge of the stairwell to the deck below because I was considered one of the youngest people in my watch. As such getting in and out was a challenge and everyone walking along the corridor had to bend over or bump into me.

Hammocks hung up in the 18th century, traditional deck, with my previous hammock location directly in view

This time I made sure I was near the side of ship over a table, so it’s super easy to get into, only has people on one side and is nice and dark. Plus, I actually had no one directly beside me, which is very unusual – a great spot.

I climbed into my hammock, which is like being wrapped in canvas all around you, cosy and snug and I dropped off to sleep.

At 1 a.m. in the morning I was woken for my first watch. As we are beside the wharf, I only needed to do an hour. This short watch hour was spent talking to Nico, who is the 2IC of our watch, discussing the ships rigging and such.

I also did my first safety round, which involved going around the ship in the dark, including into the engine room doing some basic cheeks such as the level of the water in the bottom of the ship.

Then back to my hammock and sleep.

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Endeavour Sailing 12/2/25 Wednesday: First day on the Endeavour