Monday 15 October 2007

Voyaging aboard the "Endeavour"

My holidays are over - boo - back in Wellington and still a bit sleepy after a late night flight back from Sydney on Sunday.

Torunn and I did make it to Milford Sound after all; we set out early the day after my last post, and the road opened that morning. So we kept driving all the way there, and managed to get on a cruise on one of the smallest boats on the Sound. The light was gorgeous and although some of the waterfalls had dried up after a couple of days without rain, it was well worth doing. We spent our last day together in Queenstown, getting the gondola to see views and wandering by the lake.

From Queenstown I flew to Sydney, where my rowing friend Jess kindly put me up for the night and I played tourist on the ferry to her flat - the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge were all lit up and lovely. After a good catch-up, early the next morning I caught a plane to Newcastle. I was fascinated to discover that just like its English namesake, Newcastle is heavily dependent on coal. There were loads of gigantic coal ships at anchor in the bay, awaiting their turn to come in and load up with coal. It was, therefore, a rather suitable place to join the Endeavour as the original ship was once a collier brig from Whitby.

Endeavour is not an elegant vessel; she's too rounded for that. But she is beautiful, a faithful reproduction of the original, with very little metal around except in the "20th century" deck where the galley, mess, showers and heads, and the engine room are kept. That's the lowest deck on board, tucked away so when she's in museum mode all the public sees is the 18th century deck above. The wood does creak a bit, and she takes on a few inches of water in the bilges, but she's a lovely, lovely ship. And she has a lovely permanent crew, all friendly, helpful, encouraging and professional. We had a great voyage crew too - good mix of ages and backgrounds, and not too many snorers, which is crucial when you have 36 people all sleeping together in hammocks. Not much space between hammocks either!

The first day was spent training; a tour of the ship, safety briefings, helm orders, and "up and over" the fighting-top. Curiously Endeavour, like Spirit of New Zealand has safety lines running up the shrouds where the European ships I've sailed on don't. Personally I find it extremely frustrating to have to keep on unclipping and clipping the lanyards of the harness while climbing up - by the end of the voyage we, like the professional crew, had dispensed with those safety lines for the lower shrouds.

We set sail at 4pm, firing a couple of cannon off to thank the citizens of Newcastle for their hospitality, and motored out east until we had enough wind to set sail. The engines were off by 8.30pm and stayed off the rest of the voyage, apart from a short burst anchoring on Friday evening, coming off anchor on Sunday morning, and motoring the last short bit into Sydney. We never went very fast - even under Cook, Endeavour rarely manages more than about 10 knots in a strong wind. But we sailed, lots. On Thursday we had most of the sails set for a good long period and they sent the rescue boat out to take pictures of her, including film for an Aussie travel show called the Great Outdoors. The show had a producer, presenter, cameraman and soundman on board for a section in a January edition, so everything we did was filmed.

Unfortunately for some, she rolled a bit even when we were sailing. Quite a few sea-sickness victims. I was fine as usual (I know how lucky I am). Sail was taken in during the afternoon on Thursday and when we came on watch at 8pm rain was definitely on the horizon, with absolutely spectacular lightning to be seen in all directions. We all got kitted out in wet-weather gear and waited. All of a sudden the squall came on, wind up to Force 8 and we still had topsails up. So together with the permanent crew we wrestled them down - hauling on ropes we couldn't see as the wind howled and the rain poured down. Occasionally there was a bright flash of lightning, silhouetting the permanent crew as they climbed the shrouds to furl the sails. The wind died pretty quickly and by the end of the watch we wore ship (turning her) in winds that barely moved her.

More wind was forecast on Friday, so we kept most of the sails in and headed for land. The captain wanted to anchor in Broken Bay, north of Sydney, and we took the sails in and dropped the anchor in the early evening. A lovely little spot. After dinner he showed us some helicopter footage taken for a documentary on Cook, the Endeavour under full sail with a massive 18th-century Red Ensign flying from the stern and the crew in period dress. Gorgeous stuff, and very special to see it aboard the ship.

Our day ashore started late with a brunch (yum - all the food on board was really great thanks to Abi the cook and her mate Mischa) before we got ferried over to a nearby beach in the rescue boat. I was very excited to see goanas on the beach. Once everyone was on land Wally the engineer took us all for a walk in the bush - no tracks! - up to the ridgeline to look down on the bay and the ship. We were going to walk to a waterfall on a beach on the other side, but time and the track ran out. The bush was moderately thick, I got a splinter in a finger which still hasn't come out, and we had to dodge big red bull ants which are apparently horrid if they bite. I don't know how anyone survives in Oz!

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach. We went swimming and a couple of the crew rescued a Japanese couple from a goana intent on eating their picnic. The poor guy was just about to propose to his girlfriend too.

Back on board, we used up all the water storage spac (oops), and prepared for the evening's entertainment. Dinner was on the 18th-century deck, served by the crew in period sailors' clothes, with electric lanterns providing ambience. The captain served out our "wages", a spoonful of rum each! After dinner there was a "sods' opera", with contributions of songs, poems and skits from both voyage and professional crew. I haven't laughed so hard for ages - the talent was impressive and we had an good hours' entertainment.

On the last day we weighed anchor early and motored out of the bay, firing a couple of cannon as we went. We had sails set later that morning and we sailed in through Sydney heads in the company of hundreds of little yachts and various ugly speedboats. We had to take in sail once heading towards the bridge, which meant I got a great view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House from the main topsail yard. We fired our last cannon right under the bridge, causing a boom which echoed off the steelwork. And then we were into the museum wharf and tied up. The voyage ended with a beautiful rendition of "Leave her, Johnny, leave her" by first mate Penny and topman Ally. I'd have loved to have stayed for a celebratory drink with the crew, but had a plane to catch.

And that was that. Pictures going up on Flickr right now.

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