On 27 March, as part of my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Residential Project, I embarked on an 11-day voyage aboard the STS Young Endeavour, a navy sail training ship. Myself and 21 other young Australians from around the country, entered the ship as strangers but left as a close-knit group of friends, bonded by our shared experiences on board. My voyage sailed from Adelaide, sailing around the York and Eyre Peninsulas as well as down to Kangaroo Island before returning to Adelaide.
The Young Endeavour is a 44 metre long brigantine sailing ship that we learned to sail and operate over the course of 11 days, leading up to Command Day on the ninth day, when the youth crew assumed command for 24 hours. Before Command Day, we were briefed on topics such as navigation, rules of the road, sail operation, and harness safety. Harnessed to safety ropes, we climbed up 30 metre tall masts to let sails up or down at all hours of the day or night. We made day trips to nearby beaches to enjoy the South Australian sunshine before returning to the boat and eating the incredible food prepared on board in a kitchen no bigger than some people's wardrobes.
The day before Command Day, we voted for our leaders, the people in positions that we thought could get us through the day. We had a captain, a navigator, a sail master, a watch officer, 3 watch leaders, and 3 chefs. I was lucky enough to get voted as a watch leader, meaning myself and a small group of people took watches overnight and worked together to set and furl sails.
Our Command Day was crazy; 40 knot winds and 3 metre waves sent everyone tumbling around the boat. The chefs spent most of the day underwater as the boat was at such an angle. We made it through two of our three checkpoints, arriving at the end location on time. That night I had 4 hours of sleep, interrupted twice by voices over the loudspeaker calling "ALL HANDS TO TACKING STATIONS!".
Even with all the craziness, I still had the most amazing time of my life, seeing dolphins and penguins, hearing ghosts, and making friends with 21 of the most unbelievably kind, courageous, and generous people I will ever meet. I am forever grateful for their friendship and the experiences I shared with them.
If you want to challenge yourself, meet new people, and have an adventure, I couldn't recommend Young Endeavour more. It is the best thing I have ever done.
Poppy Randall
Carys Nolan played in the Victorian Metropolitan Cricket U/16 Carnival recently.
It is the 3rd year that Carys has represented the Western Region.
The team won the Grand Final and were undefeated throughout the tournament with Carys taking 8 wickets with an economy of 2.97.
Well done Carys. We look forward to seeing what you can achieve next year!
Author Fiona Day approached Visual Arts leader David Meilak to create some illustrations for her book.
Fiona's story is a children's storybook about how the use of late night technology devices can disrupt a good night's sleep and effect mental health.
David did a couple of mock-ups in the style that she was after. After seeing some of Lucy's digital illustrations in class, David asked Lucy McFarlane if she could take his drawings and illustrate it in Procreate. The next day she came to class with this amazing picture of the main character Jordy. It was then agreed that the digital illustration was much more suitable for the genre of the book, considering it was all about screen time.
The entire process took six months and that created some challenges. Layout and printing was the biggest challenge, as Lucy And David were originally working with a landscape layout, however, towards the end, some of the drawings had to be changed because the book was changed in a square format. Coming up with appropriate illustrations that were best linked to the story was not always easy and making them fit with the text.
To see it come to fruition was really satisfying for David and Lucy. We are really proud of Lucy for sticking it out and in the end it was a wonderful experience for her. Thank you to David for mentoring and assisting lucy with the project.
If you would like to purchase the storybook, you can find it on Amazon HERE
Congratulations to Year 10 Media student, Lily Hood who won the 'Hobsons Bay Best Summer Shot Photography Competition'
'Lily, your photo ‘Reading on Altona Pier’ came first place! The judges were impressed by the way your photo artistically told a story about summer in Hobsons Bay.'
Lily's work will be published in the next edition of 'Hobsons Bay Community News' in letterboxes in April!
