Young Endeavour Day 1: Alongside Cairns

I woke up to see another young endeavour bag in my room (very exciting).
The bag belonged to Alex, 21 from south bank. In his final semester of excersise science. He works as a porter in the Stamford plaza(I think) as well as at Jam Factory. We checked out the cairns esplanade which overlooks mudflats. We passed a playground there was a sign right next to it warning of crocodiles in the area – guess those tough Queensland kids start their croc wrestling early. There is this cool lagoon sort of makes a horizon with the ocean.

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Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

I quickly wrote some emails and we started lugging the extremely uncomfortable but attractive young endeavour bags to the pier. At about 3pm we boarded the ship. I made final sms contact with outside world and took the last step from solid ground for what I thought would be the next 10 days.

I unloaded my stuff into my locker and met my roommates. Marty 18ish from Newcastle, plays in a oldies rock band called the retro-jets and surfs a lot. Under him was Luke 21 from Sydney who works at Fox Studios below him was Alex I don’t know where he was from he was pretty young like 17. Under me was Gary 23 the woggish Holden nut from Latrobe valley area and below him was Jesse from Albury 16 but he looked older than me.

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Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

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Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

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Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

We went upstairs to midships to be welcomed by captain Phil followed by our XO(2IC(2nd in charge))) Dion. Dion stressed that we should not pursue romantic relationships on board, that we should be weary of “sea goggles” but that when we arrived at Mackay at the end we should feel free to “Fill your boots”.

After this we were introduced to our watch (team) and watch leader Brodie. He’s like 29 and a sailor in the navy he grew up in country Queensland. Other people in my watch were Jess, 23 a recently graduated Vet now working in Moe. Juzzy 23ish from the Latrobe valley she works as a microbiologist. Tammy 20 something from queensland she grew up on an outback cattle property and now is a make up artist. Laura 22 a registered nurse from Launceston she lived in New Zealand when she was younger. Alex and Marty as well as Nick, 19 a business student from Sydney.
(Click on the photo below and hover over the head to see who's who).

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Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

Captain Phil's Log for today

Down under Dive Osprey Intro dive

Booked for introductory scuba diving. Staff really entertaining, food O.K. but boat very crowded, wet suits pretty crappy. Attended introductory scuba-diving talk on board.
At first reef I think it was called Hastings reef snorkelled around a bit. Then it was show time got the weight belt, strapped on the buoyancy vest, hooked up the tank with twin mouthpieces. I got 2 metres underwater before freaking out and surfacing. The air was a weird sensation I wasn’t used to it felt cold in my lungs. I was taking short panicky breaths, and my lungs felt like they were expanding but not collapsing. I tried one more time then decided to save $60 and stick to snorkelling. At the next reef I took about 340MB worth of video – they’re all pretty crappy (I need to find a quicktime editor)

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Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

After reefing it up I thought I’d take a look at the endeavour so I’d know where to go the next day. I didn’t find it but on the way back to the hostel I was waiting at the light and a group of about 100 Japanese tourist all crossed onto my corner. There was a dude holding a sign on a pole at the front of the group and a dude with a sign at the back. Picture a lanky white dude crossing the road in a sea of shorter Japanese tourist. Walked with them for a bit then en masse they all turned into a yum cha place, pretty weird. If I remember correctly the O.K gift shop was on the opposite corner.

Shenanigans Irish bar

Went here for dinner purely for the super trooper’s reference. Had a really expensive steak but live band was cool. It was also nice to eat dinner under the stars in shorts, something I won’t be doing in Victoria for a good few months.

Cairns Central Backpackers

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Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

Arrived around 2AM.
Bought a padlock from BI-LO it had 2 spare keys. Had to chop it a day later when I managed to lock all 3 keys inside the locker (bought a combination lock after that).

I wonder if this is what I can look forward to

Heres a video I found off a navy website At about 28seconds in you see these crazy kids sitting on the bow while the ship is crashing through the waves.
Almost as exciting as sitting on the bull bar of an edmundo hopper van in churchill park.


Rough seas for young endeavour


Some inspiring words for what should be an inspiring voyage

Young Endeavour

Got my tote bag and polo shirt in the mail today.
Looks like its official.
Now I need to learn some knots since I will be the old fart I reckon they might expect me to actually be competent (and I intend to maintain the charade for as long as possible).

Young Endeavour

I decided to change the template theme to be more like the original diaries of the original Endeavour crew. I will not however be speaking in ye olde English. It appears that I will have something to put in this thing afterall. Look for a post from Cairns the day before departure(1500 Monday 11th July 2005) or perhaps some more details of my voyage in-between. Of course catch the full diary that will be published after arriving in Mackay (1100 Thursday 21st July 2005).

Losing grip on reality

Since nothing cool is happening right now i thought id go back in time before recorded history and write about the stupid crap ive said/done. This was inspired by gerards comment in: "i tried to call my blog blogdan but some other bastard stole that name". Once I was drunk and my friend called me on my mobile, I answered it in the street. A week or so later I asked him what he was doing on that street, that day, to which he replied that he talked to me on the mobile. I had remembered it as an actual face to face conversation.

now that I have a pulpit...

I have nothing to say

i tried to call my blog blogdan but some other bastard stole that name

welcome to my blog
this is my first go so dont be too harsh

timeline

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hH29yQJFw4PMMp5eA