Last Photos

Here's a few final photos I picked up of Facebook- the high ones make my stomach lurch!

YE Batch 3

I need to hunt down Meg's YE photos and post her pic just like this one.

YE Batch 2

YE Batch 1

You can tell from these photos just how awesome Drew's 10 days on the YE were. After living so closely with a wonderful bunch of like minded young people he's feeling the after effects of having to leave them and head back to the mundane (?) life of being a Uni student. After listening to his stories and hearing the positive effect the trip had on him I'm so glad we went ahead with it. Being Sail Master for the 24 hours that the kids took command of the ship was a highlight for him; he learnt so much about sailing (obviously), ropes, knots, team work - and himself. All part of the growing and learning process.

Here's a small selection of photos in no particular order.

He's Home

In an absolute perfect repeat of Meg's homecoming 8 years ago, Drew has got the Young Endeavour Blues real bad. We took all his gear back to College last evening then picked him up from the plane last night, took him to dinner at Sizzler, fed him, looked at his photos then dropped him back to College where he quietly ducked into his room to avoid the shenanigans and fallout from the weekend ball (his College, and it's considered very bad form to miss your own ball. There'll be repercussions). Here's a grainy iPhone photo taken last night; Gibbo managed to squeeze himself into it.

Today should have been spent catching up on the week of Uni that he missed but I suspect there was more time spent downloading photos to FB and researching world sailing adventures than there was on blackboard. Having an external subject this semester (International Peacekeeping) will keep him on his toes - and theres' only 11 weeks to go!

How Time Flies

Tomorrow marks the end of Drew's voyage on the Young Endeavour. By all accounts it's been a fantastic sail with plenty of fun thrown in. We've followed the daily Captain's Log and the activities sound very similar to Meg's voyage when she sailed from Sydney to Brisbane when she was 16 (it was where she learnt to cook banana cake). They've visited pristine beaches, swum, snorkelled, cooked, cleaned, climbed the rigging, tied knots, turned the machines off and sailed under full sail, taken command of the ship for a full day and learned what it means to really be part of and work as a team. Drew now has himself another extended family to go with his Canadian and Antarctic Families.

He made a hasty phone call using the ship's phone tonight, asking me about his flight details for tomorrow. I reminded him that I packed the paperwork in the outer pocket of his backpack - and I specifically remember telling him several times that it was in there. Jeez, boys! He sounded really happy and there was lots of laughter in the background when he said, "Oh, you packed them?!". He rang off with, "I love you Mum".

We're taking his gear back to College tomorrow afternoon and will pick him up from the airport in Brisbane tomorrow night, take him for dinner and deliver him back to Uni, ready to hit the ground running for week 2 of semester (I hope).

And Today He Set Sail

Drew flew to Proserpine then caught a shuttle bus to Airlie Beach. He found the ship and then found some other crew members. He sent photos and lots of texts and is pretty excited to set sail (tomorrow). He met a girl who said, "My mother told me to look out for you" and he said, "My mother told me to look out for you too!". It's a small world hey Fiona?

This is his home for the next ten days.

His bunk. I asked him if the red straps were to strap him in at night so he didn't fall out of bed in rough weather. No actually; that's his harness to wear when climbing the rigging. I don't know much about sailing! I see the sleeping bag made the journey safely.

It was sunny when he arrived at the marina.

Then the clouds came over.

Meg thinks she was in the White team when she went in 2004!