For 16-year-old Red Bend boarder Neville Squire, the chance to sail on STS Young Endeavour was an opportunity too good to pass up.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
With the encouragement of one his house coordinators from Red Bend Catholic College, the Year 11 student from Broken Hill applied and was selected for Voyage 09/17 and joined the square-rigged tall ship in Sydney.
From the start of the eleven-day journey, Neville said he loved exploring the New South Wales coast.
“I was initially attracted to the challenge of being out on the open ocean, climbing and rigging a tall ship,” he said.
“It’s all desert our Broken Hill way, so it was my first time sailing a ship.
“The experience was really great.
“I got a bit sick at the start, but it passed in a few days and I found my sea legs.”
During the voyage, the twenty-two members of the youth crew learnt how to sail the brigantine; including how to navigate, keep watch, cook in the galley, take the helm and climb the 30 metre mast to work aloft, setting and furling sails.
“My biggest challenge was climbing aloft,” Neville said.
“When I first went up it was nice and calm under anchor and I was thinking sweet this is good, but out on the open ocean it was a different story.”
While living in close quarters with other people was new to some of the youth crew, Neville said it wasn’t new to him.
“It’s second nature to me being at boarding school, you get used to living with, regardless if you like them or not. But it’s great everyone got along like one big family.”
Over the course of each voyage the youth crew face a number of personal challenges and towards the end of each voyage, the youth crew elect a command team who take full responsibility for Young Endeavour for 24-hours.
“Being on Young Endeavour I learnt that if you put your mind to something and really give it a crack, you can do it.”
“It was a really good opportunity. I have so many highlights. Seeing the islands and beaches up the coasts and experiencing the mateship between everyone - it was really great,” Neville said.
Young Endeavour is Australia’s national sail training ship and was presented to the Australia by the United Kingdom for Australia’s bicentennial in 1988.
During her almost 30 years in service, almost 13,000 young Australians have joined the ship and participated in the youth development program delivered at sea by the Royal Australian Navy.
Young people aged 16 – 23 years old can apply for a chance to set sail on the voyage of a lifetime at www.youngendeavour.gov.au
