Young Endeavour Youth Scheme

15/10/2026

Charting confidence: Why teachers should know about the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme ⚓

For teachers, education is about far more than academic achievement. Every day, schools strive to develop young people who are resilient, confident, adaptable, and ready to navigate an increasingly complex world. While classrooms provide the foundation for learning, some of the most transformative lessons happen beyond the school gates.

Read the full News story📰: https://youngendeavour.gov.au/charting-confidence-why-teachers-should-know-about-the-young-endeavour-youth-scheme

14/10/2026

13/10/2026

Young Endeavour Voyage Take-Away's

"My biggest takeaway from my voyage(s) has been the people I’ve met. Being on the Young Endeavour forms such a special and indescribable bond with those with you. I’m fortunate to still be in frequent contact with a large amount of people from both voyages, despite geographical distances. As well as the family I met on the boat, I’ve met so many people who have gone on other voyages on the Young Endeavour, forming instant friendships over our shared experiences. The Young Endeavour community is so special to me and I’m glad to be a part of it. 🙂"

-Sarah - V11/25 & V21/25.

11/10/2026

⚓️Captains Log V15/26 - Day 10

Hi Everyone, welcome to Day 10 and the final night of our voyage. Today’s Community Day Sail gave the Youthies the opportunity to host guests from Kookaburra Kids, an organisation that supports young carers, including those caring for family members experiencing mental ill-health, as well as children of veterans. The Youthies were fantastic hosts, and they made all of us in the Staff Crew extremely proud.

After completing the Community Day Sail, we returned to the Harbour and anchored off Kirribilli, where we have a spectacular view of the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and the city. We will remain here overnight while we complete the final activities of the voyage. Tomorrow morning, we will weigh anchor and proceed alongside Fleet Base East, where we are scheduled to berth at 1000 for the final time this voyage.

This has been another great voyage, and I would like to thank the Youth Crew for the effort you have put in over the past 10 days. You are a wonderful group of young Australians. The Staff Crew of Young Endeavour have greatly enjoyed sailing with you, and we wish you all the very best for the future.

Sadly, it has been announced that this will be Young Endeavour’s final Youth Development Voyage before she is retired from service on a date yet to be advised. Since being gifted to the youth of Australia in 1988, the ship has embarked nearly 16,000 young Australians, sailed more than 500,000 nautical miles and changed many lives. She is an amazing ship that has never let us down. It has been a privilege for the Navy Crew who have served on board over the past 38 years to sail her and facilitate the youth development program. Although we always understood that this day would come, that knowledge does not make saying goodbye any easier.

To quote Dr Seuss:
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.

Until whenever the next time may be, take care.
Yours Aye,
Captain Gav.

09/10/2026

⚓️Captains Log V15/26 - Day 9

Hi Everyone, welcome to Day 9 of our Voyage. Well Command Day was an outstanding success with the Youth Crew doing a wonderful job of sailing and navigating the Ship as well as working extremely well together as a Crew, well done Youthies!!
I will now handover to Alex, Dexter and Kata to tell you all about Command Day.
Until tomorrow, take care.
Yours Aye,
Captain Gav.

Ahoy there! It's Alex, Dexter, and Kata, coming to you live from the ship with your newest update.

As you know, we’ve now successfully survived Command Day. And, we have made it to the big S, the motherland…. You guessed it… Sydney!

Overnight, we had beef with the wind gods. The winds challenged us and limited our speed to only 4knots; we overcame the opposing winds and reached our waypoint on time.

We awoke this morning to our amazing new alarm clock, a musical number performed by fellow Youthies. Then, we feasted! The amazing, spectacular, supernatural, command day master chefs, whipped up grilled sausages, eggs and bacon, bacon, and more bacon.

Wait, what was that? Where is that tune coming from? 'EVERYBODY TAC NOW!' We kicked off the morning by heading to tacking stations, where we altered the course of the ship. The sails 'don’t wait for no-one'. Heaving and checking away with our collars blue and our necks red, we managed to get the ship moving.

After we reached 'the big S' (Sydney), our destination - it was SIESTA TIME. Everyone laid on the deck like lizards under a heat lamp; this might have been the best sleep of the voyage yet.

After being woken up by another spectacular musical number, we were treated to the famous Rope Swing activity. The yothies spent the afternoon swimming and leaping into the water.

Smell that? The smells from the Galley (kitchen) are telling us it's time for another incredible meal. Allow us to introduce the chef: Some say the ovens warm up just by looking at him. Others say when he throws up the peace sign, everyone stops just to get a glimpse. Some call him a demi-god. It’s the one, the only, CHEF KINGY!! Tonight, Chef Kingy served up chicken parmi's ('parma' for some) 😊, meat pies, sausage rolls, and an assortment of delectable veggies.

Finally, to wrap up the day, all onboard gathered at midships to reflect on our amazing journey that was Command Day. We talked about 'the good' (what worked well), 'the not so good' (what needed improvement), and 'the take away’s'. The take-aways that we decided were: You need sleep to live, communication to thrive, and adaptation to improve.

Thank you, Young Endeavour!
To those of you reading along at home, if we don't write again before we arrive - good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.

08/10/2026

⚓️Captains Log V15/26 - Day 8

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Day 8 of our Voyage and Command Day. Normally I would have a few comments to put into the Log but tonight I will leave it up to the Youth Crew as it’s their Command Day and I would hate to steal any of their thunder so please enjoy tonight’s Log which has been written by Jenna.

Until tomorrow, take care.
Yours Aye,
Captain Gav.



Ahoy there everybody and welcome to this edition of the Captains Log, written by yours truly - Jenna.

Today the youthies awoke at 0630 to the sound of Sail Master Scotty and his awesome rise and shine tunes. Although tired, the youthies all eventually were up on deck, walking circles around the ship, and admiring the beautiful but cold morning in Broken Bay, where we had anchored overnight.

The youthies then went and enjoyed showers and a hot breakfast including eggs, bacon, and warm baked beans, courtesy of our beloved chef Kingy.

At 0800, we all gathered around the bridge to raise the flags and listen to our morning briefing hosted by none other than Sail Master Scotty. Our morning brief included guest appearances by youthie favourites: Navigator Bryn, Salty the Saltiest seadog to ever grace the seas, and the beloved Captain, Captain Gav Himself. Our Morning Briefing also featured the singing of happy birthday to a fellow youthie as it was her 17th birthday. Happy Birthday Jas!!!

Shortly after morning brief, the youthies were ferried ashore to the small town of Patonga where both Youthies and Staffies enjoyed a proper coffee, which everyone really enjoyed. After recharging, the youthies accompanied by the staffies hiked up The Great Northern Trail to overlook Broken Bay and our beautiful ship that sat within it.

After we got back on the ship and had eaten a fantastic lunch of fish and chips and seasoned chicken breast, the youthie Command Team headed for final briefings with their staffie opposites before being handed Command of the Ship.

At 1300, the thing we had all been waiting for finally happened - the youthies were given control of the ship! We conducted our handover ceremony and finally received our long-awaited list of Command Day tasks.

After receiving our list of tasks, we realised something very important was missing - our navigation orders were hidden away with the Staffie Navigator!

Once the youthie crew had completed the prescribed task needed to retrieve the navigation orders, we opened them, and discovered they weren’t what we had hoped. It was revealed that our real navigation orders were hidden away on land! The location of which was disclosed upon solving a riddle.

After solving the riddle, our newly established Beach Assault Team sprang into action, utilising Navigator Bryn to drive the boat, the team ventured to Hungry Beach. There, they quickly retrieved the true navigation orders and begun their return to the ship.

Suddenly, with less than 100m to go, the boats engine ‘Ran out of fuel’ (not really, but part of the activity). The youthies aboard had to quickly take up the conveniently over stocked paddles and paddle the rest of the distance back to the Ship. After successfully reboarding the ship the Beach Assault Team was proud to present to the youthie navigator the true navigation orders.

After calming down from the unique fuel extravaganza, the youthie crew began their required safety briefs. After this, the youthies began to climb the foremast for a photo of everyone aloft - another one of our tasks and had to be completed while still at anchor.

After achieving this task, we went to dinner where our youthie Master Chefs produced the most outstanding and wonderful array of pasta dishes and garlic bread with home made potato wedges. Dinner was followed by an incredible duff (dessert) of homemade ice cream sandwiches.

Following a successful day and amazing dinner, we weighed anchor and departed Broken Bay.
At the time of writing, we are currently putting the ship under sail and are on our way to Sydney Harbour.

Aye, Jenna.

07/10/2026

⚓️Captains Log V15/26 - Day 7

Hi Everyone, welcome to Day 7 of our Voyage. As forecast, the cold front passed over NSW late last night bringing with it very strong southerly winds but surprisingly no rain, well not in Broken Bay where we were safely at anchor in Little Pittwater.

The Youth Crew remained in sea watches overnight and successfully completed the BEAREX (Teamwork and Communication Exercise) with all the Watch Leaders reporting that all of their watches did extremely well with this exercise which is really pleasing

Following Morning Brief at 0900 this morning, we weighed anchor then went straight into Captains Setting & Furling Drills with all 3 watches demonstrating a high level of safety proving that they are more than ready to move onto the next phase of the voyage, which is Command Day.

Lunch Followed, with Chef Kingy again amazing us with his fabulous cuisine. Once we had finished lunch it was straight into Demonstrational Tacks, this activity gives the Youth Crew the opportunity to come to the bridge and observe the Staff as we tack or ‘wear ship’ which really helps as they head into Command Day. On completion, I through in a Captains Challenge which involved the Youth Crew working independent of the Staff to furl all sails and have us ready to proceed into anchor. This they achieved safely and in the required time which clearly demonstrated how much they have learnt during the past 7 days.

With this activity complete we anchored just off the picturesque town of Patonga at 1500 where we will remain overnight. To finish the afternoon activities Matty ran a round of Rope Races and then I gave my Command Day Brief.

This evening we enjoyed another Teak deck BBQ and once we had cleaned up, The Youth Crew conducted their Command Day Elections with the following selected as the Youth Crew Command Team:

Captain – Janine
Sail Master – Elizabeth
Navigator – Yoey
Watch Officer – Alex
Watch Leaders – Henry, Hunter, Dimon
Chefs – Kiran, Elliot & Jasmine
Imagery Specialist - Aurora

To finish of the evenings activities, the Youth Crew have just sat down to watch the classic Tall Ship movie ‘Around Cape Horn’ and once complete will turn in for a good night’s rest in preparation for tomorrows Command Day.

Until tomorrow, take care.
Yours Aye,
Captain Gav.

06/10/2026

⚓️Captains Log V15/26 - Day 6

Hi Everyone, welcome to Day 6 of our Voyage. Following a restful night at anchor in Fingal Bay we weighed anchor just after Morning Brief and continued our passage south in rather pleasant conditions all the time conscious of making the 60nm down to the confines of Broken Bay ahead of a strong cold front moving up the NSW Coast. This we have achieved as well as giving our Young Mariners a full day of activities, so it’s been another good day. That’s enough from me I will now handover to Alicia and Claire who will tell you all about our day.

Until tomorrow, take care.
Yours Aye,
Captain Gav.

Hey land lovers, the Captains Log for today is delivered to you by Alicia and Claire.

The youthies have survived another day! ‘Here comes the sun’ blasted through the berths (cabins) as one by one of the youthies and staff awoke and instantly climbed the ladder to begin their step counts for the day. We then got our bodies and our minds pumping, with a game called evolution that followed our multiple laps of the ship.

From then we dug into an amazing BBQ Breaky, served by the masters of the barbeque- Kingy and Matty!

While youthies scrubbed the deck from top to bottom, staffies weighed the anchor (although we still have no idea how much it weighs) and began our treacherous journey from Fingal Bay to Broken Bay with much less sea sickness than before. Obviously, we cannot sail on the ocean without sails (DUHH), so all hands-on deck was called, and every sail was set to get the show on the road, or should I say the sea.

Since the Navigators weather controlling abilities were just a tad too strong, the wind began sending us to the middle of nowhere, so tacking rotations commenced to pull us back onto the right route. We learnt how to tack the sails from other areas of the ship, to ensure Command Day is ready for us.

No more Sao’s for us as we sat down and completed a WHOLE BOWL of beef ravioli for lunch, cooked by the greatest Chef of all time… KINGY!

If you thought all we did was work, your kind of wrong, an hour-long siesta followed lunch, when most of us youthies were supposed to be catching up on sleep, we sat upon middeck and chatted instead. Dolphins splashing starboard of the ship jolted us all up right, with cameras flying everywhere in a hope to record evidence of this exciting moment.

White Watch (basically winners) and Blue Watch tied with 9 points on our Ropies challenge, with Red Watch following closely behind with 6 points. How did we gain points you ask? Speed walking from midships to identify the correct rope that was called out by Matty, but that’s not all. A bonus Round was demanded by the youthies to set scores right, which was nothing but each member of each watch scoffing down a whole Zooper Dooper as like they’ve never eaten before. Meanwhile Zac hit all the angles of us throughout our challenges to ensure that all our determination and brain freeze expressions were available for you to see.

Navigating with Bryn was an excellent reminder of what will be needed/revised for Command Day, as we had a chance to use a Sextant lining the sun with the horizon to find… something, we’re not sure because it took us three times to find the sun.

Then we spent time with Mitch who ran an activity called Fun with Flags which required each of the Watches to raise and then identify 9 different flags, one by one from the trysail halyards (flag stations), with Blueys taking the win!

Finally, it was time for dinner, which was an amazing Butter Chicken and Naan bread. We have just stopped at anchor for the night after packing away and heaving in all the sails on the way to Broken Bay.

Later tonight and in early morn we have been told that we have a ‘BEAREX’ Challenge to complete in our watches. We are hoping that there are no bears or any exercise required, wish us the best in our challenge and avoiding the ominous storm coming up from the south.

From Claire- PS. Love and miss you, Sexton Fam!
And Alicia- PS. Love and missing you Mum, Garry and Josh

05/10/2026

⚓️Captains Log V15/26 - Day 5

Hi Everyone, welcome to Day 5 of our Voyage. Well, our run of favourable northerlies finally came to an end during the early hours of this morning which meant we had to motor sail for a few hours so that we could get to our planned anchorage at Fingal Bay. It’s interesting how quickly the conditions can change as just after morning brief the wind backed to the southwest and increased to 22kts which gave us some more exciting sailing but given our close proximity to our anchorage we had to quickly hand-in all sail and head into the sheltered confines of Fingal Bay where we came safely to anchor at 1015 this morning.

Once at anchor, the Watch Leaders finished conducting their Mid-Voyage Chats with their respective watches. Then, following another great lunch, the Youth Crew were ferried ashore to Fingal Bay Beach where they enjoyed a hike out to the Shark Island Lighthouse, followed by a swim and beach games once they had returned to beach.

By 1530, we had everyone safely back onboard and once we had recovered the Ships Boat, the Youth Crew were given a little down-time before enjoying a BBQ dinner cooked by Matty the Engineer and myself, which was enjoyed up on deck where we had the beautiful Fingal Bay as our backdrop.

Once we had cleaned up from dinner, we again gathered back on deck where we conducted an entertaining round of Three-Way chats which is a Communication and Public Speaking exercise where we get to learn a little bit more about each other.

To finish the night’s activities, Bryn the Navigator is now giving the Youth Crew a brief on how to keep the Ship safe at anchor as tonight we will be reducing to anchor watches ensuring that we all get a little more sleep and are well rested for the exciting days ahead.

Until tomorrow, take care.
Yours Aye,
Captain Gav.

04/10/2026

⚓️Captains Log V15/26 - Day 4

Hi Everyone, welcome to Day 4 of our voyage. Overnight, strong northerly winds helped us make good progress south, with the ship maintaining 10–11 knots under full sail—excellent sailing conditions. However, these winds make our usual anchorage at Trial Bay unsuitable because they would place us on a lee shore, which is unsafe in these conditions. I therefore decided to press on, and we will anchor in the safer waters of Fingal Bay tomorrow morning. Today was another busy day, with Matty giving a presentation on the Rules of the Road this morning, followed by my Sail Theory briefing this afternoon and plenty of sail work to keep our Young Mariners occupied. That’s enough from me; I’ll now hand over to JiaMan and Henry to tell you about their day.

Until tomorrow, take care.
Yours Aye,
Captain Gav.

Arrr me-hearties, youthies JiaMan and Henry coming to you from STS Young Endeavour. The day started like any other, us Blueys were on the forenoon watch when suddenly… BAM! EMERGENCY HORNS! What were they you might ask? That’s what the youthies were thinking as they found themselves amidst the emergency steering gear failure training drill. Lucky for us, it all went smoothly, fueled by a delicious continental worthy brekky provided by Kingy, our beloved chef. Upon returning to our watch, our eyes were blessed by the sight of some dolphins. Then came happy hour, where we all geared up for some awesome cleaning. You know what they say, “a clean ship is a healthy ship”. Lots of love to the best watch leader Bec, thanks for teaching us that important saying.

Then came lunch, Peri Peri Chicken, or pork cutlets with mango salsa and a delectable range of salads. Big ups for Kingy, we love you!! After lunch, Red Watch held down the fort while the rest enjoyed a siesta, where guitar was played, cards were dealt, and naps were taken. Of course, we had to take an hour out of the day to account for daylight savings.

Following this, all youthies headed to mid-ships for the second edition of the infamous “Ropies”, led by Matt the engineer. After some highly competitive efforts from each team, the end-of-day scores saw the Blueys and Whiteys tied on six points, with Reddies trailing behind on four. While Red and White watch remained on deck, us Blueys took a rest and enjoyed some heated card games.

For dinner, our taste buds relished in the scrumptious flavors of bangers and mash, or a lovely lamb vindaloo curry with naan. Thank you, Kingy.

Just as we returned to watch, Sail Master Scotty requested all youthies to be present for a special meeting at midships, where we celebrated Eloise’s 17th Birthday!! YAY! Almost as if planned, while cutting the cake, the cry of “Dolphins!” came from the ships starboard side. We all rushed over to see an amazing sight of birthday dolphins cutting through the shimmering waters, coming to wish Eloise the happiest birthday.

As we write this, we are preparing for another night at sea. It’s nice to see most youthies getting over the seasickness and supporting those still battling their land demons.

Yours Truly, Henry and JiaMan.