Australia - Part 5

An early start for the boys (0600) with a view to setting to sea as soon as possible was thwarted by the ridiculous health and safety briefings (sic) they had to endure for literally hours and they only finally managed to put to sea at 1230 but their spirits were not crushed by the crushing tedium of such red tape and the boys kept their spirits up when our subject stabbed himself with a frozen prawn.

Eventually however with a fine wind and some splendid weather they set off into the great unknown on the good ship Indulgence.

Indulgence Ship’s log day 1

Our good ship is fully provisioned for a 7 day voyage of discovery and well crewed; consisting of Master and Commander Boris , First Lieutenant Nigel , Chief Purser Dogs , Chief Engineer Glennjamin and the Chief Buffon.

Journey began at 1230 local time and the vessel was moored up by 1730 in Nara Inlet having covered some 23 nautical miles.

Notable incidents included

1. A rather close call with a 60 foot dive boat as the skipper tacked us under their bow at very close quarters despite the warning shouts from the First Lieutenant and the Chief Buffon. Astonishingly despite the incompetence of the manoeuvre and the panic on board the ship the crew of the near casualty were impressed by their courage and yelled across “top sailing mate.”
2. Evading the hot pursuit of a Customs Clipper sent after them.
3. The near loss of the anchor when Chief Buffon accidentally dropped it without putting it on the winch, the sterling efforts of the crew in re-shipping the anchor without the use of the said winch is to be particularly commended.

Having moored up the First Lieutenant, the Chief Engineer and the Chief Buffon took the ship’s pinnace to the clearly virgin shore and having carefully navigated the mangrove lined channels made landfall and investigated some of the native flora and fauna. During this away trip our ship suffered its first casualty with the Chief Buffon suffering a cut foot on some rocks and thus the first white blood was spilt on these foreign shores.

The First Lieutenant stuck closely to the well known motto when exploring such territories, “leave nothing but foot-prints, take nothing but memories…unless it gets in your way” and smashed his way through some inconveniently located trees.

The Chief Buffon has just collapsed from heatstroke but else all is well.