Young Endeavour: Youth crew dock back into Fremantle after 11-day voyage with new found sea legs

A ship carrying 30 odd sailors returned home on Thursday following an 11-day voyage with a crew that featured people as young as 16-years-old with little to no sea experience.

The Royal Australian Navy Sail Training Ship docked in the Fremantle port, greeted by families and friends that were keen to see the crop of adolescents that they sent sailing nearly two weeks ago as part of the Young Endeavour program.

The voyage is aimed at youth to sail the Australian coast and learn new skills, with no sea legs required to take charge of the ship.

For Millie Cole, 19, who had never sailed before, heading off on an 11-day voyage was intimidating to say the least.

“It was my first time sailing, I’d never been out on the open ocean on a ship of any kind before,” she said.

“It was a little bit daunting, but very exciting.”

The crew travelled up past Geraldton to the Abrolhos Islands where they went snorkelling and were greeted by a pair of friendly seals.

Regardless of their previous experience, the staff trained up the crew to take the helm and steer the ship for a day to Rottnest Island, which they unfortunately couldn’t stop off at due to the weather.

“We got to take over the sailing for 24 hours, which was very exciting. We used all the skills we’d learned from our watch leaders over the past week and put that into practice,” Ms Cole said.

“(We learnt skills) like teamwork, leadership and communication, which is a big one that makes a difference on the voyage.”