'I'm the commanding officer of an Australian warship and under my command I have 140 men and 45 women. My day essentially involves driving the warship as the captain and ensuring all the people aboard are performing to the high standards we expect of them as sailors.
Typically, I get up at about 5.30 each morning and go to the operations room and the bridge to get a situation awareness of where we are and who's around us, and to speak to my team. If I'm keen, I might go for a run. That's generally around our flight deck - 100 laps is about 5km.
I'll then go back to the bridge and operations room.
I'm privileged as a captain because, although I work long hours and it has taken me 21 years to get here, I have a valet who looks after me. She does mother me sometimes in a nice way, telling me I need breakfast or to take a break. Generally, if it's busy, I'll have a coffee or Vegemite on toast on the bridge.
The ship normally wakes up about 6.30am. Things start happening, watches change and we start looking at the programme for the day - perhaps manoeuvres with another warship, tactics, evolutions and so on.
I grew up in Melbourne and joined the navy in 1987 as a 17-year-old, through the Australian Defence Force Academy. Why did I join? Like most 17-year-olds, I had no idea what I was going to do and I was pretty scruffy.