We had an early start this morning, as Freshwater High Special Group would be arriving at 9.00 a.m. to rig their own boats in preparation for their end of term regatta. Unfortunately, Amelia and Jordan, who had enjoyed several practise sessions over the last few weeks were not able to attend, so we filled in the spaces with a new young lady, Leah, and Tony, who is one of our volunteers. Each student helped their sailor to rig their own boat. Eventually all the rigging was completed and the boats taken to the water and launched, with Malcolm checking them over and inserting rudders and keels. Then it was a simple matter of going over to the other side of the Cove, where Barry and his team, Ken were waiting. As soon as everyone had arrived, they went through the start sequence and were away. It was fiercely contested race with crew and sailors striving to be first around the fixed buoys. After 3 times around, the race was finished and all hurried back to the pontoon for a snack and prize presentation. It was wholeheartedly agreed that everyone was the winner and that this class will be back next year to do it all again. Eddie, Emily and Ben have reached school leaving age now, so next year it will be a different group, but just as much fun.
Slideshow of Leah from Freshwater High, Eddie and John W, Ben and David G, Ben B with companion Doron, Penny from Camp Sababa, Mark with John W, Bridgit and Gali and the Teacher Lynne and Col.
While were finishing off with this group, our large Sababa Camp group had arrived and were waiting on the grass. The system was carefully explained to us…campers in green T’shirts, companions in yellow, leaders in blue, teachers and other staff in white. This works, until you notice that there were a few people in red, and one or two in purple….oh well, some of us are colour blind, and after all, we are all the same deep down.
Mia, Braedon, Jesse, Ben, Gideon, Jonah and Aly went off for their sail, while their companions watched anxiously from the side. As soon as they noticed that their charges were approaching the pontoon, they rushed back down, plucked them out of the boats and took them across to the beach area for a play on the sand. In the meantime, Ari, Penny, Josh, Rebecca, Kaide, Leanna and Rachel had arrived and were getting into PFD’s so that everything would run smoothly. By this time, the companions had also decided that a sail may be nice, so there were a few extras included in this group.
We were well into the swing of things by this time, so that by the time Max, Emma, Tobi, Nicky, Mark, Roel, Bridgit , Ethan and Mila had their turn we were quite used to some of the campers wanting another turn, some campers deciding to ride on their companion’s knees, and some of the companions and staff having their individual sails.
This is such a well-run camp that everything worked really smoothly. Everyone: staff, companions, campers, volunteers was exhausted by the time they had all had their fill of sight seeing, sailing, playing on the sand. I can well imagine that there were quite a few sleeping children by the time they arrived back at camp.
At our end of the spectrum, boats had to be washed and stored, a few words of debriefing, and home. Helpers today were: Denis, Barry, Ken, Tony, Col, Malcolm, David Go, Helen, David W, Jim, John W, Eli, John B, Brian, David GR, Jackie, Khy, Georges, Sheila, Jay. Thank you all for your hard work today.
