It was another beautiful Spring day, 27° degrees, with a north-westerly 15 to 20 km/h breeze. After a streamlined set-up, the participants started arriving thick and fast. Despite the numbers (27 participants) keeping us on our toes, there was nothing the volunteers couldn’t handle. Upon arrival, the dream-team trio of Helen, Wilma and Ros, made the process of greeting, registration, and donning life jackets, run like a well-oiled machine.
Today’s accomplished Skippers were; Denis, Jeremy, Sophie, Sandy, Michael B, David, and Rob. Throughout the morning, all Skippers took multiple keen sailors for adventures around North Harbour. The eager (and some very capable) crew (participants) included Ivan, Andrew, Fran, Kieran, Tarek, James, Alyse, Grant, Alison, Gerry, Vanessa, Kerry, Meaghan, Abi, Winnie, Xavier, Dylan, Jai, Ben, Megan and Jay. Sometimes it was difficult to tell who the skipper was and who the crew was, such as when the very talented Alyse (multiple Olympic medallist) took control of the helm, taking Sandy for a masterly whiz around the Harbour.
While the sailors were busy at sea, the (rotating) pontoon crew of Clare, Caroline, Victoria, Rob, and Michael M worked up a sweat (with minimal downtime). Meanwhile, Shelley, Warwick and Eli took eager participants (who chose power over sailing) for outings on Charlie’s Chariot. The participants who enthusiastically leapt on board Charlie’s Chariot included; Dylan, Maggie, James, Duncan, Jackie and the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed George.
Meanwhile, back on dry land, Ken and then Caroline kept us all in line, on schedule, and out of trouble as they took reign of the radios and busy agenda.
Finally, thanks to Michael M, who worked very hard during the laborious set-up and pack-up (making more trips back and forth than could be counted). Also, Mark who (again) provided relief for some fatigued pontoon volunteers by helping with some heavy lifting during pack-up.
