It’s not every sailing day that we start work at high tide and discover that the pontoon is standing higher than the deck, which was washing over with waves every so often. A Super Moon and this time of the year brought this extra high tide, which meant another experience for our participants. A little paddle in bare feet through a pool of knee deep cold water kept everyone giggling at the start of the sail, and the sight of the boats standing higher than the deck caused some consternation among the sailors. But it was perfectly safe in the very light breezes that were about this morning, and lots of fun.
Our incredible Wednesday team consisted of Sailing Coordinator: Rob.
Power Boat staff: John, Corey, Jennie, Tara.
Staff on Upper deck: Ken, Tony, Wilma, Indiana, Ian, Peter, Shelley, Juliette.
Pontoon staff: Natacha, Tara, Malcolm, Michael, Marc.
Sailors: Helene, Denis, John, Rob, David, Jim, Ivan, Michael.
We had some wonderful new volunteers this morning: Tara, Natacha and Ian were not shy about joining in the process and all learned a lot for their first day volunteering with us. We will see this keen group back as enjoyment was evident on all the faces.
We needed all of this staff because 30 participants and their helpers and carers, and some extra family members came to sail with us today.
First up was Royal Far West, with teachers Craig and Jenny: Indyannah, Tiarra, Jack, Harley, Tyson, Colton and Daniel could not believe that the pontoon was not broken, and that half of it was underwater. What fun it was to sail on top of the waves and through the furrows.
Truscott St brought Liam, Maria, Jazmine, Ricky, Harry, Jessica, Samantha, Riarna, Etahan, Maggie, Sion, James, Ruby, Tom and Tyson with helpers Corinna, Carrie, Victor, and Liam’s Mum. Most of these children had the unusual experience of splashing their legs in the cold water, while a couple of them elected to ride down in the wheelchair, through the water as it seemed too difficult to remove their shoes. Ouch!!
Then our faithful group from SEALS Zoe, Doug, Jake, Elyce, Nikita, Allistair and Montana with Simone and Olivia arrived for their sail, and were also entranced by the height of the water.
A great day to finish off the year’s sailing program for these groups.
