This morning the pirates of Sailability Manly were down at Manly Yacht Club for a fun day on the water for our final general sail for 2022. The Volunteers were all dressed up as pirates, and as each group walked in, we found that they had mainly got into the spirit of things and dressed appropriately too.
We commenced by taking all 8 of the boats outside, getting them rigged, and taking them down to the pontoon for launching.
By the time we had done this, our first group of students from Royal Far West had arrived, setting the timetable for the day. Water pistols were distributed to the crew, and thus started the best sailing date of 2022.
Eli was in charge of the day, with Corey on Radio, Helen the Registrar, Wilma on life-jackets, Ken the photographer, Warwick the Support Boat Driver, Jim managing the pontoon, pirate sailors: Brian, Denis, Ragnhild, Peter, Michael B and Michael S, Ivan, Steve, Malcolm, Jenny, taking turns between sailing and managing things on pontoon and deck.
John was a wonderful help wherever he found himself, and Marc was a wonder on the pontoon with so many people to be lifted into and out of the boats as efficiently as possible.
We were expecting 5 groups down with their helpers, and by some miracles, they all arrived at the right time so that there did not seem to be a time lag between them, and because of the 8 boats out, no one was kept waiting for long.
Pirates from Royal Far West with Teacher Craig: Jess, Malachi, Ben, Tate, Eden, arrived early for an extended time on the water, while we waited for Northside with Kylie: Tarek, James, Ella, the most beautiful Pirate Woman we have seen for years.
Then Fisher Rd arrived with Sandy: James, Sai, Riley and Edgar.
ASPECT arrived next with Nick…Riley, Roman, Tom, Jayden, Oscar, Dylan, Koray, Mason, Oliver, Callum, Jack. The bravery of these children was amazing, in spite of today being their first time at Sailability, they all took their turns most of them in both the support boat as well as the sailing craft.
Last of all, Headway arrived all the way from Bankstown, and sat on the deck for a while for a quick bite to eat, while they waited patiently for boats to be available for them. Peter, Lee, Mark, Vu, Ari and Doug all agreed that the sailing was well worth the effort of getting there. Helper, Jessie was a fabulous help with this group, as were all of the helpers for the day.
Thank goodness the weather behaved perfectly for us this morning, and everyone left with a fabulous feeling of fun for a day in our busy lives.
