Kia Ora from the R Tucker T
The first day is done and dusted with lots of learning, laughter, and activities.
We departed from Opua and slowly motored our way out of the harbour. Along the way we played a name game to learn who everyone is. Shortly after, we took an orientation of the ship and unpacked our bags, making the ship more home-like.
We tucked into Matauwhi Bay where we were nice and sheltered from the wind and swells. We had sausage sizzle for lunch which was made by crew member Jess, then we split into our port and starboard watches.
The sun came out and we went up on deck and learned some line handling skills and how to raise the sails. Port watch (Wayne, Sarah, Ross, Leilani, Chance, Madison) were in charge of raising and lowering the mainsail whilst starboard watch (Hane, Alyssa, Toatahi, Lily, Tonee, Teina Li) were in charge of the foresail and head sails. We weighed anchor and made our way head on with the swells and sailed our way around the black rocks and into the Te puna Inlet where we will be spending the night.
Along the way the swells were bigger than we expected so we got the trainees into safety harnesses and some of them got rocked around up the shrouds whilst some them got dunked into the trough of the swells- good fun for the crew to watch!
Upon arrival into Te Puna were dowsed sails, set the anchor and warmed up down below,
Everyone is now scattered around the ship settling in. All are happy and looking forward to tomorrow’s activities.
Ma Te Wa
