Ata Marie from the good ship the R. Tucker Thompson
Yesterday was a very busy day aboard the R. Tucker Thompson. Captain Terry woke us up at 6:30 with a very exciting mission, get to Poor Knights. We then jumped into the water, completed our morning duty, ate quickly and left our night anchor.
With a southerly 15 knots of wind we knew that we would have a pleasant sail towards Poor Knights. We were not wrong. All trainees on deck we set our sails and the breeze was so much in our favour that we also set our both top sails and the course sail. Great experience for the trainees to make their way to poor knights on a tail ship with full rig up. On our way, we practiced our knots, did more lesson and almost every trainee got a turn on the helm. Waking up early was for sure worth it yesterday.
We arrived at Poor knights at 12:30 and lunch was ready just in time. We had our special Tucker Subway sandwich. Right after, everyone was ready to go for a dive and explored the beauty of poor Knights. We also went on dinghy mission and visit the biggest cave of southern Hemisphere, Rikoriko cave. We explored more caves along the shoreline and ran into a large group of New-Zealand Fur seal.
After that very exciting and busy afternoon, we knew that the day was not over. We had to sail our way back for the night. We needed to cover 25 miles to our night anchoring. Everyone was ready and happy to experience a night sailing. We all got our warm cloths one, enjoyed a nice hot drink and then set sail towards Whangamumu, . What a gift to be on the ocean and watch the sunset. The ship had never been that quiet. Everyone enjoyed that special moment.
Once the sun was down and the stars covered the sky, all trainees once again got the chance to steer the ship. Very impressive to see how everyone was confident enough to take the helm at night in the strong southerly wind, considering that yesterday was only day 3. These trainees are for sure quick learners and it showed yesterday. The trainees also experience having dinner while sailing.
We finally arrived at Whangamumu at 21:30 carefully navigating our way in thru through the darkness with Leiton in charge of the lookouts. After a hot drink, we shared good stories from our amazing day and we all made our way to our bunks. We could hear snoring, pretty quickly last night.
Captain Terry, let us all slept in this morning, which was appreciated.
We are now ready for another amazing day. The sun is up, lets get the sail up now.
Nga Mihi
