Ahoy from the good ship R Tucker Thompson. Today has been an action packed day, with the wind and seas picking up it was a day that everyone on board will remember. Our day started off with a 0730am morning swim shortly followed by morning duties and scrumptious breakfast of eggs, bacon and porridge.
After dishes were quickly washed up we divided into four groups and rotated around the ship learning a different topic of living life at sea such as Plotting positions on a chart, learning about anchoring, fishing regulations, and recycling. After filling everyone’s heads with lots of facts and information we decided to teach everyone how to operate the outboard on the dinghy and how to row with our row boat “Little Tuc”. Lyndon, Jimero, Hemana, Zalina, and Jaeshana got to drive the tender and come alongside the ship while Katarina, Brookylin, and Hunter rowed around in circles in Little Tuc.
After some playing around in the boats we decided to head to shore and go for a short walk around Urupukapuka island. Along the way we had a short lesson about Bio-security in the bay of islands and we all participated in 10-15 minutes of weeding invasive weeds that grow around the islands.
Upon arrival back to the ship we had some delicious pizza cooked for lunch that we devoured by everyone. The wind had started to pick up so we chose to go for a short sail offshore to dump some food scraps and dump out our sullage. All hands up on deck with foul weather gear on, sails up and off we went into the 40 knot winds and 3 metre swells, during this time Ruby and Hunter were out on the bowsprit getting dunked into the swells while Minaia was keeping Zion, max, Lyndon laughing as they got a bit sea sick.
After a few hours of sailing we made our way back into the shelter of the islands and we are now safely anchored up in Omakiwi Bay for the night. Right now everyone is smiling reflecting on today’s activity’s while waiting for tonight’s dinner, Boil up!!
Po marie
