0500. ‘get up’, ‘on deck’. ‘hoist the mainsail, hoist the fore’. ‘Anchors home’. ‘Hoist the headies’. The early morning dark rang with these cries as the ship came to life under the early morning light of an almost full moon, setting over the hills to the west of us.
By dawn we were off Cape Brett, the SW breeze we had so far been sheltered from was whipping around the headland and it was a stiff beat up to Waewaetorea passage. It wasn’t all bad though, we still enjoyed pancakes cooked on the bbq while we were at it.
Once we’d arrived at Paradise harbour, we dinghied ashore to meet up with Project Island Song and go hunting for signs of Wetapunga in the bush surrounding the bay. No signs were found of the local weta population, but the saddlebacks had a great time flitting around the group, getting really close to us, wildlife and trainees alike having a good look at each other,
On return to the ship we had quick lunch then hoisted full sail again for some tight sailing among the islands. This bought us around to Urupukapuka bay for the night, but before we bought the day to a close every single trainee completed the Tucker challenge, took the tiller of little Tuc (our little sailing dinghy) and learned how to (responsibly) use the outboard of our dinghy.
As we tuck in to a hearty Sheppards pie the moon is rising behind us over the same hills it set over this morning, only now they sit to the east of us.
Mā te Wā
