Tall Ship Adventures - 12. TSA Chapter 12

“That would be great, we can’t get very far without them released,” Carter replied smiling, and I just laughed as I headed down to the main deck. “Your brother is a comedian,” I said to Beatrice who was serving drinks to my parents and brother, “Yes, he can be a real smart one sometimes, would you like a drink?” Beatrice replied. “Yes please, just a fruit drink, I have to release these mooring ropes before I am forced to walk the plank,” I responded, and this time Beatrice groaned, “Not another one, god help me,” She commented as she walked inside.

Once we were on our way, I went and had a good look around the main deck and lower deck of the yacht, I was amazed at how luxurious it was, and it appeared to be virtually ready for charter, with even the beds made and cabins spotlessly cleaned. After I had seen everything, I headed back up to the flybridge, where Carter got me to work at the helm.

I spent the next two and half hours enjoying sailing the yacht around the harbour and gave up the helm as we approached the marina again, and I needed to get the sails pulled down. I learnt during our sail, that Carter is a year older than Jordan, and he works part-time as a sailing crew at the yacht club, when not attending university, where he is studying Marine Science, plus he is a qualified Scuba Instructor.

Meanwhile, Beatrice who is two years younger, is also a part-time sailing crew, while attending college, studying hospitality management, and they have a 17-year-old younger brother Jackson, who works casually as a sailing crew, and has just completed his final year of high school.

After helping with cleaning up the yacht, we thanked Carter and Beatrice for their assistance during the afternoon, and Dad gave them a $100 NZ tip each, before we walked back to the hotel, only 700 metres away, with Alistair chatting all the way, saying that he never felt seasick for the whole trip, and that he had an awesome time on the yacht.

Later that night after dinner, I was making final checks with my luggage in preparation for my next tall ship adventure, when my mobile rang, and the caller ID was Jordan, “Hello there, how was your day, did you take her out for a sail,” Jordan asked when I answered the call, “Yep, and it was so awesome, we stayed within the protected waters of the harbour, to prevent any sea sickness with the family, and we all had a great time,” I replied.

I received your email, with all of the photos, they look great, and I can hardly wait to get on board her and sail her up and down the West Coast,” Jordan commented, and I chuckled at this comment, “That is nearly exactly what I said to the skipper while we were sailing.

Carter is a year older than you, is a part-time sailing crewman at the yacht club, and is studying Marine Science at university, The other crewman was his younger sister by two years, Beatrice, who is studying Hospitality Management at college, and she did a wonderful job of been chief steward, looking after us today,” I said to my good mate.

“That is great to hear, I wonder if they would be interested in becoming crew for my yacht here in Western Australia?” Jordan responded, “I was thinking the same thing mate, and they have a 17-year-old brother who has just finished high school, and he has done some crew sailing too,” I replied. “Leave that to me, I will contact the Bayswater Yacht Club in a day or two and see if I can organise that, meanwhile enjoy your next adventure starting tomorrow, I look forward to hearing all about it,” Jordan said.

“I will do thanks, so do you know where you will base your new yacht?” I asked with interest, “Not sure yet, I do have one idea where, but I need to discuss that idea with my folks first, while we are waiting for the yacht to arrive,” Jordan said to me.

The next morning, I was up early and had a good-sized breakfast, before saying farewell and catching a taxi into the city to get to the location of the tall ship - Spirit of New Zealand, where I checked in and was shown where my bunk would be located, which would be with all the other trainees, in tight quarters at the fore of the ship, where there is a lot more motion when at sea.

A little while later, once everyone had arrived, a meeting was called, which everyone had to attend, and we were given a full safety briefing and an idea of what would be happening over the next ten days. “Now before we finish up, I want to make a special welcome to two trainees, who are from Australia, which does not happen very often, please welcome Fraser, who is from Adelaide, South Australia, and Zackary, who is from Geraldton, Western Australia the skipper announced.

I looked over to the guy from Adelaide, and he was about my age, skinny and a bit lanky, with long blond hair and a great tan, no doubt a keen surfer, we locked eyes, and I smiled and nodded my head, and he did the same, before looking away, as the Bosun began issuing orders.

As it happens, he was on the same watch as me, and I later learnt that he was in the bunk above mine, it didn’t take long for us to become good mates, as we chatted about previous experiences with sailing, with Fraser being a member of his local sailing club since he was 12 years old, and I mentioned that I had done the training course onboard the STS Leeuwin in WA, as well as been a volunteer crewman two more times after that.

At dinner time, after spending most of the day doing basic training with learning knots, climbing the rigging, and learning to unfurl the sails, the bosun asked all of us, trainees, if we had any previous sailing experience, as from his observations from today, he saw that some of us did.

After Fraser had explained what experience he had done previously, he gave me a little nudge with his elbow and I turned my head and frowned at him. “What about you Zac, it looked like you have had experience, especially with high rigging,” the Bosun asked me, and I groaned in annoyance.

“Yes, I have previous experience on tall ships,” I said, and that was all I wanted to say, “And the rest of it,” Fraser said loud enough for the Bosun to hear, and a softly growled for him saying that. “So, tell us what sort of tall ship was it, being from Western Australia, I am guessing that it was either the Little Dove or the Leeuwin,” the Bosun asked me.

“It was the STS Leeuwin, firstly as a trainee, and I have been on her again twice more as a volunteer crew, and watch leader, for one of them,” I reluctantly answered, “I see, well the skipper will be very pleased to hear that you have that much experience, as you may be able to assist us in that area,” the Bosun responded, and I groaned again.

For the next five days, I was just part of the trainee team, but on day seven, I was assigned a new position as a watch leader, and I spent the next four days guiding my former trainees through watch duties, not that I couldn’t do it, I just didn’t feel like having the responsibilities, as I was meant to be on holidays.

As we tied up at the wharf in the late afternoon, back in Auckland, I was personally thanked by the Captain and senior crew for my excellent seamanship and leadership skills, and said that I was welcome to return as a volunteer crewman any time I am in Auckland, and like the others, I was given a certificate of completion of the ten-day sailing adventure onboard the Spirit of New Zealand.

Mum was down at the wharf to collect me, and we travelled by taxi back to the hotel, where I sorted all of my clothes, and organised to have everything dirty sent to the laundry before I could start to relax after a tiring ten says on the training ship. We had two days before we would be beginning our return journey home, and at dinner time that evening, Dad announced that Alistair and I would be going out on the Stingray, one more time.

The following day, straight after breakfast, my brother and I walked down to the yacht marina, to spend the day sailing on Jordan’s catamaran yacht. When we arrived, we were greeted by Carter and Beatrice, who were both interested in how I got along with the tall ship sailing, over the past week and a bit, as we headed down to the jetty.

When we boarded the yacht, I heard some noise on the fly deck, and I looked to Carter for some information, but he just smiled. “Well, don’t just stand there, cast off and raise the sails, so we can get sailing,” I voice called out from the flybridge, who sounded very much like Jordan, who came down the stairs after Carter had headed up to the flybridge, to prepare to cast off.

“Hey… what the heck are you doing here?” I said shocked that Jordan was here in Auckland, New Zealand, and not at home on the station in the Pilbara, Western Australia. “Hey mate, it's good to see you too. I just couldn’t wait any longer to check out my new yacht, so I arranged for my folks to get me over here while you were busy sailing on the tall ship,” Jordan replied.

“Awesome, so have you already gone out on here?” Alistair asked, “Yes, yesterday after having a day of rest to get over all of the travelling. The crew and I spent a couple of hours cruising around the harbour, but today we are going to do a bit of ocean sailing,” Jordan replied. “The crew, as in Carter and Beatrice?” I asked, “Yes, and Jackson too, so we will have a full complement of crew onboard, and we are loaded up with supplies and ready to go,” Jordan announced to Alistair and me. It wasn’t long before the mooring ropes were released and the sails were raised and we were soon heading towards the mouth of the harbour, towards the ocean.