Tall Ship Adventures - 4. TSA Chapter 4

“Sure, well, she is 55 metres long but on the main deck it is only 40 metres, she is 9 metres wide and has a total of sixteen sails, and she has a total of 5 permanent crew, 10 volunteer crew like myself, and we carry a total of 40 trainees,” the crew member said to me.

“When do you sail out next?” I asked, “Tomorrow morning, for a seven-day sail with the youth programme,” the crew member said to me. “Ok, well I have a view of this marina from my resort room, so I will enjoy watching her sailing out of the marina tomorrow. Well, thanks for the chat,” I said, before waving goodbye and walking off, heading towards the beach.

When I returned to the resort apartment, Mum and Dad were chatting at the dining table, while my brother was reading a book of some kind. “Hey Mum and Dad, did you know that the STS Leeuwin is currently here in Exmouth?” I asked when I entered.

“Yes dear, we do know, that is partly why we are here in Exmouth, as tomorrow morning, you will be on board here for seven days,” Mum replied, “Wha… what did you just say?” I asked, not sure if I heard correctly. “You heard your mother, you are spending seven days as a trainee sailor onboard the STS Leeuwin,” Dad said to me.

“Wow… that is so awesome, I was chatting to one of the crew members just now, asking all about it,” I replied, after recovering from the shock of the announcement, “We are glad that you like the idea, and we are sorry for not telling you before now, we just didn’t know… well you know what we mean,” Dad said.

I discovered that the additional small soft suitcase, that my parents had brought along, was full of all of my clothing and supplies ready for my sailing adventure, and for the next hour, we read through all the information that I needed to know before joining the tall ship tomorrow morning.

The following morning, I was up early and after a large meal, I had a shower and dressed ready to go sailing, less than half an hour later, I was at the Marina, checking in as one of the trainees for the next seven days. “Well, hello there young man, fancy seeing you here,” a voice said close by, and I soon realised that he was talking to me, as I recognised Jordan, the volunteer crew member whom I spoke to yesterday.

“Hey, Mate. Yeah, my folks sprung a big surprise on me when I returned to the accommodation yesterday afternoon. I had no idea that I would be on this voyage,” I replied. “Skipper, I met this young man yesterday dockside, he said he did a basic sailing course at the age of twelve, and said he would like to try sailing on a tall ship like this someday,” Jordan said to a man in an officer uniform, who chuckled on hearing this.

“Since you have already met him Jordan, he can be on your watch team,” the skipper responded, “Awesome, get prepared for an adventure young Zac, it is going to be amazing,” Jordan said to me, and after saying farewell to my brother and folks, Jordan led me onboard the STS Leeuwin, and he showed me to where I would be sleeping for the next seven days.

When we sailed out of the marina late that morning, and the crew and volunteers set the sails, it didn’t take long for a lot of the trainees to become rather seasick, but for me, it was not a problem. “You have a strong stomach do you Zac?” Jordan asked me once he had returned to the main deck from up top.

“You could say that, I have done a few shifts on cray boats in my hometown, where I worked part-time as a fish processor at the main factory, so I have been around the ocean for most of my life,” I replied. “That is good to know, we may give you a go of being one of the first trainees to go up top later today,” Jordan commented.

I was the first trainee to go up the mast to the very top sail beam, and the view was spectacular, for the next seven days, I had the best time ever, even when it was drizzling and we were cold and soaking wet from the waves. It took a bit of time to get used to the odd hours, with watch shifts being at all times of the day and night, but it was all part of the adventure of learning and working together as a team.

When we arrived back at the Exmouth Marina, in the late morning, my whole family was there to greet me, and I was sad that I was leaving the tall ship already, as it felt like I had only been onboard for just a day or two. I thanked Jordan for all of his help, in teaching me all about tall ship sailing, and we had already exchanged contact details and agreed to keep in touch.

As we shook hands for the last time, I was caught by surprise when he pulled me into a hug, “Take care, little man, I hope to see you soon” he whispered into my ear before letting go of me and stepping back. Jordon was smiling as he did this, and I was still a little shocked by his move, as he gave a short nod of the head and a wave before turning around and heading back to the ship.

Back at the accommodation, Mum got to work to wash all of my clothes, while Dad took my brother and me fishing on the beach, returning with enough to feed us all for dinner. The next morning, we were on a flight back to Perth, and after a three-hour wait, we were on the flight to Geraldton, which once again only took one hour.

As we neared our hometown, having driven down from Geraldton, Dad cleared his throat. “So, son. Would you be interested in trying out some of the other tall ship adventures that are located in other parts of Australia? Dad asked me. You bet I would, that was an awesome experience, and yes please, I would like to try out another trip on another tall ship,” I replied without hesitation.

“That is good to hear, as we have made a tentative booking for you to be on the post-Christmas voyage leaving on December 28^th for ten days of sailing onboard the Spirit of New Zealand,” Dad announced to me, “Wow, New Zealand, that would be awesome, thanks Mum and Dad,” I replied happily.

“That is not all, we as a family will be travelling to Auckland just before Christmas, and that is where we will be having our holiday, while you are out sailing,” Mum added, “oh awesome, that’s great,” my brother said excitedly, and I smiled that he was happy to be going to New Zealand too.

Once we had unpacked, I turned on my laptop and started to do some research about this new sailing adventure, that I would be enjoying in about five months. The ship is a three-masted barquentine, that is just over 45 metres long, has a beam of 9 metres, and a draft of 4 metres, with a deck length of 37 metres, so she is somewhat smaller than the STS Leeuwin that I was just on for the last voyage.

She has a permanent crew of 6, plus ten volunteer crew, to keep her sailing smoothly, and she can accommodate a total of 40 trainees. Heading back to a routine of attending school during the week, and working on the weekends, I was counting down the weeks until the end-of-year holidays began so that our family could fly off to New Zealand, and I could start my next tall ship sailing adventure.

At dinner time, that evening, we chatted about the usual stuff happening to each of us at work and school. “Hey Bro, I saw an interesting U Tube video clip a bit earlier, and it is from your recent voyage on the tall ship,” my brother Alistair announced.

“Oh? Why was it so interesting, this U Tube video thingy?” Mum asked out of interest. “By the looks of it, the video clip was taken just as the first light of dawn was appearing, and the seas were dead calm. The video clip does a scan of the waters around the ship, before panning upwards on one of the main masts, where the sound of an incredibly amazing singing voice is coming from, but because it wasn’t fully daylight yet, you can’t tell who the singer is,” Alistair replied.

“Can we see the video clip please son?” Dad asked, “Sure, let me hook it up to the television, that way you will get a better picture and sound from it,” Alistair replied, as he headed to his room to retrieve his mobile phone, and a few minutes later we all gathered in the lounge room to look and listen to the video clip.

I had already guessed the day that this video clip was recorded, as I was the one on crow’s nest watch that early morning, and I was the one that was singing, I guessed that it was such a beautiful start to the morning, I had forgotten about hiding my musical talent.

When the video clip ended, I saw Mum looking at me and she had tears in her eyes, “That was so beautiful, for a moment I thought that it might have been you doing the singing, but since it was in Italian, I guess there was someone else that has a talented singing voice apart from you,” Mum said to me.

“You? You can sing?” Alistair asked sounding shocked at what Mum had just said. “Yes, I can sing, but I am just an average singer and piano player, as shown by my grades, nothing to boast about, and yes I did hear the singing that morning, I was actually at the helm that morning,” I lied, as I didn’t want to reveal that it was my Music teacher, who has an Italian family background, who taught me several classical songs in Italian.

For the whole year, I managed to keep an A- average with my grades, which was all that my parents expected me to get, as I wasn’t always keen on my studies, but I always tried my very best.