Sailing Away, just before a squall came through;

Saturday 17th December came around rather quickly for all of us eager beavers.. I mean us Sail Trainees of our Good Ship.

It was an amazing few months for me, organising the reunion, and I have to say a HUGE Thank-you to my two committee members…

SUNSHINE!!!!!! Today has been a blast.. After a solid sleep last nite at Palm Tree Bay, we were gifted with a beautiful sunny still morning, were we swam, did our chores, had breakfast, and got thru the last of the school work. Some went off for fishing, still to no avail!

We moved the ship over to Army Bay, and had a wee bit of land time on the beach, and a picnic up at the old fortifications, with a view over forever… there was a definite summer feeling in the air, and quite a bit…

Hi!!! We’re back in action with the computer now!!!!

This morning we had a super early wake up call from the anchor alarm, the weather had changed and we were dragging quickly onto a lee shore.. As soon as the engine started, all the trainees and crew were at action stations, donning wet weather gear to face the squalls that were coming thru… We had been anchored up at Outu Bay last nite, and the fishing and diving had gone on till sunset… Jak the legend came back with 6…

Day 2 of the Otamatea Sports Leadership program began bright and early, with all of the trainees in the water by 7am, keen as beans, these guys slept in their togs! 

There was a strong breeze this morning that put us on a lee shore at Orokawa Bay, and soon enough we were dragging our anchor through the mud. It was all action stations, and we weighed anchor and head out into the bay for a early morning cruise. Visited by a pod of bottlenose dolphins feeding in the bay, it was all…

It's the beginning of another awesome trip! This group have been together all year, doing a whole bunch of exciting outdoors education acitivties. From high ropes courses, bush survival, orientation, tramping, organising sports event, this team is well bonded and ready for action. This is the first year that students have had this Sports Leadership course offered to them as part of their college education, and the first time for us on the Tucker that we have offered unit standards as part of…

Only one more sleep and we all have to go home. We started the day as normal, except just before breakfast we hauled anchor and headed for the black rocks. Eating breaky and doing the dishes under way presented new challenges in it self to the trainees. On arrival it was straight in to the water for a bit of snorkeling and collecting mussells and kina. This was made even cooler by the arrival of a fur seal that didn’t seem too interested in us but also remained quite unafraid. Tia and…

Well day 4 all ready! everyone is feeling the time tick by too quickly. After morning chores and lessons were out of the way we weighed anchor started the new John Deere and sailed  north! Not a lot of wind today! But that didn’t stop  Ayeisha and Dayne taking their turn at the helm, orders are  1^st stop Motu Kokako! (te hole in te rock) Launch the dingy! and everybody was given a grand tour of the island’s various caves Tucker style. The trainees thought this was great! Where…