Time to Sail!

On Wednesday the intermediates of Saint Patrick's school had the opportunity to learn how to sail at Okahu Bay. We were part of the "Sailing.... Have a go' programme.

The intermediates students met up at school at 8:45 am in warm comfortable clothes. As the bell rang for the junior students to get to class we hoped into a bus and watched as our school disappeared from

a distance. The bus ride was smooth but uncomfortably long as there were road construction that led us into a detour.

Finally after about 15 minutes on the road we finally arrived at the sailing club in Okahu bay. We were introduced to our instructors Rj, Justin and Steve. We put our bags away into a trailer and watched as Steve showed us how to rig the boat, how to sit in the boat and how to control the boat. After being given instructions we rigged our boats together in groups of three. After all of that hard work our instructors were kind enough to let us have 10 minutes of morning tea.

10 minutes later we were sorted into a line from tallest to shortest. Steve and Jr handed us wet suits for us to change into. The changing room was crowded with girls helping each other to zip up the wet suit on each other. Once everyone was out of the changing rooms and was squashed into the wet suit our teacher Mrs George split up the Year 7 students away from the year 8 students. The year 8's were basically the experts as we went last year so she paired a year 7 with a year 8.

After that, we took our boats down to the water, took it off the trailer and sailed away. About 30 minutes later our instructor and teacher took my partner off my boat and told me to go solo. I struggled at first but I got the hang of it. My cousin tried to jump into my boat as I wasn't doing great at balancing the boat. Unfortunately I fell off the boat. Justin dragged me onto the speed boat along with my cousin and took us back to shore for lunch time.

After lunch Steve taught us how to capsize our boat because that was our next activity. It didn't take long. My cousin and I sailed away into the big blue ocean and as we got closer to Kelly Tarltons we tipped our boat over . It was a bit of a struggle to pull the center board down to get the boat right side up as the boat was slippery. I pushed one side of the boat up so it tilted and that made it easier for my cousin to jump on without any trouble. My cousin and I capsized our boat a few times until Jr took us halfway back to shore. Yes I said halfway because my cousin and i asked if we can swim the rest of the way back.

As soon as we got back to shore we took our boat to the club and disconnect the boat parts and put it neat and tidy. Afterwards my cousins and I raced to the changing room to shower and get changed before the rest of the girls, so that we have time to get changed and shower without a problem.

Once everyone were changed into warm clothes we gathered around the bench to fill out forms and have a mini prize giving where we were awarded certificates and stickers. A while after everyone received their certificate and stickers we strolled to the bus and drove back to school where our parents would meet us and ask about our day.

Many thanks to The Lion foundation, Rotary, Volvo and Zhik for sponsoring us , without you guys this day wouldn't be possible and we would be stuck at school with our books and pencils.