Neuseeland-News – 5. Bericht
Hey again!
I guess it's time for me to write a new blog and tell you about the best ten days of my time in New Zealand so far, called the Spirit of Adventure. It's just a bit hard to find words for it. I'll briefly explain what it's all about and then, to make things easier for me, share parts of my Trainee Journal with you. So it's basically being ten days on a sailing ship with 39 Kiwis aged between 16 and 18, all having different backgrounds. We learned heaps about sailing and ourselves and grew together as a family. Every morning, we got up at 06:30 and jumped off the boat into the (freezing) sea. That was awesome, because we were very awake afterwords and full of energy. And it replaced our shower, as we didn't have any (we didn't shower nor shave for ten days). But since everyone did it it was no problem at all. After breakfast we assembled on the aftdeck for colours. The ensign flag was hoisted and the proposed day's events discussed. The crew gave us a word, a thought and a fact of the day, sometimes humorous, sometimes reflective. Then we cleaned the ship – my favourite part was scrubbing the deck, a very wet business.
...Find more pictures...
My part of the ship – day 3:
- Watch responsibility: Midship
- Departed from: Bream Tail
- Sailed to: Sandy Bay
- Distance covered: 32 nm
Early start (nightwatch) at 03:10 a.m.-04:50 a.m., nothing spectacular happened, everything calm. When I went back to sleep, snoring people kept me awake, so I tried to solve the problem by imagining a dying whale making that noise what finally worked. Really not keen to swim, but after jumping in a great feeling. [...] Just do it without hesitating. I learned not to stick to the people I already know. Love the kind of work we’re doing like sweat and tail even though my hands are a bit sore now and the greatest thing is climbing up the mast, walk along the yard on the wire and set or stow the sail. We paddled in the rafts to a beautiful beach, had morning tea there and played games. The salt water makes my hair all sticky and knotty, but who cares. [...]
My part of the ship – day 6:
- Watch responsibility: Midship
- Departed from: Whangaruru
- Sailed to: Kawau Bay
- Distance covered: 78 nm
For nearly everybody onboard a cabbage day, for me just awesome even though I felt bad about all the ones who were feeling awful. Since most of us were seasick and I fortunately wasn't, I got to go aloft and loose the gaskets of the T’galant by myself, the waves were so high, it was raining, the yards were rocking and I high up there was just feeling so happy! Practised man overboard with pumpkin, took us ages to spot it. It wasn't really helpful that I was looking for it without my glasses on […]. The most important thing I learned today was that I don't make friends by waiting for someone to ask me questions but by showing interest in their activities and themselves. I had a really nice chat with Caleb and Robbie during quiet time (we weren't supposed to talk but never mind) while everybody else was asleep, one with Jaden about filmmaking and with Naomi about her partner. Andy teaching us the cheating way of navigation before dinner. After the nasty weather it turned out to be one of the most beautiful nights in my life. We were stowing the midship sails holding on to the yards, the sky was full of stars, more then I've ever seen before, bright like diamonds and so close. All of a sudden, the black sea underneath us began to glow silvery where the ship cut through the water and to make it even more magical, glowing dolphins appeared (responsible was fluorescent plankton). Before we went to bed Mele said prayers and we sang 'E 'Otua, slowly but steady I can sing along the English part, not the Tongan words though.
My part of the ship – day 9:
- Watch responsibility: Trainee Day, I was elected captain, so I was responsible for the whole ship
- Departed from: Mahurangi
- Sailed to: Auckland
- Distance covered: 30 nm
First of all, it is so funny to be called captain! It took me about an hour to get used to delegate everything to my mates, Niko and Mele who're the greatest people for the job by the way. Everyone supported me so much. I had to coordinate everything, meals, decide which sails to set when, when to haul the anchor, rotate the steerers and so on. It was an amazing moment when Gery showed me how to start the ship and I realized the huge responsibility of being in charge of a 35 mio dollar ship. I learned about myself that even though I'm happy following people my confidence in leading grew a lot. Spirit changed me or at least helped me develop my character. Our crew worked so well together. Niko was so full of power and kept everything moving, Mele yelled at people and the navigators were brilliant, gave me bearings, worked out eveything I asked them for. We had so much fun and I don't want to leave. Spirit was the best thing I could do!
There would be so many wonderful things I could tell you about, but I think I'll leave that for when I'll come back in December. Have a brilliant time with hopefully lots of snow!
Isa-Sophie Zünd
PS: Trainee Day means that we, the 40 trainees, are in charge of the ship and not the actual crew. We voted for a captain, two mates, two navigators, two engineers and two cooks.