Final Formal On-Water Day

Lise, Emma, Dayna and Lea on the foredeck

We had a full program of things to show the girls on Saturday for our last proper session. Laura will get a chance later to discover the joys of anchoring, outboards, oil in the engine and the pleasures of an inflatable.

A very kind fellow newly with the ASCC came early on Saturday and fixed the anchor winch for us but we thought the girls should learn how to drop and retrieve the anchor the old fashioned way first.

All of them were a little reluctant to yell back at the skipper but finally realised that it was the only way to successfully communicate. So we anchored and pulled it up a couple of times by the Dawn Fraser Pool. Having parked ourselves it seemed like a good time to also take them for a little spin in the inflatable and let them have a test of steering the outboard. They also discovered how hard it can sometimes be to get the bloody thing started. But all of them could see the advantages over rowing.

Next we hoisted the sails. At least our girls did. Karina had a hard time sitting back but we managed to tie her down for a while and let them get on with it. No wind though so we motor sailed to the main harbour before a nice 8 knot breeze kicked in.

On the way our budding rock stars (slang for highly paid professional sailors) proved they remembered all the previous lessons about right of way, cardinal marks etc. Way to go!

The another opportunity to rehearse dropping the sails and anchoring as we stopped at Athol Bay for lunch and a lesson in chart and map reading. And a swim. And mud cake.

When it was time to go they all jumped to and almost without prompting got the sails up and set. So we thought we might as well put out the pole on the headsail as well. That proved a little more complicated. Not because of our trainees but because we do it so rarely we forgot how. We eventually got it up and had a nice run most of the way to Balmain.

The last lesson was how to get invited back: tidy up, do the dishes and TAKE THE GARBAGE WITH YOU.

It's been a great experience for us all and we expect to see all the girls out as crew in the future.