Mimi goes Kiwi

On Wednesday the 3^rd of October I boarded the ship “Spirit of New Zealand”. It was built in 1986, is 45m long, weighs 184 tons and carries a sail area of 724 m². The spirit trust arranges sail programs for young teenagers aged between 15 and 19 so they learn about the sea, sailing, themselves, their ability to face challenges and how they interact with and tolerate other people. On our certificate that we got at the end it says that the following aspects of personal development were covered: leadership, independence, motivation, confidence, community spirit, self-esteem and public speaking. These youth sailing programs are found in ten different countries in the world. Also in Norway!Ok guys, here it comes! I tried to keep it short but it didn't really work I'm afraid.. Sorry, but it was just too amazing! No way I could have written any less. Enjoy!
The 10 day voyage I was going on did not start until the 4^th of October but there were about 17 people already on board the night before, because they lived far away from Auckland (where our trip started), just like me. We didn't do anything special that night. We got dinner and then we sat on deck just talking with the sky tower glowing pink above us till we had to go to bed. Our beds were tiny bunks! 3 on top of each other and no space for yourself :P But that was fun!
We got up at 6.30 the next morning and before anything else we went on a walk through Auckland Harbor. The crew then got us to bring food and other stuff on board after we had eaten breakfast. The crew on my voyage consisted of a captain, Nigel, two mates (and navigators), JR and Georg(ina), four watch leaders, Alan, Nicola, Melvin and Alice, an engineer named David, Glennis our cook, Sam the leading hand and Jeremy the cadet. While we were stacking the food in the lockers the other people arrived one after the other. Soon the deck was filled with people – there were 39 of us trainees in total! - and it didn't take long before the crew made us climb up to the first platform on one of the mast! It wasn't that high, but it was actually i bit scary, but heaps of fun at the same time :D After everyone had been up we took a group photo and then we were put in our watches, the groups we were going to be working in for the rest of the trip. My watch consisted of Lauren, Brooke, Mike, Jack and Hooks from Auckland, Caitlin from Rotorua, Sam from Hastings, Julie from Nelson, Pryce and me. Our watch leader was Alan. The next thing we did was going on a safety tour around the boat looking at for example where fire extinguishers are situated, and in general looking where things are. Our cook, Glennis also had a talk to us about some rules we have to follow when we are in the galley. Then, at 12 o'clock, we finally left Auckland. We motored in the beginning, but after we had lunch we put the sails up for the very first time. My watch was responsible for midships on the first day. This means we are controlling the yards with the course, the topsail and the topgallant (there is usually a royal too, but that was in for repair). Lauren was the leader for today. We got to climb all the way up to the topsail (we were not going to use the topgallant) to untie the knots that hold the sail in. When you are up there you are standing on a tiny piece of rope which you can't even see and you have to let go with both of your hands to get the sail free. It's pretty freaky! You are wearing a harness of course, and if you happen to fell it would just hurt your ribs a hell of a lot, but you wouldn't actually fall all the way down :P Reassuring isn't it? We got the knots untied and then we had to pull lots of ropes to get the sails up. Being the first day it took a while before all the sails were up, but we made it in the end. JR, first mate, navigator and program leader on our trip (together with George), explained to us, with his little tree model of the spirit, what happens when we are tacking and jiving. And then we tacked! We had to pull the yards around. Quite easy :) We then had muffins for afternoon tea and a name game to get to know everyone a little bit better. Before we had dinner we stroke the sails, took them down again. I climbed up again, but this time it turned out to be even harder being up there! We had to lean over the yards heaps to reach down to the sail and get it all tucked in again. My legs were shaking :P But we did it. After dinner, Dave the engineer had a talk to us about water, toilets, sinks, lights and other stuff on board. At ten o'clock there was lights out. We had sailed all the way to Long Bay in the Hauraki Gulf today. A really good first day :D
My second day started at 5! My watch had been on “night watch” the first night, which means we are looking after the ship at night. There needs to be someone awake watching the anchor, the engine, the wind speed and direction, the depth of the water and in general the water around us 24/7 so that the boat doesn't drift to close to land or gets flooded. There are two people sitting night watch at a time for an hour and 45 minutes. Me and Julie got the last night watch and had to get up at 5. We just sat there writing in our journals that we had been given. Every half an hour we wrote in the logbook (wind, temperature, water depth, position etc) and checked the engine room and the anchor light. Nothing exciting happened. At 6.30 we got to wake up everyone :D Ten minutes later everyone had to be on deck dressed in their togs ready to go for the morning swim. We ran around the boat to keep warm until everyone was upstairs. Before we jumped in we had a number off to make sure everyone was present, then we had some more warm up and then we jumped in the water! That's what happened every morning. Once you were in the water it was just fine. You just had to avoid thinking about the cold and the sharks :P We didn't have to swim far at all and when you got out of the water the air seemed pretty warm compared to the water! You had to hose yourself down with fresh water before running down to the accommodation to get changed. That was a mission every morning! You can't imagine how little space there was. Breakfast was served till just before 8. At 8 o'clock sharp we had to muster on deck for colours. Colours means putting up the flag and we also read the weather forecast each morning. Then we discussed where we were going for the day and someone from the crew always had a little story to tell or a word of wisdom to say. After colours there was time for the daily clean up. My watch was on the sail station “main” on the second day, so our responsibility this morning was to prepare vegetables. Leaders today were Mike (in the morning) and Caitlin (in the afternoon). Before lunch we had a quick talk about which sails we were going to raise today. Then, after lunch, we sat sails. My watch put up the main sail and the main staysail. When all the sails were up we had some team building games. We also learned to tie lots of different knots e.g. bowline, stopper knot, figure of eight and reef knot. The sails were taken down again just before dinner and we wrote down what we want to get out of the trip, both personal and as a team. After dinner we had to do some public speaking. Everyone had to go up and tell us their name, where they're from, their favourite activities, how they know about the spirit, what flavour ice cream they would take to the south pole and who has inspired them the most in their life. Quite fun :P Went to bed at 10 again. Today we sailed from the Hauraki Gulf to Kawau Bay.
Day three started at 6.30 as usual. My watch had to jump in first for the morning swim because we were on the sail station “mizzen” which means we are helping Glennis in the galley. Sam and Hooks were the leaders for today. After the swim we prepared breakfast and also cleaned up afterwards. Had colours at 8 – I got to raise the flag! - and then clean up. When everyone was finished with cleaning we got the “rubber ducks” (the rafts) out to go ashore on Motoketekete Island. We paddled out there and had a session on distress signals and hypothermia. We also looked at an old ship wreck. Paddled back to the ship, deflated the rubber ducks and had lunch which my watch had helped to prepare. After lunch we got to sail again! We did heaps of tacks too and I even got to steer the boat for quite a while :D That was really exciting. I felt so important :P We came closer to our final destination for the day, Christian Bay, and had to strike the sails. When they were all down and the anchor was out Nicola, one of the watch leaders, put the rope swing up and people went for a swim. I didn't really feel like it :P My watch prepared dinner and Brooke and I got to ice and decorate the two chocolate caked for Lachie's (one of the trainees) birthday :) We had dinner and then we carried in the cakes and sang happy birthday. After we had cleaned up after dinner we had a challenge game. Each watch was given a bag with some material in it and out of that material we had to make something that would keep an egg from breaking when it was dropped from the top mast, but the egg still had to touch the deck! There was a sponge, some string, a paper bag, straws and some tape in the bag so we made Barnaby (Lauren gave our egg a name) a parachute and put him in the paper bag wrapped in the sponge. It was looking quite good, but when he was dropped from the mast by Sam the leading hand he nearly fell out :S When he eventually reached the ground he died immediately :( One of the other eggs broke too and none of the others touched the deck so no one really won :P It was fun though. Before we went to bed George made us gather around and then she told us to be completely silent and look up into the sky. They turned off the deck lights and suddenly you could see the stars really clearly. It was so pretty! No one said a word. Everyone was just standing there gasping into the sky! Amazing :)
Caitlin, Brooke, Lauren and I tried to wash our hair on the third day, so we jumped in three times in the morning: once to get it wet, then we put in shampoo and jumped in again, put in conditioner and jumped in a third time. It doesn't really work to wash your hair in salt water but it's better than nothing! Had breakfast and then colours. Our watch responsibility today was foredeck so we had to clean the bathrooms and the accommodations. Jack was a leader this morning and I was going to be in the afternoon. Straight after cleaning we put the sails up. 11 in total! We put up the flying jib, the jib and the fore staysail. When all 3 sails were up we sat in the bow sprit. You could see the water straight underneath you and we were going really fast! So much fun :D We had lunch and after lunch we sailed a bit more. I was leader then :) We were going all the way to Whangaparapara on Great Barrier Island today. While sailing we had some more team building games where you were not allowed to talk! We completed all of them :D I was in charge of striking the sails this time and I was told that I was a really good leader! I did a good job in standing back and controlling the whole thing without doing anything my self :) This evening they put the rope swing out again and I tried it this time. Fun :D I also jumped off the tip of the bow sprit and we swam around the boat a couple of times. After dinner we had another challenge. The team leaders had to lead their blindfolded watch around the outside of the boat! :O Everyone got a buoyancy aid and a harness on. And a blindfold of course! I was not blindfolded and I was the only person allowed to talk to my team. I was not allowed to touch them though. First I had to get them all over the rail to the outside of the boat, then I had to get over there myself and climb around them to get to the front of the line. I guided them along the side and then I made them come over to the inside of the boat again. They then had to follow me to the tip of the bow sprit and around it. On the other side they had to go on the outside of the boat again and along the whole side. It was a difficult job and lots to look after at once, but my team was really good at listening and they all trusted me :) It was lots of fun! And we were the fastest team out of the 4 :D And since the other teams were so slow we didn't get to sleep until 10.30 that night...
Day 5 started with the daily morning swim, then breakfast, colours and then clean up before we went on a tramp on Great Barrier Island. My watch cleaned the deck and Hooks and Pryce were the leaders for today. Jeremy then drove us to shore on the island with the speed boat and we started walking. After about 2 hours we got to the middle of the island. We had lunch next to natural hot pools, but everyone was so hot from walking that no one went swimming. It was nice to put your feet in though! We walked a bit further and came to a waterfall. The water was cold and heaps of people went for a swim, me included. Nice! Came down to the wharf again after walking 6 hours. Jeremy came to bring us back to the boat. Back on board we got to have a 1 minute shower! Everyone was so excited :D Afterwards everything smelt so good and we were all in such a good mood :P Amazing what a shower can do! The tramp had been lots of fun too. Pretty nature and it was good to get to know the other people a bit better as well. We had dinner and after the dinner we saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2. So exciting to see a sailing ship in the movie! Never looked at it that way. Got to go to bed slightly early tonight and we even got a bedtime story told by George!
Got up at 5 again on day 6 because our team was on night watch. This time I had night watch with Brooke. There was still nothing exciting happening though... Woke up the other people at 6.30, went for a morning swim, had breakfast, colours and then clean up again. Caitlin and Sam were leaders and we got to prepare vegetables. After the clean up we took the rafts out again and went ashore on a beach near Great Barrier Island to collect rubbish. There was heaps! A bit sad... We also found a coconut :D We cracked it and ate the whole thing. Yummy :D Back on board we had a charting exercise, then lunch and after lunch we had to climb all the way to the very top of the biggest mast! That was pretty high and really exciting :D When everyone was back down again we sat sails. The crew took a step back today and let us do most of the work all on our own. We knew what to do :) When the sails were up there was time for an hour of “quiet time” which means no one talks and everyone has to be real quiet. Most of us went down to the accommodation to sleep a bit, but that was interrupted by DOLPHINS! There were suddenly hundreds of them swimming towards us. And there were whales too. Three of them! It was so much fun to watch the dolphins jump around and dive underneath the boat :D After a while they left again and we had the rest of the quiet time. So good to get to sleep a bit. Felt much better afterwards. It makes you really tired and silly the whole “sailing all day, getting up early and being with the same people 24/7” thing. This night we did some night sailing too. That was so cool! We had to wear buoyancy aids, a harness and we got strobe lights in case we fell over board. The atmosphere was amazing and the water and the sky looked so pretty :) The dolphins came back too! I got to go up in the rigging in the dark. Exciting! We sailed back to Kawau Island today. Went to bed at 10.30.
And we got a sleep in the next morning :D Half an hour! We went for the morning swim as usual. My watch was on mizzen so we had to jump first. And guess what!? The dolphins came back! Yes, we got to swim with dolphins :D They didn't actually touch us but they were sort of playing around us and diving underneath our feet :) So cool and a little bit scary in the beginning. We prepared breakfast and cleaned up afterwards. Brooke and I raised the flag at colours and Lauren read the weather forecast. We took the rubber ducks out again today and rowed to Kawau Island where two watches went on a walk to a copper mine while the other two watches were sailing in the small luggers. It was the first day it was raining and we were all wearing our beautiful yellow wet weather gear (the banana clothes) :D When we came back to the beach we swapped with the other watches and got to sail in the little boats. At first Alan and George were in there with us to show us how to work the luggers, but then we sailed them all on our own all the way back to the ship! That was incredible :D I got to steer and I also controlled the sheets. Heaps of fun and really wet :P Had lunch when we came back to the boat and after lunch we had a lesson on road rules at sea. We then took the rafts back on board and cleaned them. After dinner we had a game where everyone had written something about themselves on a piece of paper and we had to guess who it is. Later on we watched a movie about a massive sailing ship that was going to round cape horn. Impressive! Didn't do any sailing today though... Got another bedtime story tonight: Snow white :) An interesting version!
Day 8 also started at 6.30. We swam all the way around the boat this morning and had to jump in three times again because we tried to wash our hair. After breakfast and colours we had a DEEP clean! My watch was on foredeck so we got to clean the accommodations, bathrooms and the the banana clothes. I was leader in the morning and I can tell you it was not an easy job to get my group to clean the wet weather gear! But we did it in the end :) We then went down to the aft cabin, where we usually ate, to write a letter to ourselves which was going to be posted to us in 6 weeks time. Nigel the captain also came to talk to us about tonights elections. Day 9 was going to be our trainee day, a day where we sail the ship on our own, and we needed a crew for that! After lunch we raised the sails. We were responsible for the fore main staysail. Brooke was now the leader. But not for long because we started swapping around the watches and we did heaps of tacking. Even in complete silence! It was to prepare for tomorrow and the crew were happy with our work :) We sailed to Martins Bay again today. After dinner and striking the sails we finally had the big election. I was nominated for 1^st mate, but didn't get it. In the end the trainee crew consisted of Sam as captain, Connor as mate, Katie S and Mike as navigators, Jessy and Debbie as cooks (a very good choice!!), Nick and Mark as engineers and Hooks, David, Charlotte and Ty as watch leaders. Before we went to bed we made a plan for tomorrow. Exciting!
Day 9 - Trainee day! Our last real day of sailing.. :( We were going to sail to Waitamata Harbor today. Started at 6.30 so we wouldn't waste the day (we could have chosen to have a sleep in but it was much better to have the whole day!) and the swim was still compulsory. We had breakfast, colours and then we were divided into our new watches. My watch leader was David and the rest of my watch was Kirsten, Lauren, Fraser, Hannah, Adam and Thomas. We were on main and had to prepare veggies. After that we put the sails, main and main staysail, up. It was the windiest day so far – up to 35 knots! - and we did lots of tacking. Half way through the day we also had a talent competition :P Fun! Lauren and I made up a new song: On the Spirit, the mighty Spirit, the trainees sail today! After we had been sailing a while we could see Auckland in the distance. We put down the sails for the last time and then we sailed under the harbor bridge. And back again :P At last we came to Waitamata Harbor and anchored there. After dinner we had to pack our bags... Then we had an award ceremony. Sam got a certificate for being captain, Mark for most development during the trip and AJ for being so much fun and so helpful all the time. After that we had our last watch debrief. We talked about what we had enjoyed on the trip and things we didn't like. It was a really good talk and it was so so sad! We all ended up crying :P (Well, at least all the girls). Basically cried the rest of the night :P They showed us a promotion movie about the Spirit all over the world (Norway was in it too!) and then we went on deck and stayed there talking, taking photos and just enjoying the last hours together until we had to go to bed at 11.30.
Had to get up at 5.30 the next morning. We had a quick breakfast, some more clean up, last minute packing and then everyone was just standing around on deck watching Auckland getting closer and closer as we motored our way towards it. The crew spoke some last words and then it was time for good byes. Before we went ashore we danced the banana dance for the last time :P (A dance we had made up during the trip and that had been performed in the banana clothes a couple of times). It was really hard to leave all these amazing people behind. I got so close to some of them in such a short time. Leaving Lauren, Caitlin and especially Brooke was extremely sad! I hope I'll see them again before I go home to Norway. Before I left the boat George said to me that I have to come back as a leading hand soon! So I'll do that in a couple of years :D I caught the bus home and felt strangely alone... The spirit has been the greatest experience ever! It's so great to be at sea moving using the wind only and with no other sound than the waves. Everyone told me that they have heard the Spirit is I great and that I should look froward to it, but you don't know HOW good it is until you've done it yourself. It's unbelievable!