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New Zealand

Day 1 I arrived at the Spirit of the New Zealand in the early morning with Karl who I had shared a hotel room with the night before. Whilst we were waiting for the previous voyage to leave I was introduced to some of the crew. This is where I met the 4 Watch Leaders, 1st Mate and leading hands. The Watch leaders are motivators of a watch, which is a group of 10 trainees. They assist the mates with the running of the ship and they carry out debriefs with their watch after each day. The Leading Hands are ex-trainees who assist the mates and the cooks with the day to day running of the ship. They are also there to help with the trainees and to fix routine problems that the trainees may have. Once the previous crew and trainees had left the ship the crew we went aboard and were shown to our cabins. As I was a crew member I only had to share a cabin with a watch leader (Karl) who I had already met the night before. Steve (1st Mate) gave us a tour of the ship and a safety talk. My title was training watch assistant. I didn’t have a group of 10 trainees like an actual Watch assistant so I was basically a general helper. As the trainees arrived during the day the Leading hands would welcome them on and show them to their bunk. Once there was enough of them they would do a mast climb. I sat at the topsail with other members of crew along the mast to make sure the trainees were clipped in and it was a way to introduce ourselves to the trainees. After lunch and a briefing for the crew we set sail. We just motored out of the harbour and anchored in the Tamaki Strait. About 13nm. I spent most of this time helping in the galley peeling carrots. Once we anchored there were more safety talks with the trainees. As it was their first night I had to help the cadet with the frapping straps and removing the sponsor flag from the topsail in very strong winds.

Meeting the ship in the morning

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Day 2 We were woken up at 6:30am and at this time it was still very dark. I had no idea that every morning there was a morning swim and by the time I was out of my bunk everyone was already on deck running around to warm up in their swimming costumes. So by the time I was up I missed the warm up and had to jump straight in the freezing water however there was only a short swim to the end of the boat. Once we had breakfast it was colours every morning at 8am. This was carried out on the aft deck and involved raising the flag, a quick brief on what we were doing that day carried out by Mike (Master) and 2nd Mate (Andy). They showed us where we were on the chart and where we were heading. Today we planned to sail to Kawau Island and shelter in Kawau Bay which was 30nm north of where we were. Also during colours a crew member would share a “thought for the day” and the engineer would have a fact for the day. Before we set off the trainees had to scrub down the ship. They would do this in their watches of 10 and they would clean their sail station. (Either foredeck, midship, mainsail and mizzen). Getting underway was fairly easy. We would always come off the anchor under motor. Also you could just flip a switch and the anchor would come up and another switch will clean the anchor chain for you as it was lifting, so you didn’t have to wind up the anchor yourself. We set the mizzen, mainsail, course, topsail and jib however we still had the motor on and motor sailed to Kawau Bay. The cruise to Kawau Bay took about 4 hours and during this time trainees including me would have a go on the helm and play deck games to help get to know everyone. Also during this time Kaleb (the cadet) taught me how to whip rope. Once we anchored in Kawau Bay and had dinner we had the “evening activity”. As it was the beginning of the week this evening’s involved answering 5 questions about yourself and this included the crew.

Sailing to Kawau Bay

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Day 3

Today’s forecast was 30 – 40 knot southerly winds. So the plan was to stay in the shelter of Kawau Bay in the morning and carry out a beach clean to help the environment. After breakfast there was the routine deep scrub of the ship. 4 rafts were prepared to be paddled down to the beach by the 40 trainees. Whilst the trainees went ashore for the beach clean I stayed on board with Kaleb (cadet) to do some splicing. The trainees came aboard at lunchtime and we prepared to set sail. I went up to the topsail to undo the gaskets with two other trainees. I also put in reefs into the mainsail, and main staysail, as there were strong winds. When we were underway we set the Mainsail, Main Staysail and Jib. We sailed out of the shelter of Kawau Bay into the Hauraki Gulf where it was incredibly rough. We sailed out without the engine briefly for the first and only time on the voyage. The sea was incredibly rough and the wind was gusting 45 knots. Whilst we were sailing we did a man overboard drill and I had to climb to the rigging and search for a pumpkin that they had thrown overboard. However, I hadn’t realised their pumpkins were grey and not orange so I lost the ‘person’. After the drill we sailed back to Kawau Bay for the night.

Kawau Bay

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Day 4 We started the day with the usual morning swim, breakfast then colours. We got underway quickly as strong winds of 40 knots were forecast in the afternoon so we planned to get to our destination before then. Today we sailed to an Island called Great Barrier Island. Once we sailed out of the shelter of Kawua Bay the sea was very rough. We set the Mizzen, mainsail, Course, Topsail and jib. We motor sailed the whole way there. A lot of the trainees were suffering with seasickness, throwing up and we also had to attempt to eat lunch while underway. Great Barrier Island is about 90km north east of Auckland and has a population of around 800 people. We motored into this small bay sheltered by a small island opposite which made it look as if you were in a lake surrounded by mountains. We anchored in the afternoon and everyone had a free afternoon to recover from the journey over.

Sailing towards Great Barrier Island Seasick Trainees

Day 5

The weather forecast for today was still very strong southerly winds so we stayed in the shelter of Great Barrier Island. The water we were in was fairly uncharted so the trainee’s activity was to chart the water. Each watch had a 15 metre rope with knots tied every metre and a weight at the end. I went out with a trainee watch on an inflatable raft. When we were in the shallows the water was crystal clear and there were many sting rays swimming all around us. We all got bored with charting the waters very quickly and ended up exploring the small creeks on the island. In the afternoon the trainees went sailing in the two small luggers. They could fit about 10 trainees in each of these. I took out some of the crew sailing as none of them had ever done any sailing in smaller boats. However, 2 of them quickly became seasick so we had to come in fairly soon.

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Day 6 We spent this day in the Great Barrier Island again to shelter from the weather. We went tramping during the day and the plan was to have a BBQ at night at a place called smokehouse Bay. The trainees paddled on Rafts to Kaikoura Island which is next to Great Barrier Island. We spent the whole afternoon hiking along the top ridge of the island through forests and spent lunch at the top overlooking Great Barrier Island. In the evening everyone paddled to a place called Smokehouse Bay. This place was built for people with yachts to come down and have a hot bath or campfire. There was a log burner to heat water for a private bath in a cabin or an outside bath. There was also a place for a campfire and swings. We built up a campfire and spent some time exploring and playing on the swings but the captain radioed us back as a large storm was predicted to hit, just after this we experienced a large hail and lightning storm.

Kaikoura Island Smokehouse Bay

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Day 7 AS we were still experiencing really bad weather we stayed in the shelter of Smokehouse Bay. However, we had run out of sugar so I went on the tender with the Captain to Port Fitzroy which consisted of a small jetty, tiny library and small shop. In the morning we did navigational work in preparation for trainee day. We also did a mast climb so everyone had a chance to get to the top and get a photo. During the mast climb I was sat on the topsail for hours in the strong cold wind making sure everyone was clipped on. I eventually got the chance to climb to the top and walk out onto the yard. In the afternoon we had our first afternoon of doing nothing to just relax for a bit.

Navigational work

Day 8 This day was major clean-up day. Before cleaning up we moved the boat from Port Fitzroy to just outside Great Barrier Island. We motored through a passage called Man O War Passage, which was a very tight gap to get out of the Bay. Most of the morning was taken up by the deep clean of the ship. But in the afternoon we sailed back to the mainland to Whangaparaoa. This took 4 hours’ motor sailing the whole way down and it was incredibly rough again. This was the first time I got to have a proper go on the helm. During this time we also got “quiet time” which gave everyone a chance to relax. I spent this time out on the bowsprit watching the dolphins, which stayed with us for about 10 minutes.

Man O War Passage

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Day 9 Day 9 is Trainee Day which meant the trainees were in control of the ship and could choose what they wanted to do. The night before they had picked a Captain, First Mate, Second Mate, Chef, Navigators and two Engineers. Their plan was to visit Tiritiri Island in the morning and go out on the yard swing in the afternoon. This island is a wildlife sanctuary with lots of native birds and regenerating forest. We motored down to the Island and we were ferried onto the island with the tender boats. We spent all morning there and followed a trail around it to a clearing with a Lighthouse and Education Centre. The Island was near Auckland so you had a view of the whole city and Rangitoto Volcano. In the afternoon we got the yard swing out and spent a few hours just swimming and playing with the yard swing. In the evening we motored into Auckland and just as a way to finish the voyage and as it was the last night we sailed under Auckland Bridge.

Tiritiri Island

Last day sailing under Auckland Bridge

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Overall this was the best experience of my life and I can’t wait to go back to New Zealand. I have made some really good friends that I will be keeping in contact with. I feel extremely privileged that Richard, Hilary and Sea-Change set this up for me with Nigel and I am very grateful for it.