Sailing At Okahu Bay!

On Wednesday the 1st of May 2019, Room 8 went on a Rotary sponsored sailing day. We went because our class got the opportunity to learn how to sail. We sailed at Okahu Bay, near Mission Bay. It was cold and hot at the same time because I was wearing three t-shirts two jumpers and sweats. I was so excited to go and I couldn’t wait because I had already experienced going sailing.

First we had to get to school before 9:00 am because our bus was leaving. When I got to school everyone was wearing shorts and sweats. Very shortly everyone was on the bus and we were off. When we were going on the bus we went past many different schools like Tamaki Primary, Ruapotaka school and Tamaki college.

Soon after, we arrived at Okahu Bay we were greeted by three instructors Steve, Justin and JR. We first learnt how to rig our optimist, which was our boat. We learnt about the different parts of our optimist which were the boom, mast, figure eight knot, tiller, rudder and the centre board. Before we could go down to the shore we had to put on wetsuits that were so tight! Luckily I could fit into my one.

Finally we were off to sail. I was the one that was controlling where our boat was going to and my partner was holding the figure eight knot so that the sail came in and we could go faster. After a good two hours I was so hot and tired and ready to eat lunch. After lunch we were going back to sail and have more fun. This time we had to capsize our boats. We got a little head start by one of the instructors JR. He took us back to shore on his IRB... he went really fast and it was so amazing.

When we got to shore other boats were still tipping over and it was really funny to watch them. In a short time our optimist had to capsize and when it was being capsized my partner couldn’t breathe. The IRB boat had to come to rescue, it was so tiring having to flip our optimist back over but in the end it was fun. Soon my partner and I were feeling a bit sick and we headed back to our teachers and got changed first while the other students were still capsizing.

When everyone was ready we headed back to school, I was exhausted. I had so much fun and I hope that I can go again.

Many thanks to the Lion Foundation, Rotary, Volvo and Zhik for sponsoring the day.