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Excellent Adventures of Eastsail Clients, Graduate and Friends
Have you learnt to sail with us and then gone on the trip of a lifetime or have we opened new doorways for you? If the answer is yes we would love to hear from you and will publish your story here.....
1. Eastsail Yacht Owners sail from Ireland to Scotland
A great read from David Huber and Anne Wolfers about their terrfic offshore journey
Click here to see their story
2. My first big adventure - by Richard Kirkham
 
Sea Voyage by one of Eastsail’s younger students
Armed with my RYA Yacht Master theory certificate, and practical instruction from Gary at EastSail, a handful of beautiful French Polynesian notes and lots of advice from my Mum (especially about buying pearls) I found myself standing in Keri Keri (NZ) airport looking for the captain who would take me from Opua to Managavaea in the Astrals and on to the Gambier Archipelago.
I was a little nervous, as this was an Internet match. As I met the crew for “Big Buzzard” a 52’ sloop captained by George, a very young retired boatbuilder with the air of a pirate, I just knew it was going to be great. Melissa, George’s wife, a trained Cordon Bleu Chef, Jason a professional fisherman, and his partner Malin the beautiful Swedish glacier expert were going to make some great food, and even better company. Issie and Olivia (11 and 9) completed the crew and kept everyone in bread, biscuits, great desserts and far too much irresistible cake.
The voyage from Opua to Raivavae took 15 days - we didn’t see another boat or land the whole way and after 24 hours of 7 metre swells and 40 knot winds we were very pleased to see Raivavae. As official navigator I was especially pleased! During the trip we were successful in catching enough blue fin tuna and mahi-mahi to keep us going and with Jason on board I soon learnt to fillet in quite a professional way.
At Raivavae we had to wait for the fuel boat so George (ex PADI instructor) taught me how to scuba dive and whilst I thought the reefs were fantastic the others rated them “average” compared to the Philippines. The crew gave the family a break and we camped on our own desert island overnight. Of course we all had to have our own machetes to open the coconuts.
Jason and Malin left us and joined the fuel boat and we traveled to Gambier with good weather, navigating the shallows arrived at Mangareva. Another remote beautiful island, but I was a little sad, as I knew I would not be going with “Big Buzzard” to Hawaii. My next adventure would be Tahiti to Tonga, with drogue and sea anchors and winds up to 50 knots…but nothing would match my first big adventure and the wonderful “Big Buzzard” team will be friends forever.
A big thankyou to the EastSail team for giving me the skills to crew and navigate with confidence. Home again with 95 days at sea and 5700 nautical miles and I am getting ready to sit my RYA Yacht Masters practical as soon as I am 18 and I am keen to be rail fodder Sydney to Hobart – any offers?
Richard Kirkham |
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