Three informative presentations to look forward to;  Meagan Gallagher will update us all on our Interact sponsored club;  Meagan will then update us on her recent visit to Sri Lanka, (accompanied by her Mum).  This should be very interesting as they were in Sri Lanka during the recent tragic terriorist attacks, interesting, but no doubt also very frightening. 

 

We will also hear from Glenys Parton from "Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children, (ROMAC).  Glenys is also President of Tauranga Sunrise Rotary and she is coming all the way from Tauranga to talk to us so please do your best to attend and lets see a good turnout for her and Meagan.  Don't forget to RSVP to Brian asap!

 

The weather and the teacher’s strike on Wednesday curtailed activities for the final week, with only two sailing days.

On Monday 24 kids from St Joseph’s Orakei joined the programme and had a great day in moderate winds with many showing great composure and skill.

 

As predicted a decent northerly blew in Tuesday and although the thunderstorms didn’t eventuate the forecast did mean a cancellation for Kohimarama School.

 

The Thursday forecast was still marginal with northerly gusts up to 30knots predicted.  As this was the 27 Stonefields sailors that were postponed 2 weeks ago we were determined to get them on the water, so as a back-up plan we obtained approval from Orakei Marina to ‘sail’ off A Pier.  This provides a decent space of flat water between the marina and Tamaki Drive where we could do short sails, capsizes and other drills even if a northerly was howling.  Fortunately, this was not needed as we got them on the water in a steady 10knot northerly and they we primed and ready for capsizing by the time the wind strengthened a bit.  The plus side of the dodgy forecast was that we had to put together a skills and achievements checklist to work through if we were on the pier.  This turned out to be a handy debriefing document even for a normal day, with the kids self-assessing.  Given that a big part of Have a Go Sailing is about not saying “I can’t” but working out how they can, the list comprised: -

I can …..

 

Hundreds of kids could have ticked heaps of these boxes over the five weeks. 

      

The acolades from schools students and parents keep on coming in - another folllows; 

 

 

A drover, who just moved to Queensland from Victoria, walks into a bar and orders three glasses of XXXX beer.
He sits in the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn.
When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more.
The bartender approaches the drover,
            "You know, a glass goes flat soon after I draw it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time."
The cattleman replies, "Well, you see, I have two brothers. One's in 'Tassie' , the other one's a 'sandgroper'. When we all left our home in Echuca' we promised that we'd drink this way to remember the days when we drank together. So I'm drinking one beer for each of my brothers and one for myself."
The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there.
The drover becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way - orders three mugs and drinks them in turn.
One day, he comes in and only orders two mugs.
All the regulars take notice and fall silent.
When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender speaks to him,
            "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss."
The drover looks quite puzzled for a moment. Then a light dawns in his eyes and he laughs.
            "Oh, no, everybody's just fine," he explains, "It's just that my wife and I joined the Salvation Army and I had to quit drinking. Hasn't affected my brothers though."