In Week 3 the Class 7 students set off on their second camp for the year.  The camp consisted of a four-day accredited sailing camp to tie in with their Mechanics main lesson.  We stayed at the Rotary Youth Camp in Little Grove and set sail on the Princess Harbour under the guidance of instructors from the Princess Royal Sailing Club.

I went on a sailing camp to the Princess Royal Sailing Club.  We stayed at the Rotary Youth Camp.  All the girls were in one dorm.  It was lots of fun and we did a fashion parade.  I really enjoyed being at the camp.  Hanging out in the dorm was so much fun.  Robyn put us in groups to make the dinners.  My favourite thing was to play cards with Robyn, Cedar and Violet.

The food was different and delicious.

Sailing was interesting, and we did it every day.  Well, we missed one as it was too windy.  But sailing is not my thing I decided.

The best part was going on a cruise in the big boat the Responder on the harbour.  Oh and a hot shower.

Milly Marshall

In week 3, all the year 7s at Golden Hill Steiner School (minus one), went to Albany on a sailing camp.  We arrived on Monday at the Rotary Youth Community Camp, in Little Grove.  It was a camp space with a large-ish lawn separating the girls and boy’s dorms (thankfully).  It was beside the Princess harbour, and it was very, very, windy!

The Princess Royal Sailing Club (PRSC) was close to the camp, and pretty much directly across the harbour from camp Quaranup.  We were taught by some really great instructors, Chris, Geoff, Brayden, and Rachel.  They taught us to rig, de-rig, work as a crew, and most importantly, sail!!!!  In crews of 3, we sailed kind of big boats called GP (general purpose) 14s.

My favourite day was the last day, where my crew and I did sailing out on the Princess Royal harbour, unassisted, and won (well, technically came a draw) a sailing competition the instructors set up.

Chris took us out on a tour of the harbour.  There is a shipwreck called Chains 2, that we saw.  

It was an amazing camp.  It was a great experience, one of the funnest I’ve had this year, and I think it was really helpful for the people who were scared.  It was a very scary experience, only until you realized that you could do it, and after that you would enjoy every second of it!

My favourite bits were sailing fast, feeling the wind and water on my face, feeling totally in control as we sailed over 25 knots!!  Making guacamole back at camp, eating Robyn’s birthday cake, and not capsizing!

I learnt a lot from that camp, like how to rig a boat in 10 minutes, and how the cold water (which is somehow colder than Greens Pool) is definitely worth it.  Definitely.

By Sophie Wybenga

We arrived at Rotary Youth and Community Camp on Monday at 8:30 am and quickly dropped off our bags.  We hung around for a while and then we jumped on the bus to head over to the Princess Royal Sailing Club.  We met the sailing instructors Chris who was the main instructor, Braydon was the assistant instructor.  We sat down and they explained the points of sail then we hit the water for some fun paddling while the other person steered.  We linked up with the power boat and got towed, we also did a capsize drill - our team were the fastest with a time of 63 seconds. After, we headed back to camp for some chill time and dinner.  Then were forced into an early night by Sam.

On the second day we did some tacking, Archie, Reeve and Zavier crashed into us twice!  (Not Reeve’s Fault!!)  We then had lunch and got back on the water.  Geoff took us out past the Marina with him at the tiller and one extra person.  We got back to camp and I messed about.  When it was time for bed Sam let us talk, we did this for an extended period of time about things I am not legally allowed to disclose in public.           

And now it’s the third day it turns out it was too windy for us to go sailing.  So instead, we played sailing games and did some revision work.  We had a big competition with our sailing crews for a first-place flag, we did knot tying, naming the parts on a yacht and naming the knots.  My crew ended up drawing for first with Sophie’s crew and that basically ended the day.  We returned back to camp where I played ping pong and beat most people.  After dinner we went to the dorm and talked about things, I am not legally allowed to disclose in public, this is after we played spotlight.          

We have arrived on the last day of camp, a Thursday.  We got to the club knowing what to expect, we were going out past the marina with no help.  We rigged and reefed the main sail which made it smaller, so we hit the water and started to sail out.  At the start we were the best at following the Gray Rib but Sophie’s crew were getting better and we soon dropped behind.  We didn’t have it the worst though, Julian, Tami and Lachy ‘s boat capsized TWICE!!!

We finished the sailing with everyone still alive.  After lunch we went on the Responder to do a tour of the harbour, I got soaking wet and had to change clothes.  From my personal experience I would go back to the camp and continue sailing.

Kai Taylor

We arrived at the Rotary Youth community camp at 8:15 am on Monday of Week 3, Term 4. When we got there, we all got changed into our wetsuits and got onto the bus, we then drove to the princess royal sailing club (PRSC).  We talked about what we would be doing for the 4-day sailing course.  After that we got into our crew teams and chose a boat and launched them without sails. We paddled around in a marina for about a hour and a half then we paddled into shore and had salad rolls for lunch.  After lunch we all connected our boats and got towed out of the marina and I nearly capsized.  Then we all jumped out of the boats and got towed back in to shore, by now it was 3:30pm.  We all washed down our boats and drove back to camp then we all played around for a few hours and then had spaghetti bolognaise and went to sleep.

On day 2 we all woke up at about 6:00am and had breakfast and played ping pong for a while before we got our wetsuits on and drove down to the PRSC.  We participated in a tacking drill and went out onto the water and sailed for a few hours, then we had salad wraps for lunch. After lunch we went out with two of the instructors and sailed around on the princess royal harbor.  Once back on dry land we washed the boats and drove back to camp and basically did the same thing as the day before but after dinner we played spotlight and I won every round.

Day 3 was too windy to go sailing so we did theory and played a lot of sailing games and quiz’s. Once back at camp we mucked around and had hamburgers for dinner.

Day 4 we all rigged our boats and sailed out of the marina and I capsized twice, then we all sailed back to shore and had lunch then our whole class went out on the power boat called the Responder.  After that we came back to the shore and went home. 

Lachy Berry