Hi. My name is Shannon and I am in Year 9 at Ross Smith Secondary School.
The Friends of the Paul McGuire Maritime Library sponsored me to go on the One and All from October 1-7 this year.
The One and All is a rigged sailing ship that teaches people from the ages of 14 to 25 years, sailing skills. Rotary Adelaide and the Friends of the Paul McGuire Maritime Library were giving two students in the Community Mentoring Program scholarships to go away on the One and All. The Community Mentoring Coordinator, Heidi, nominated me for the scholarship and I got it.
Shannon, right, with mentor Heidi and the voyage sponsors. Julian Murray, Friends President, is centre.
On the first day we had a talk about safety and hygiene and other things the Captain wanted everyone to know. We were then sorted into our watches, which were called port watch, middle watch and starboard watch. Later on in the day we all climbed up the rigging.
On the second day we all did our watches. Watches were from 8-12, 12-4 and 4-8. We worked in pairs during our watch. When we weren’t on watch we were often found sleeping or relaxing with our new friends. On Tuesday night the weather was really rough. Unsurprisingly because of the rocking of the boat, everyone was perched over the side of the boat throwing up.
On day four we anchored down in the gulf at Port Vincent. Around lunchtime we went across to the nearby beach in the rescue boat where we blokes played marks up and beach cricket. The girls all lay down and sun baked and ‘raved’ on with their gossip. At around about 1pm we went back to the One and All and had showers. Later on that day we arrived in Kingscote, Kangaroo Island where we stopped, docked off and went and bought souvenirs and explored the town for a short time. I really enjoyed visiting Kangaroo Island.
During the remainder of the trip we worked together as a crew - oiling the ship, mopping the decks, doing our watches, polishing the brass and that sort of thing. We climbed the rigging again on days 6 and 7.
On day 7 I was picked up from Port Adelaide by my parents and went home and pretty much slept. During this trip I learnt teamwork, made new friends and discovered just how tired you can get from working hard.
I would really like to thank Julian Murray and all the Friends of the Paul McGuire Maritime Library and Rotary for paying for the trip. I enjoyed it a lot and would love to go again as a volunteer member of the crew one day.
(Contribution by Shannon, 15 years old)