A One-Day Sail

On Tuesday we had the opportunity to go sailing on Chimere - both of us this time! The MSM Supporters' Tour is in progress and Rob has done 2 full day excursions and a half day one on Chimere for some of the generous supporters from Australia who cannot (or don't want to) go on the actual missions. 

An Australian Navy vessel was in harbour, here to help out with the Ambae evacuee relief efforts.

A Titanic moment - fortunately ours had a happy ending to the voyage 😆

Then it's "Look Mum, no hands!"

 Our passengers included Australian supporters and people from Paunangisu Village, which MSM has a special relationship with. Many of them had never been on a sailing ship before.

Martyn got roped in to work. If you think that sail looks at a very strange angle, it's not a sail, it's an awning to give shade on the deck once we stopped sailing.

 Martin Burgess (who says he hates kids) gave the children a great time by racing against the bigger dinghy with a load of adults in it. Check out their smiles! They also loved zooming around in tight circles.

The dinghy race to lovely Hideaway Island.

We enjoyed a lovely day sailing there and back and snorkeling off the beach. There were 40 people on board, and it was a beautiful day, very calm though. Even the slight heeling over of the Chimere on the way back was enough to get some people concerned about tipping over. Martyn would have liked it to be more challenging, but it wasn't to be this time.

Thanks MSM for a lovely day's sail.