During
high school I was always very outdoorsy, I always enjoyed the camping
trips
we were sent on in the early years of high school and so after year 9
when
Outdoor Ed. was no longer compulsory I still participated in voluntary
trips. Memorable ones include rockclimbing at Mt Arapilies in Victoria
& a six day bushwalk around Wilsons Promontory National Park.
Due
to the fact that I was well known to the Outdoor Ed. teaches and I
assume
quite well liked by them, I was one of 5 students they approached about
spending 10 days on a Sail Training Ship. With a limited number of
voyages
each year and only 36 berths on each trip, berths were allocated to
Victorian
schools by a ballot method, it was the first time our school had
received
an offer so the Outdoor Ed. teachers were pretty excited. As it turned
out though the other 4 students were not, they turned down the offer
which
worked out well for me because that meant I had no competition for the
berth, and after watching the promotional videotape and looking at the
brochure I was positive I wanted that berth.
The
only obstacle I now faced was money, the cost of the voyage was
$1000.00
a sum my parents could not possibly afford. So with the OUtdoor Ed.
teachers
we set about a fundraising plan by means of a number of sausage sizzles
(BBQ's) at school. With $200.00 of my own money and about $300.00
from the sausage sizzles I was still $500.00 short and my voyage date
was
rapidly approaching, somehow though I still made it there. At the time
I naively had no idea how it had been arranged but in hindsight I
believe
one or both of the Outdoor Ed. teachers must have paid the rest out of
their own pockets. So anyway I got to sail for 10 days around Port
Phillip
Bay on the Alma Doepel, an authentic, restored 3 masted Topsail
Schooner,
and it was wonderful ... except for the first 3 days where I almost
nearly
won the "chunderthon" award due to my extreme seasickness. Aside from
the
fact that until this day I can't so much as go on a playground swing
without
getting nauseous my trip on Alma gave rise to a passion for Sailing
Ships,
Ships & boats in general that has not lessened in the 14 years
since
I walked on her decks. I've collected books & models, I'm slowly
working through a beautiful cross-stitch and now I have created this
website.
Originally this started off as a single page on my regular website and
then it became a few pages but with so many pics to look at it was
wreaking
havoc with bandwidth so I decided to finally give Alma a site of her
own.
All
the people who sailed on my Voyage including the
leading
hands & the permanent crew.
(I'm
in the second
row, to the right of the girl with the red collar)
If
you want
to know more about me and my other hobbies besides ships you can check
out my Homepage by clicking either this link
- Belinda's
Homepage -
or
the one
under "my other sites" on the left hand menu.