The Ship
of Dreams by Nurhazreena
 Leeuwin, oh Leeuwin !!There are no
other words with which to describe about this huge ship.
It was really amazing, fantastic, bombastic! All this
while, at last my dreams had come true. I was so lucky
to have been selected by the Yayasan to represent
Malaysia, as a participant. From my point of view, it
was reasonable to pay a lump some of money for this
expedition. It was also worth it for those who were fit
enough to join and be part of the
crew.
As
for me, being seasick all the way for 4 days was
especially hard to deal with. This was because I
couldn’t really do as many things as the others could. I
couldn’t climb up to the topgallant or even the main
mast. It made me feet like turning back to Malaysia
(kind of ‘homesick’ I guess!). If only I could have
fought back my seasickness, I would have been a
super-duper hypergirl as usual. But things turned the
other way round.
At
first, I thought all the permanent crew was very
intimidating. But my thoughts were wrong. I found out
that they were actually friendly and obviously even
though they really couldn’t remember my name, they
helped me a lot especially when I was sick. They tried
to make me as happy, comfortable and they took care; it
was really sweet of them. Besides, everybody was nice to
me. They were like a family to
me.
From
this expedition, we were not only making new friends,
but we actually learnt many things such as teamwork and
leadership, elementary watch-keeping and personal
safety, basic seamanship and sailing skills. We also
learnt about knots and splices, goal setting,
motivation, effective communication and there’s lots
more that I can’t really remember.
 Besides that we’ve learnt
a little bit about the history of Garden Island. Garden
Island! It was the most a gorgeous island that I had
ever visited! I was amused and fascinated by the gentle
breeze that blew across my face. The surroundings were
so clean! Oh my God! I was actually falling in love with
this island.
Now,
let’s talk about my watch. It was after my favorite
color! Blue watch! Jo is our watch leader. My teammates
were Andrew, Lauren, Rachael, Jenny, Ashaari, Hurri,
Shaharil and Tursina. Jo was a good, sporting and even
gorgeous leader! We liked her so much. She let us do
everything that we wished to do. I was glad to be in
Blue watch. We help each other, and that’s why teamwork
was so important. Without teamwork, nothing can run
smoothly.
The
food was really delicious. It was absolutely the best of
the best! But unfortunately I couldn’t eat that much
because I kept vomiting. But thanks anyway to Andreas
and Tracy! They did a great job. I really, really missed
the lasagna.
Oh
yea! The best part was during the thunderstorm! I guess
it was on the third day of the voyage. From what I
heard, less than 15 people were able to move around. As
I was lying down on the deck near the mizzen mast,
suddenly I heard something drop down from the sky. I
thought it was raining but in my mind, I told myself
“How come the rain smelt like puke?” And I turned around
and found that the whole of my body was soaked with
Jacqui’s puke. And that time she was on mizzen
gaff-topsail. Oh my God! I found that no one had noticed
me with Jackie’s puke until I had told them about it.
They laughed at me. Yukkss! What a terrible day I had!
On
the last night, each group had to do presentations. Our
group had presented a short drama of which I can’t
exactly remember the title. Of all the presentations, I
enjoyed the Red and Gray watches the most. Red watch had
presented two songs and the lyrics of their song were
really touching. They dedicated the songs to their watch
leader. It is so sweet of them. Grey watch was really,
really “gempaq” even though they were old, I don’t mean
really old, but they managed to do something
extraordinary.
 There are still many
things that I wish to say. But unfortunately all the
words just can’t pop out of my mouth! The conclusion
that I’ve made is “It’s a lifetime experience and we
have to face the
As
for me, I wish that I could turn back the time. To be fit enough
to face the wild ocean and take up the challenge of
sailing on a tall ship. To climb up to the main mast and
read the message and keep it to myself. We all hope that
one day the Leeuwin II will come over to Malaysia. And
I’ll be proud show to all young people in Malaysia about
this great ship. I would love to become one of the
volunteer crew. Perhaps even part of the permanent crew.
Inshaallah.
Once
again I would like to thank the Eco-Youth Challenge of
Yayasan Anak Warisan Alam especially to Umi and Catrina,
who had brought up this brilliant idea for us. Without
them it wouldn’t have happened. To all the Leeuwin crew
members, the Millennium Kids and the EYC of Yayasan, it
was a great time with you guyz!!!
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