My Adventures by Nur Sara
 The Leeuwin trip was great! I will
never forget it. At first, when I heard about the trip
from Ummi earlier last year, I had thought that it was
going to be boring and didn't even bother about finding
out more. But my mum had encouraging me to go and Ummi
had told me that the ship's main mast had a message on
top of it. She told me that a little boy had climbed up
that mast and read it. I thought that if he could do it,
I could do it too!
Then I started to be more interested in the trip.
I couldn't wait to apply. So, I quickly signed up and a
got a lot of help from Ummi, my mum as well as my dad to
write the reasons to go on the Leeuwin. Finally, I got
in! Hurray!! I was so happy. And that was four months
before to the trip. We had a camp to get to know the
group and also a talk with Dato' Azhar. Yet, I still
felt it was too long a wait.
On the 9th of January 2000, I was already in
Perth for four days. I had met up with the rest of the
group at the airport. That night I was so nervous,
thinking that I would get sick the next day and spoil my
whole trip, and yet excited to get to sail with the
Millenium Kids!
 The next morning, at 9.30am, we were
hanging around the dock. I was in the same group as
Abang Ashraf, Nik and Liana. At 10 O'clock we got onto
the ship. We played games to get to know the others,
climbed up the fore mast where the sails are and had our
lunch. Duncan, the white watch's leader, that's my
group, taught us a few basics and at two o'clock we
started to sail out of the harbour. As the ship sailed
further, I started to feel dizzy but I kept working.
When I saw Rachel and Liana lying on the deck, I felt
that I couldn't take this work anymore and sat down
behind them. It was getting worse. I could not even get
up to work. Liana had said that it would be better to
throw up because I would feel better after that, rather
than lying around. That' what Liana did! Then I saw
Abang Ashraf get sick. So, I decided if I got down to
the cabin where I slept and make myself more sick, I
would throw up. So, I did it and it worked! Then, I
started working again. After all the hard work we had
dinner. I still couldn't adjust my stomach to food on a
rocking ship and I threw up yet again.
Early the next morning the others went swimming
in the sea. I didn't want to swim because I wasn't
feeling very well that morning. But it went away later
that day. The ship started to head for Garden Island. I
was starting to have fun working without getting sick.
On that day too, I climbed up the main mast. When I
almost reached the top, I thought I could not make it,
but kept on climbing. The message made me want to climb
up, as I was really curious to know what the message was
all about.
When I got to the top, I felt so relieved. I
closed my eyes before looking at the carvings on the
mast. When I opened my eyes I was so disappointed
because I only saw scratches of peoples names. So, I
thought instead of reading the scratches, I looked over
the other side of the sea from the top. Then I saw a
plaque on the other side of the pole. It was the
message!!! Since I got back Ummi was asking what was the
message. I told her, "You have to climb up yourself to
know what's the message!". I had my first night watch at
12 O'clock with Simon.
 On the third day we rowed to Garden
Island. We met Dr. Boyd Wykes there. We straightaway
went snorkeling. I couldn't get my size for the
flippers, so I snorkeled with my sandals on. Then we
went for a walk around the island. We picked up rubbish
on the beaches. I was really looking forward to see a
wallaby that day. Dr. Boyd showed us at the nursery. We
also saw a snake, which I hated most, yuck! When we got
back on the ship, I realised that I lost my sandals,
swimwear and my shorts. I was so worried my mom would
scold me but luckily she didn't. Phew!!!
The next day the captain told me that we would be
sailing in the ocean. I was so happy because it's like
the real thing. When I saw the waves it really reminded
me of watching Dato' Azhar's video. I was thinking how
he had to cope with the roughness of the ocean, and how
he managed to climb up his boat's mast. Wow, that's
incredible! How he got his boat back to shore, when the
mast broke, and how he worked on cold, hot, wet and dry
weathers. Anyway, I got sick half of the day. I slept
throughout the day. I heard everyone got sick and lay
down on the deck except for six participants. I wish I
were like them. The crew woke us up at seven at night
because we had to bring the sails down. I felt better
after the sleep. I had to pull one of the headsails.
Abang Ashraf helped me and we almost got our hands
caught in the pin because the wind was too strong at
that time. We couldn't hold on anymore, so we let go of
the rope. We had to wait for the wind to slow down then
catch the rope and tie it up.
On Friday, while the others went swimming, I went
around with my diary asking for their addresses. It
started raining after we had our breakfast. It was so
cold. I wore layers of clothes and of course my wet
weather jacket. That day, we had to do a lot of work
especially cleaning the ship and getting the ship to
sail near the harbour. Even though it was a lot of hard
work it was still the best thing I did in my whole life!
On that night, the last night on the Leeuwin, it was the
presentation night. White watch did remixes of songs. We
changed the lyrics to things we did on the Leeuwin. I
really liked the show from Duncan, Brad and Joanne, "The
Ugly Bird". It was really funny! I slept very late on
that Friday night. We stayed up just to spend extra time
together with each other.
Saturday, the last day, David, the head crew, and
the captain briefed us on what we had to do when the
ship sailed into the harbour. We had to climb up the
fore mast. I took the lower topsails, same as Liana and
Syukrina. As the ship sailed into the harbour, we were
hanging on the sails and waving to the people at the
harbour. The ship docked around 9.30am in the morning.
Then they did a certificate presentation ceremony and
finally the trip was over.
The first thing on my mind was "I will go on the
ship again!" From this whole voyage I learnt a lot of
things and I will keep the memories forever. To make me
remember all this I did a wristband and will wear it
forever. It is white in colour that shows I was in White
watch. But the main thing I have learnt is to keep
moving and ……. NEVER TO GIVE UP!
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