Mohamad and Saifullah, who will be transitioning from the IEC to mainstream Year 11 in 2021, enjoyed five days on a Leeuwin Future Connect Adventure aboard the tall ship Leeuwin ll. They have recounted the experience for NLSC News. Special thanks to Karen from Multicultural Futures for making this happen.
Life-changing experience on the Leeuwin by Saifullah
First, I will tell you what the Leeuwin is. The Leeuwin is a three masted sailing training ship designed in the 1850’s barquentine style. The ship was launched in 1986 and it’s 55 metres long and 33 metres tall. It is the largest sail-training tall ship in Australia and owned and operated in Western Australia by the Leeuwin adventure organisation. Leeuwin is used to run programs aiming to develop core skills or support high school students or people with their WASSA and WACE units.
Joining the Leeuwin explorer voyage had life-changing impact on me, I built my resilience and I’m sure it improved my employability.
This adventure was for six days, from 26 October to 2 November 2020. There were almost 50 people from different countries on the boat. It was my first experience on a sailing ship and I have never been on this kind of adventure before.
We spent a week on the sea and started working to run the ship. This included – setting and furling the sails and climbing the masts – the main mast is 33m high, it was so hard to climb and I was feeling very scared when I was looking down but I did it!
There were lots of other jobs to do…
• Standing watch through the night with my watch group
• Cleaning the hull of the ship up and down
• Operating the ship
• Checking the engine
• Working in the kitchen
• Cleaning the toilet!
We had to do everything because there was not anyone else to do our work, we had no choice. It was a memorable experience for me.
I got a lot of experience from this adventure like, meeting new friends and to discover my strengths and talents while building my self-confidences, taking care of each other and working as a part of a group. I developed my leadership.
Overall, communication skills and group work skills were the most important experience from this adventure.
Adventure experience on Leeuwin by Mohamad
I had the best adventure on Leeuwin for six days and I learnt a lot of things there.
I didn’t enjoy the first two days because I had seasickness but during the last four days I had an amazing time as I could communicate all the others students and crew.
Actually the people I met on the Leeuwin were incredible because of the way they helped for and cared each other. For example, on the first two days when I was sick they really helped me and showed me I was not alone. Firstly, they built my confidence so that I felt better despite the seasickness. Secondly, the experiences I got there were sailing, leadership, communication, team work, helping others and also respect.
For my personal development Leeuwin is the first ship I had ever sailed and I learnt how to sail the ship. I also learnt communication, because the first thing everyone did was sit and chat. Everyone said, “I want to build my communication skills.” So everyone had time to practise their communication, talking to each other and helping.
We didn’t have our mobile phones, they were all collected, so we had to use our speaking skills. I also learnt about helping others when we were sailing the ship when team work, respect and honesty were important.
To sum up this adventure was incredible and a beautiful time which I will remember for the rest of my life. I will keep the Leeuwin adventure in my heart for a long time.