Sea Scouts find 'Four Bars' at Lake Rotoma

Intermediate canoe race. Willow Spencer powering her way to the finish line.

The New Lynn Sea Scouts finished their School holidays with a trip to Lake Rotoma (Rotorua) to join the Young Mariners for their Open Regatta. This fresh water lake has always been a favourite of the Group for a place to play on and in the water, especially in summer.
 
But as many of the youth found out; it was not quite summer yet with nighttime temperatures dropping to about 2 degrees; which was a little cooler than most were used to when compared to winter camping in Auckland. The second night, with its cloudless star filled sky was just as cool as the first, meaning most crawled into their sleeping bags wearing every piece of clothing they had available.
 
The first morning started with rowing, which was a great way to get warm having just thawed out. New Lynn got off to a good start by winning the Junior, Intermediate and Senior Rowing, but the leaders could only pull off a second place. Not being able to match the results of the youth would normally have seen the Leaders get a good ribbing from the youth, but they were let off lightly this time.

Andy Qi setting anchor at the end of the day’s activities.

Sailing followed, but was abandoned early afternoon after a very cold hail-filled squall passed over the Lake; with the expectation of more inclement weather to follow based on feedback from the adjacent lakes. However the rest of the afternoon turned out to be rather pleasant.
 
Thus later that afternoon, two of New Lynn’s crews decided that they were not going to waste the latter part of the day as blue skies and light winds rolled in. They rigged the boats and set sail to ‘explore’ the lake until sunset. ‘We got four bars’ was the triumphant cry on their return to shore a couple of hours later. Apparently the withdrawal symptoms from lack of phone coverage at the camp site had just been too much for some of the crew…
 
Sunday saw the remainder of the sailing completed and the end result was at the closing parade prize giving was a clean sweep of the Rowing, Sunburst and Cutter Sailing as well as the Canoeing.
 
The New Lynn Sea Scout Group caters for boys and girls aged 5 - 19 years. So if you want a slice of the summer action on the water, or to go camping and explore the awesome adventure playground that we are blest with out West, then give Andrew a ring on 027 6939 756 or check out www.newlynn.seascouts.org.nzfor more details.

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