SAIL TO ROTTNEST

Pia Hooper

e launched our Opti’s at 5:30am from Fremantle Sailing Club and before we W knew it, we were off. Our Opti’s successfully covered the distance of 42km approximately there and return, with no stops along the way or capsizes, phew. The duration of the trip consisted of 4h 30mins on the way there and 2h return with the seabreeze powering us along. When we arrived at Thomson Bay at around 10am, to our surprise a bit of a cheer squad formed on the shore. Basically, just our super supportive family.

During our break we hydrated and refuelled on delicious meat pies from the Rottnest bakery. A well earned treat. Whilst eating we were trying to ignore the fact that we had to sail back, since we were so tired. The seabreeze was a little late to arrive, so we hopped on the RFBYC RIB with Shelly

TO sail Lia Rafart, Sarah Atkinson and Pia Hooper set sail in their optimist dinghies on the 26 January 2022.

ROTTNEST

White #bestcoachever and zoomed around the corner to the basin for a refreshing swim but…a shark was detected 200m off the beach of the basin; therefore, the beach was closed. A slight showstopper! We zoomed back to where our Opti’s were parked on the beach at Thomson Bay. By the time we got back the seabreeze had fully kicked in, and we had a classic 20-25kt SSW to hoon back with. When we jumped out of the RIB it was time to pull up our wetsuits, reapply the coloured zinc and strap into our hiking straps because we were hooning back to Fremantle. ‘Killer Pythons’ were disappearing rapidly, as was our energy, but we continued to hike to the max with that Powerade we filled up on earlier. We sailed past huge cargo ships (which were just a little bit bigger than our Opti’s) and lots of seaweed. We were consistently lifting our centreboards and tugging it from our rudders. We were aiming at the Fremantle port cranes (which really did look like giraffes from afar). We jumped out of our boats when we landed on the mossy Fremantle Sailing Club ramp, which was slimy yet rewarding. ‘We did it’, we screamed with happiness. ‘We sailed to Rottnest Island and back!!!!!’. It was amazing the sense of accomplishment and completion; I can’t even think of words to describe the feeling.

Throughout our whole ‘Sail to Rottnest’ experience, we were raising money for the Starlight Foundation – an awesome foundation with a great initiative. They support children and teenagers around Australia who are in hospital by providing several services of fun to younger people in hospital. We managed to raise a total of $4,650 for the Starlight Foundation. We would like to thank all our amazing 84 donors for making this possible. To achieve and support so many young people across Australia. Our total donation provided 250 sick children the opportunity to participate in ark workshops across Australia. To face the fact that we made 250 sick kids lives that little bit happier is what were all about, making a difference.

We would finally like to thank RFBYC for providing us with a super speedy RIB and a super speedy RIB driver/coach Shelly White. We are grateful for the opportunity that all our supporters helped us achieve including the best yacht club ever, Freshie (also known as our second home). The sense of community and support we have received on us embarking this journey was unbelievable and I can’t wait to see the adventures we embark on in the future. Thankyou everyone involved for making this adventure possible.