Watermark #216 March 2022

Photo taken from West Bay Rakino with a container ship in the background looking more like a city skyline
          
April            Barry Jones, Roger Hawthorne, Peter Longbottom, Lyn Viskovich
May              Trent Stephens, Ian Rennie,
Also congratulations to Peter and Lyn on their 25 wedding anniversary this month
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Rob’s Ramblings – aka Commodore’s Report
It has been a busy month for Manutaki with two programmed sailing events and two off the water events - the Waiheke Sculptures exhibition trip and the visit to Pukekohe. 
There have also been on the water meetings of members using the WYC sailors Messenger app to catch up with who is on, or planning to be on, the water.  It is good to see the Messenger app working so well for this purpose.  The WYC Messenger app also worked well for the Sculptures trip and those who didn’t do the walks were able to enjoy each other’s company at a local café until the rest of the attendees joined them.
Expanding on what we said last month, we would like to spend some time at the AGM on 25 June 2022, to discuss how we can best meet the needs of members and in particular, those who are no longer able to join us on the water (but still can catch free ferries).   
A suggestion is that we have set dates for off the water events having them on (say) the last Wednesday of the month, except December.   We would get people to volunteer to arrange an event for a certain day, such as Lyn and Brian did last year with our very enjoyable walk through the Waitakeres followed by lunch at a restaurant.   These events would also include the AGM and Xmas function assuming we still want to have them in a weekend.
Please consider putting your hand up to arrange an event for a certain day.  You don’t need to say what it is at this time.   Event organisation can be as simple as saying on WYC Members’ Messenger app, we are going to Onetangi for lunch catching the 11AM ferry on a specific date. 
This does not preclude having more formal or informal events such as a trip to the Sky Waka or impromptu events such as going to the Puhoi cheese factory on a specific date, or the Gibbs Sculpture Park.   Personally, while we still can, we like going somewhere different at least once a fortnight and hope to revisit places we have previously gone to including as a WYC event such as Pine Harbour, Half-moon Bay and Hobsonville.   Maybe if we have two events a month the other event could be on the second Wednesday of the month.
We suggest that we have a social event coordinator on the committee tasked with coordinating the land based events.  Ideally this person would be a non-sailor.   
For sailors it is proposed that after the last event on the current sailing programme, Easter, there will no longer be a sailing programme and members will continue to use the WYC Sailors Messenger app to join up when the weather is good and hopefully during the working week when bays are less crowded.  This will sometimes mean that sailing people will need to choose between the land-based event or catching up on the water.
Please think about what you would like to see the club do, consider volunteering to organise an event for a specific day, and consider becoming a committee member.
A big welcome back to the club to Ray and Bridget Gorinski, out of the launch “Kaimana”, it’s great to see you back.
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Off Water events
The social committee are meeting soon and will report back at the AGM
Please forward any ideas or preferences to Barbara McEwan
But feel free to organise an impromptu event using the club group messenger.

On Water Events
April 15th – 18th (Easter)   Coromandel _ Te Kouma
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​ 
​Club events and happenings 

Romeo IV and Manutaki in Picnic Bay

Waiheke Sculpture Walk

4 club members doing the Waiheke sculpture walk.

Wayne and I doing the sculpture walk

​It was very windy, they had to hold on to Pam to stop her from blowing away.
On the ferry trip to Waiheke the Westhaven Yacht Club even had a welcome aboard message from the captain over the PA system. We were all very impressed the way the ferries handled the very rough waters with almost gale force winds. 

Then the after-match function.

Train trip and lunch at Pukekohe

​12 club members on the train then lunch at a local pub a very enjoyable day.

This month’s bad joke
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Joe passed away. His will provided $30,000 for an elaborate funeral.
As the last guests departed the affair, his wife, Helen, turned to her oldest friend.
"Well, I'm sure Joe would be pleased," she said. "I'm sure you're right," replied Jody, who lowered her voice and leaned in close.
"How much did this really cost?" "All of it," said Helen. "Thirty thousand."
"No!" Jody exclaimed. "I mean, it was very nice, but $30,000?"
Helen answered. "The funeral was $6,500. I donated $500 to the church. The wake, food and drinks were another $500. The rest went for the memorial stone."
Jody computed quickly. "$22,500 for a memorial stone? My God, how big is it?!"
"Two and a half carats."
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Nautical History

Eight Bells
Aboard Navy ships, bells are struck to designate the hours of being on watch. Each watch is four hours in length. One bell is struck after the first half-hour has passed, two bells after one hour has passed, three bells after an hour and a half, four bells after two hours, and so forth up to eight bells are struck at the completion of the four hours. Completing a watch with no incidents to report was "Eight bells and all is well."
The practice of using bells stems from the days of the sailing ships. Sailors couldn't afford to have their own time pieces and relied on the ship's bells to tell time. The ship's boy kept time by using a half-hourglass. Each time the sand ran out, he would turn the glass over and ring the appropriate number of bells.
 
Fathom
Fathom was originally a land measuring term derived from the Anglo-Saxon word "faetm" meaning to embrace. In those days, most measurements were based on average size of parts of the body, such as the hand (horses are still measured this way) or the foot (that's why 12 inches are so named). A fathom is the average distance from fingertip to fingertip of the outstretched arms of a man -- about six feet. Since a man stretches out his arms to embrace his sweetheart, Britain's Parliament declared that distance be called a "fathom" and it be a unit of measure. A fathom remains six feet. The word was also used to describe taking the measure or "to fathom" something. Today, of course, when one is trying to figure something out, they are trying to "fathom" it.
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Even worst Bad joke of the month
A young woman brought her fiancé home to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother told the girl's father to find out about the young man. The father invited the fiancé to his study for a talk. "So, what are your plans?" the father asked the young man.
"I am a biblical scholar," he replied "A biblical scholar, hmmm?" the father said. "Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter?" I will study," the young man replied, "and God will provide for us."
"And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring, such as she deserves?" asked the father. "I will concentrate on my studies," the young man replied, "God will provide for us."
"And children?" asked the father. "How will you support children?"
"Don't worry, sir, God will provide," replied the fiancé.
The conversation proceeded like this...and each time the father questioned; the young idealist insisted that God would provide.
Later, the mother asked, "How did your talk go, honey?"
The father answered, "He's a Labour voter. He has no job, he has no plans, and he thinks I'm God.”