Ancient Mariner 2013
By Skipper Jim West
With the National Historic Landmark Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet in the background,
Tiki Too crew members proudly display their plaque showing 8 First Place Awards and the newly minted Navigator's Trophy.
The Tiki Too participated over Memorial Weekend in the nation's largest Sea Scout competition, the 61st anniversary Ancient Mariner Regatta. The regatta was held onboard and near the National Historic Landmark WWII aircraft carrier USS Hornet in Alameda, CA. Approximately 500 hundred people attended and 20 separate ships competed , including a number of ships from Southern California and a unit from Hawaii. The Tiki cruised their 95' Vietnam War boat Liberty, PTF-26 to the regatta on Friday. They helped with event set-up, competed Saturday and Sunday, attended awards Monday, Memorial Day, then made the 6 hour cruise to Bethel Island.
The girls had trained extremely hard over the last couple of months as most of the time for the previous 5 months had been spent swapping main engines in two boats in order to be able to make the cruise to the regatta using their "new" 16 cylinder Detroit Diesel engines.
Ten adults from the Rio Vista program helped to train the crew or run the event. Twelve crew members competed. Despite the lost training time due to engine swaps (and the loss of a key crew member to other commitments just two weeks prior) the Tiki finished the weekend with an amazing 7 wins out of 23 events, First Place in Uniform Inspection and a special award. The ship's Bosun was Wee Sam Morine. Bosun's Mates were Emily Lutz and Catie Bullard. Crew Leaders and crew were Meghan Mello, Carla Sanchez, Amber Kelley, Destiny Ingram, Selu Rinne, Odette Tapia, Amaya White, Michelle Kelley and Laura Stewart.
Below are the results:
Schooner Class Award and Resolute Mariner Award
8 First Place Awards: Knots with 100% (tied with Odyssey and Challenger), Compass and Relative Bearings with 100% (tied with Challenger), Breeches Buoy (Catie Bullard cox'n) with a time of 2:28, Pullboat Flotilla Drill (Emily Lutz cox'n), Piloting, Marlinspike, Rules of the Road with 94% , Non-Traditional Uniform (Ms. Rebecca's first recognition with this award for her great uniform work)The Navigator Award: Given to the ship with the highest overall scores in Piloting, Compass and R. B., Radio and Rules of the Road. This is the first year of this new AMR honor. Our thanks to Mr. Josh Gilliland.
2 Second Place Awards: Hoisting the Scuttlebutt with a time of 1:09 (tied with Challenger) and Semaphore with 99% (I suspect this was an error by the judges and should have been 100%)
2 Third Place awards: Team Knots with perfect knots and a time of 4:13 and Bosuns Chair with a time of 1:14 (1st and 2nd were 1:08 & 1:09)
Fifth Place: International Code Flags, Mariner Quiz and Drill
Qualified in: Radio, Rope Climb and Pullboat Race
The Tiki crew were also a crowd favorite at the Drill-Off demonstrating their new Tango- India- Kilo-India drill routine.
The girls of the Tiki showed that despite an abbreviated training period, and the loss of a key team member, they could still excel by working hard, sticking together and believing in themselves, their officers and the plan.
