“I guess one of the best things about Leeuwin is that quite often you go out to sea for 7 days in this completely new environment and when you come back there might be a chance of you never seeing the people on board again and so throughout those 7 days you have the license to be anyone you want. It doesn’t matter who you are back at home, how people pressure you into certain behaviours or groups – when you’re out there you can just be yourself. That’s the great thing about it.”
- Jeffrey Poon, Volunteer.
“Initially Leeuwin for me was just an adventure, something to get away for a little while. The way it changed my life just gave me something different to go for, it gave me another social outlet that I possibly wouldn’t have had otherwise. It almost gave me a second lease on life I suppose, because I would have been a completely different person if I hadn’t of gone and experienced something that was so completely foreign to me. Coming from a small farming background, it was very confined I s’pose, and then coming to Leeuwin – it offered a massive social opportunity. After that initial ‘shot in the arm’ I realised that I could continue this and volunteer and it formed my entire life as a result because it gave me something to aim for that I would never of thought of otherwise. It’s something I wouldn't of thought to do and once it was in front of me, I couldn’t have thought of anything else.”
- Aidan MacDougall, Chef STS Leeuwin II
“I had no idea what to expect on my first trainee voyage but for me I was on a ship with 40 other people around my age that I had never met before and I made a lot of friends out of that voyage but I think, better was coming back and volunteering and I got to know those people better. Sailing with people is a really great way to make friendships fast because it’s so intense because you’re in a little cabin with 5 other people, you eat with them, you do everything with them, so it's a very close community."
- Chloe Hosking, Volunteer
“The permanent crew are involved with every aspect of running the voyage. They’re all great – they’re all really enthusiastic about both sailing and youth development and they have a lot of energy and enthusiasm for running the same program every week. It’s always new and it’s always exciting because they make it like that.”
- Chloe Hosking, Volunteer
“Once you step on a voyage, the age barriers of the people on as trainees with you, they kind of just go; you become all equals, all sailors. You’re all there doing the same thing for the same purpose; it’s very inspiring.”
- Ashleigh Tapper, Communications Manager
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