Advertisement
Published: August 5th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Fists clenched, eyes wide, holding my breath, praying - one arm around rope along the side of the boat, the other holding on for dear life to a hand rope. One foot through a foot hold. Glancing over to make sure my daughter is still in the boat. The wind blowing my hair back horizontally. Screaming "Slow Down" only for it to be lost to the wind. Jumping up over waves and back down with a bang, wondering if I will live to tell this tale. Relaxing, squealing with delight, enjoying the sites, adrenalin - Yes these are the experiences of my first time on a little rubber jet boat!!
The golden late afternoon sun reflecting on the river and buildings. Despite being winter it was quiet warm out, our legs wet from wading out to the boat. We rode the boat from West End down the River through the city and under the Story Bridge. I was told how to hold on and then told just to relax. Sit on my side and lean onto the curve of the boat, sit as if you a relaxing on the couch - Ha Yeah Right!! I was holding on
so tight that 3 hours later my arm still felt weak if I lifted it!! There was no way I could relax with worrying about me and my daughter. Now I have done it once, I think next time will be even more fun!
As there was only one small life jacket (for the kids) so we went with Captain Craig in pairs. Miss 4 went off alone with Craig while waiting for Daddy and I was having a near heart attack watching the boat jump up and over the waves left by the wake of the City Cats (they create quite big ripples) but Miss 4 came back ecstatic with a huge smile! Daddy and Miss 4 hopped in and went first. It seemed they were gone for ages, I was starting to worry if they were OK. They came back and Miss 4 looked very white.... I asked if she felt Sea Sick, epecting her to get out the boat and puke all over me.... but all she said was that was SO fun - can I go again?
So then it was our turn. I was so scared. I was just hoping to
go around in a little circle and back to the boat ramp. I told Craig that it was my first time on a small boat (I dont think City Cats and The Spirit of Tasmania count) and to go slow....... But did he listen? Of course not!! This gave him an excuse to scare me senseless and to purposely jump the boat in the air!! After all my screaming he did slow down. Once I relaxed it was the most awesome experience I have had in a long time!! It was amazing. The Golden glow over the city. People along the banks looking at us. We even waved to some little kids and made their day! I so wished I had taken my camera with me. It looked like it would be really bumpy and wet on the boat, but surprisingly we didn't even get wet! But it was just so amazing that I don't even think the camera could capture how fun it was to be flying down the River.
So many times I have looked at private boats going up and down the river, thinking those people are so lucky. Well today I got to be
those people!! And it was so much fun, no I really am jealous!!! The boat was little so we swerved around the bridges, city cats and other boats. We went from the middle of the river over to the banks. We were really close to people walking along the river at the botanic gardens.
The kids enjoyed it so much, they were sad when we ran out of petrol and could no longer go up and down the river. They squealed and smiled all yelled "Go faster, Go faster" so we may have created some maritime monsters.... they are already talking about the "next" time.
It was amazing!! I think we got up to 60km/hr which might not sound fast, but oh boy, in that little boat, I thought I was going to go flying off... we had dry lips and mouths by the end of it.
Thanks Craig for inviting us out to spend some time on your boat! It was AWESOME!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.056s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 7; qc: 23; dbt: 0.031s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb