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Published: October 29th 2008
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We've just got back from a little trip to the Whitsunday Islands, which are a group of 74 picturesque islands on the North East coast, with white sands and beautiful blue waters.
There are so many different kinds of boats you can explore them on, but we went for a ship called the Solway Lass. It's an old 1900's pirate ship, and it's got so much more character than one of those big white plastic catamarans. We opted for a 3 day, 3 night trip, with 32 guests and 6 crew.
We headed out on a Sat evening which was weird - getting on a ship in the dark! The ship was pretty cool - lots of deck space, a bar, and all the cabins on the lower deck, and had the pirate-esque vibe we were hoping for.
We had a bit of a briefing of what was going to happen over the next few days, and any rules and regulations. I was slightly distressed to hear that we were supposed to try and stick to 2 minute showers to conserve water!! 2 minutes!!! They clearly don't know my routine, I need a good 12 minutes! I guess
Pirates don't exfoliate. Oh well, I'd try my best!
We sized up our fellow pirates - it was quite a mixed group which was good to see - ages ranging from about 18 to 50ish and there were couples, groups of friends and families too. They were a fair few Germans, but hey, you can't have everything your way!! We got talking to a guy from London and a girl from South Africa and we all had a few drinks and tried to become familiar with the ship, which was interesting as it was dark, the seas were quite choppy and we were drinking!!
Over the 3 nights and days, we spent the majority of time on the boat, but each day we'd get off for a couple of hours and either go for a snorkel or a bush walk and to check out a beach. We saw some pretty cool fish on the first snorkel, lots of different kinds and all bright colours. On the 2nd night, a group of us stayed up late drinking and chatting, and the barman on the boat, Dale, joined us too. As you can imagine, he was the crew member we
got to know the most! We also got talking to two English girls, who were just absolutely nuts, but good comedy value. Ben couldn't believe that the nuttiest one, Keri, talked even more than me! Ben managed to get me labelled as 'Frank the Tank' after the character in Old School as apparently in the daytime I was all sweet and polite, and after a fair few drinks, I went a bit crazy! So in the morning, people I didn't even recognise were addressing me as Frank! Ben must be so proud, ha!
On the last night, we all got off the boat to sit on a little isolated beach to watch the sun set. The crew took over a bunch of snacks and some cold beers and wine, and we all sat there and watched the sun go down. It was sooo nice, it was one of those 'this is the life' moments. When we got back to boat, after sundown, there was a bit of excitement as a lonesome dolphin appeared and was chasing a couple of huge fish around the boat, over and over, for about an hour or so.
On the Tuesday, we got
back to the marina about 4.30pm and some of the crew said they were going to book a meal at a nice seafood at a place on Airlie Beach - the town where all the boats depart from and where everyone was staying that night - and invited us all to join them. So the majority of us went, and had a nice meal and some amazing cocktails (!!!) and then on to a few pubs. Another heavy night. Ouch! But it was a nice way to end a great couple of days.
Anyway, back in Brisbane and back to work (boooo...) but not for long! We're going to be working here for another fortnight, then we go to Fraser Island for the weekend, then after that we're going to Fiji for 4 nights. Good times. Once we're back from Fiji we're saying goodbye to Brisbane and heading south, to be in Melbourne for Christmas, New Year, and Ben's 30th! Think our first stop on the way down will be Byron Bay, which everyone raves about, so looking forward to that.
p.s. having problems uploading pics on this damn PC, so we'll just publish this and try and
add pics in the next few days....
Lots of love to everyone
Maria and Ben
xxx
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