The British Defender

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The mad traveling has officially begun. After an early morning wake-up call in AUckland to catch a 7am flight to Brisbane, there was no other option but an 18 hour busride up north to the Whitsunday Islands. I boarded the bus at noon and arrived at 6am just in time to watch the Airle Beach McDonalds open business for the day. I would have thought that after such brutal travel, a day on the beach would be totall necessary, but being that it was technically my first day in Australia, I was eager to book passage on the first boat leaving port.

The British Defender is a high tech Whitbread Around The World Racing Maxi that was raced by the British Armed Services during the 1989/90 Around The World Race. Today, it hosts sun hungry tourists for multi-day sails in and around the Whitsundays.

On a sail such as this, its all a matter of who is on board and how fun the crew wants to the journey to be. Of 25 passengers, Tut and I were 2 of 4 Americans, there were some Germans, Swiss, Irish, Welsh, and naturally British travelers on board the British Defender.

Reese, our captain was an aged seaman who has spent most of his days on a boat rather than dry land. You could sense in his demeanor that there was a sense of dignity that had been removed from a former position he may have had as a captain of a "real" ship and he wasn't too happy running tourists around the whitsundays, but in that same respect, he was sailing around mostly tropical islands, so he was visibly not that upset. He was mainly just a salty old seaman who will subscribes to the theory that a bad day sailing is better than a great day in front of a computer.

Alex the deckie and Megsey the cook were a pair of teenage crew members who's ambition has led them to jobs aboard a sucessful sailing ship but will limit them to circles around teh islands for a long time to come. The simplicity of their goals in life was refreshing yet scary, while although at ages 19-20 they knew they wanted to be sailing, they thought nothing of sailing ships for the rest of their lives, much like Reese. I suppose that a child born into a family of doctors who wants nothing more than to be a doctor his entire life suffers the same predicament, but I've enjoyed seeing how certain people around the world may have achieved their life goals at a young age and are truly happy regardless of paycheck or social status.

My apologies for the comentary on the crew, however I spent a majority of the time I wasn't reading or swimming, talking to them. I helped Megsey cook both nights and had some interesting wacky philosphical conversations with Alex.

The trip did afford us more down time that I had anticipated. Aside from an amazing sail the day we departed, we didn't get a chance to hoist both sails due to crummy weather conditions. It was raining on and off, and the foul weather gear made its way on deck a few time. Fortunately the weather was so warm regardless of the rain that the slickers weren't necessary. As you can see from the pictures, there were some nuggets of sunshine that we made the most of, but the contrast of foul and good weather only made me appreciate how beautiful a region the Whitsundays are when the sun is shining.

An interesting note about the sail was that we were allowed to play our own music. And as nearly every traveler I've met thusfar has their own ipod, there was a strict NO JACK JOHNSON RULE in effect. Jack Johnson, if you don't know, is one of the most popular artists I've heard in a while. Enjoyable by everyone no matter if you are 90 years old or just a baby and everywhere in between. He's a surfer who sings mellow pop summer music and our crew had sails where the passengers played nothing but Jack Johnson the entire trip. So instead of Jack Johnson, we rocked Jimmy Buffett most of the way which was only too fitting.

Overall, the sail was well worth the busride and I'd do it again when I make my way up to Cairns later in life to scuba the great barrier reef. Next up, 10 hour busride south to Fraser Island!

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