Old News - Newsletter August 2006

We got back on Saturday after a glorious week sailing in the Whitsundays... what a fabulous time we had! Turquoise sea, white sand and green islands. Not too hot, not too cold, amazing snorkeling, ok scuba and not a single argument ;-).

We had an entire 40ft boat to ourselves (sleeps 6), so Milord and I had a cabin each for clothes dumping, and used the main one for sleeping. Two loos, a decent galley, and more than enough space once we got used to the dimensions and stopped walking into things (I am still covered in bruises!).

We did a couple of days of good sailing (up to 9 knots once), but for the rest of the time it was not very windy and we motored around which is very civilized (trying to drink a glass of wine at a 45 deg slant is not easy).

We moored in sheltered bays overnight, and had some awesome sunsets. Asleep by 9 most nights so up to watch amazing sunrises with a coffee shortly followed by fruit salad and champagne...

We got the charter company to provision the boat with a set package, which was interesting. Felt like a contestant on "Ready steady cook" for a lot of the time! Neither of us are into sweets, so we were left with a whole cheesecake and fruitcake by the last day, but had finished the nuts and crisps halfway through the trip! Probably a good thing as we didn't gain nearly as much weight as we could have!

We picnicked on the famous 5 mile long pure white Whitehaven beach, but apart from swimming ashore once to walk to a snorkeling site we didn't touch land again for 5 days.

I absolutely loved it, and we are already talking of going again next year. Maybe a couple of weeks later in the year when it is warmer, and next time we fancy trying a catermaran ;-).

Flippin expensive, but totally worth it! It was surprisingly tiring too - I don't think we slept very well on the boat at all - we have been doing not much apart from sleep since we got back. Oh, a huge bed which doesn't rock and creak, what a sweet pleasure!