HMS Gouch
Trip Start
May 01, 2010
1
33
60
Trip End
Oct 19, 2010
Whitsunday Islands, Queensland, Australia
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Our expectations of the trip were a lot of lounging about on deck topping up our burn. The reality was pretty different though. As we left the Airlie Beach marina we were exposed to our first bit of proper sailing as we sat on the high side while the boat started tipping over with the force of the wind. After a couple of hours of sailing in weather conditions that you would expect to find in England rather than Australia, we stopped for the night. As the crew got to work on our delicious dinner of chicken satay and rice, we sat up on deck drinking with Tara, an Irish girl who was pretty much the only other English speaking person out of the 25 guests who were on board.
The next morning I woke up in a puddle of goon. This was not because I'd fallen asleep with a glass on top of me but because we'd ignored the advice of the crew and failed to place our bags of goon in the storage units provided. Instead we'd just placed them loosely on our below-deck bunk beds. This created a problem when the boat was tilted to almost 90 degrees and our bags of goon were repeatedly smashed against the walls. The effect was that goon leaked over the bed that me and Alex were sharing and, after a night sleeping in this mess, I awoke to find my clothes were soggy and smelling like fish guts (which apparently are a key ingredient in cheap cask wine in Australia). After sorting this little predicament out (changing clothes) we were taken to Whitehaven beach, where we had three hours to do whatever we wanted. At first we didn't really know what to do because, as it was only 8:30am, it wasn't really worth sunbathing. After a while we were invited by our foreign boat-mates to join them in a game of five-a-side beach football. A wide spectrum of nationalities took part and all conformed to their footballing stereotype; the Italian was a diver, the Dutchman played total football, the German was efficient and effective, the Belgian did very little. The three of us did our country proud, leading our team to a comfortable victory. In the process though, we realised how unfit we had become after almost three months of travelling. That afternoon, after lunch, we were taken to Luncheon Bay for snorkelling and scuba diving. After deciding at the last minute, I joined Matt in diving, while Alex went for the snorkelling option.
After another night of drinking goon up on deck, this time with Tara and Soo-Ha, a Chinese girl who provided us laughs throughout the whole night. On our final day on board the Boomerang we went for an early morning snorkel, followed by a long, fast and very wet sail back to the mainland. Although it did provide us with a proper sailing experience, it was very cold and very wet, especially as we were sat at the front of the boat. We eventually arrived back onto dry land, a victim of the gay boat and of Captain Brugge. In all seriousness though, we had a great time sailing around the Whitsunday Islands and, apart from the first day, we were lucky to have some pretty good weather.
