Solway Lass

  The Whitsunday Islands, Australia
Saturday, October 27, 2007

23 OCT
After a hearty meal at Jamaica Joe's and a few cocktails we got picked up and whisked off to our home for the next 3 days.  It was an old fashion tall ship, originally built in 1902 in Holland, It's had various names and homes around the world over the years, including Fiji and Scotland.  It was in Scotland she got her current name "Solway Lass".

Solway Lass

 
After meeting the crew and the rest of our scurvy-dog shipmates we set sail for a bay at the back of  Haymen Island.  This is where all the celeb's stay so you're not allowed around the front in case you take a photo of them!!!
 
Our cabin (located just below sea-level) was tiny (only as big as the bed) and the air con wasn't working so it made for an interesting night, especially as Donovan didn't bring any sea-sickness tablets.
 
24TH OCT
We woke up nice an early (7am) for a lovely breakfast on deck and our first glimpse of our surroundings.  As we arrived in darkness you can't really appreciate where you are.  After breakfast we decided to test the rope swing out.  Mikee (the Bowson) showed us all how it was done by climbing up the rigging and launching out over the side of the boat, with a nice little somersault finish.... 8 ½ out of 10!  Donovan got the hang of things quite quickly with a very stylish swing.  I however didn't quite have the technique and simply fell in the water ... never mind I got the sympathy vote being pretty much the only lass to have a go.
 
We motored over the beach for a spot of snorkeling.  Apparently this site is ranked in the top 10 snorkel sites in the world (I'm guessing in 10th place).  Visibility was little poor following on from the storms that had rolled through in the previous weeks, so some bits were hard to see.  None-the-less we was some new types of coral and some cracking fish.  In the clearer water there was a frenzy of fish and they actually crash into you... it was a bit random!
 
After lunch we set sail for our next port of call ..... Whitehaven beach.  There wasn't much in the way of wind, so sailing was pretty slow in some places.... In fact backwards at one stage (there is no keel on the boat, so it drifts with the tide).  
 

Cap'n Donovan

Donovan took to the helm and sailed/motored us through the Whitsunday's until the light started to fade at which point he joined me on deck for a few rum and coke's (ARR!) with some of our ship-mates.  We met some really lovely people on the ship, both crew and guests.  One lady was a priest, she offered to marry us there and then .... Don't worry Mum we didn't take her up on it!  Another woman, we found out, used to live in the Congo as a little kid and had to flee on more than one occasion.  She was very interesting!
 
We arrived at Whitehaven in pitch black, but you could see the glow of the pure white sand in the darkness.  The lights from the ship lit up the water around it and we saw a couple of baby sharks feeding off the bait fish that were attracted to the light. Very cool!
 
25th OCT 
Similar deal to yesterday... breakfast followed by rope swing ... I'm getting better.  We took the tender over to Whitehaven beach for the morning.  I don't think I have ever seen sand so white.  It's actually silica, chucked up from the earth's crust and it never gets hot, no matter how hot the sun is.  Awesome!  The only downer is having to wear these stinger suits (like really thin wetsuits) because it's so hot you can't cool down properly.

Whitehaven Beach

We played our first game of touch footy (sorry, I mean rugby... been here too long!!) on the beach.  We won 2-1 thanks to some very nifty work by Donovan, set up nicely by Pete and another guy whose name I can't remember.  I found it very hard to come to terms with a game where you have to go backwards to go forwards!  This was followed by a game of volleyball in the water to cool down.  We'd also take it in turns to launch little Sam (the only little kid on the ship) into the water.
 
Back on the ship there was enough time for another quick rope swing.  The guys were being all testosterone about who'll do a back flip.  On my go, I tried a different tack and managed to hold on all the way through the down swing.  On the up swing things were feeling good, so decided to give a back flip a whirl and only bloody nailed it.  I got a 9.5 and a huge round of applause when I climbed back on the boat.
 
We set sail for Cateran Bay off Border Island for more snorkeling in the afternoon. This was the most spectacular snorkeling spot I've ever seen and in typical fashion the camera ran out of battery!  The coral was awesome, pastel pinks, blues, purples, oranges, greens.

Cateran Bay - snorkeling

It was thick and in abundance.  Lots of soft coral and fish.  We found a cleaning station (in between two coral blocks) and as we tried to swim through this massive parrot fish came straight for us with teeth bared!!  Eek!  Needless to say we back off a bit and just watched.  A huge Cod or Grouper (not sure) came through and a MASSIVE angel fish (bigger than my head).  They almost had to drag us out!
 
In the afternoon we set sail for our next stop for the night.... Stonehaven.  As the sun started to set we were treated to really weird display by a large shoal of tuna.  They just started throwing themselves out of the water!!  Apparently it is to attract food.
 
When we moored up for the evening we had a visit from a passing Dolphin.  Lots of squid were lit up by the boat, so flipper decided to hang out a have a feast!  Later we found a couple more little Sharks having dinner.  The sea becomes very active at night!
 
26th OCT
Pretty much the same type of itinerary as the last few days.  We were taken by tender to a snorkel spot which I can't remember the name of where we promised turtles.  None of us found a turtle and to really appreciate the coral you had to dive down about 2m because of poor vis.... I think we're ready to go home now.  Being covered in sea salt, baking in the sun and only able to take a shower at night is starting to take it's toll.
 
When we arrived back at Airlie beach it was the start of the Reef Festival, so there were bands playing on the beach and a stunt airplane doing tricks just by our balcony.  That evening we all met up for few drinks.... I understand it was a messy night.