Life's not all Plain Sailing you know

Airlie Beach was the next location, for a sail around the Whitsunday Islands. Honestly, I thought, 'can life get much better than this?' I felt like a celebrity as we boarded our luxury catamaran for the day, an exclusive sail for Alex and Ben and Naomi and I, and seventy six of our closest fellow Australian tourists.




We sat at the front and enjoyed the excitement of the waves, and watching our crew navigate the boat, 'hoisting the riggings' and whatnot. Naomi and Benny loved the 'trampoline' net at the front.




And riding the waves was wonderful fun. Benny and Naomi were standing up on the nets, loving bouncing up and down with each idlyllic wave. The crew 'mate?' was fiddling with some rope, as they do...

But then, all of a sudden, everything changes as we hit some very large and freakishly rogue waves, the seamen start running around madly, shouting to each other that a rope has broken and they will have to take the sail down, and then suddenly a wave comes over, the whole boat becomes engulfed with water and we are completely drenched from head to toe. The crew shout at us to 'get back, get back' and we scramble backwards bashing into people's legs, as the boom flies across to where we were sitting. At this point, I think, 'this is it, we are all going to d-i-e!' (obviously I couldn't say it, I had to spell it so that the kids didn't get alarmed).

We frantically make our way to the inside of the boat, keeping down low as the decks are full of water, the boat is rocking, the wind is howling and bundles of wet people are everywhere. We manage to get inside to get away from the water, where we find green people flopped around on every available surface.

After a minute or two, one of the crew comes in to see how we all are. 'Oh my word', I say, 'is this normal?' 'Oh yes', he says with a smile, 'this is normal sailing for these conditions.'

Oh my God! It is at this point I remember that the celebrities all have yachts, not sailing boats!

Landing on Whitehaven beach, I felt like Robinson Crusoe - but the other way around - finally being rescued from the boat and left on a desert island.

And it was para-para-paradise.








We all had to wear full lycra 'stinger' suits to protect us from the potentially deadly sting of the box jellyfish that are in the seas in Northern Queensland from October to May. But as Benny said, what happens if they sting me on my head, or hands, or feet? Good question Benny, I don't know, best just not worry about that.







Then back to the boat for a beautiful BBQ lunch and complimentary bar (but was still a bit worried about potential risk of drowning, so only had two).









All in all (and in hindsight;) it was a wonderful day and I heartily recommend it to everyone, for the thrills and spills, and of course, the exciting titanic-like adventure story that you will have to tell your friends back home, just don't forget to bring your sea legs with you!!!

Love
Est xxx