Blog Day 153 Thurs 6th October 2011

So today we are going to go out sailing the Whitsundays. In the morning we head to the True Blue office to fill in some safety forms & find out what the deal is. One of the evening meals on the boat is bbq fish, Dan isn't a fish person and asks what the alternative is. The guy immediately says it will probably something like cauliflower to which of course Dan says he will stick with the fish. Turns out the guy was pulling his leg, it was actually sausages! Bless him for trying to be funny! We are also told that we can get out for a complimentary dive which Dan is really excited about, Trish on the other hand still isn't to fussed on slipping into a wetsuit and flippers. Once all forms are filled in we head of to buy a crate of beers, tin only no glass bottles allowed which proves to be a mission in itself. Alcohol isn't particularly cheap!

Once back at the camper we pack a bag of clothes & toiletries, & a bag with the tins of beer. Poached eggs on muffins are for breakfast, a quick shower & then off we go to the Shute Harbour. It's about 15mins walk away passing Abel Point Marina on the way. There are some amazing looking sailing boats on this marina & the water is a gorgeous turquoise colour. We have heard lots of good things about the Clipper, but we are a little apprehensive about the whole party boat thing as we are much more into having a few social ones and a giggle.

After filling in a few more forms it's onto the boat & out to sea we go!

The Whitsunday Islands National Park is made up 74 islands of crystal clear warm seas, white sand beaches, rainforest covered slopes & abundant wildlife. It provides the opportunity for swimming, snorkelling & diving among the colourful coral & fish of the Great Barrier Reef. (Trish copying a Whitsundays leaflets!)

Shortly after boarding the boat it's time for the safety briefing, having had possibly one of the funniest briefings when we did the Barrier Reef trip it's interesting to see how this will go down. It was quite funny but the dry Australian humour was missing (due to the fact it was an English fella doing the briefing). Evening entertainment we get told is a talent show. We are to split into groups of 7 & figure out a talent that we can all get involved in. Our group consists of 5 Irish lasses and 1 Irish lad as well as the 2 of us. We discover that one of the girls in our group can sing but she loses face & shies away from the idea. We whittle the options down to Irish dancing or magic. Maybe after a few beers we can pull something off. All the other groups seem to really be taking this seriously holding meetings and practicing around the boat. Our group on the other hand decide that Dan will do a trick and start drinking! Typical Irish!!

A yummy dinner of bbq fish (sausages for Dan), mash, salad & bread follows, & then it's time to get to know some of our fellow sailors. We get talking to a couple of Irish guys Sean (in our group) & Liam, their accent is very thick & the music is stupidly loud so it's hard to understand them at times, but they are both great guys. The other Irish girls in our group Laura, Eimer, Catherine, Maria and Clodagh are all great fun and really chatty.

After dinner we play a few warm up games to get us in the mood for the talent show. The first game sees our group + a couple of strays that have decided to join us, all line up with the front person holding an orange. The orange has to be passed down the line using only mouths and knees, in that order. Once back at the start the front person has to eat the orange as fast as they can, skin and everything.

The next games see one guy and one girl from each team up the front. The guy, in our case Sean, stands with a snorkel between his legs whilst the girl (can't quite remember who had this lucky job from our team) gets on her knees in front of him with the snorkel in her mouth. At the other end of the snorkel is a balloon. Basically the first team/girl to blow up the balloon until it bursts wins! We didn't win!

We are both out in front for the next game as again one guy and girl from each team are required. The guy's job in this game is to bend over and hold onto one of the boats railings. The girl has to move to the guy on her left and is handed a flipper. The aim of this game is for the girls to spank the s*** out of the guys until they give in. Last guy standing wins! Trish's guy doesn't last long and is the first to drop out. Dan is still standing as his girl was a bit of a soft touch. After a minute or so the girls are swapped and it seems quite apparent that Dan's new chick has a serious spanking fetish! She spanks him till tears form in the corners of his eyes, but he manages to take himself off to his 'happy place' and is pronounced the winner!

As Dan tends to his slightly black and blue bum, Sean is up again to take the roll of 'guy' in the next game. This game sees the guys and girls acting out random sex positions (fully clothed!). Dan can't help but feel as though he drew the short straw in terms of game participation. The end of this game sees Sean with a huge grin on his face, our team with a good few points, Dan still with a sore bum, and everybody clearing the stage for the talent competition.

Our team is the second to take the stage. Dan performs a card trick on the judges and the rest of the team stands behind him waving their arms in a magical manner. Good job he's not too shy! It goes down well but there were just far too many of us. The other talents included dancing on the spot, a micky take of the safety briefing, a demonstration of human strength which ended up with 2 volunteers having their faces sat on, and a relay race that saw contestants clenching 50 cents between their butt cheeks and having to eventually drop the coin into a waiting cup.

Needless to say we dint win the talent show but we did come up in 1st place for team name, credit to the Irish girls for this one, 'The Flaming Horse Dentists'. We never did find out the reasoning behind this! After a few more beers we soon make our excuses & disappear of to bed. All the rooms are made up of 3 beds & we happen to be sharing a room with a big 7 foot tall Swedish guy. His first words were 'I've never shared a room with another girl before', and then he called Trish a 'Sexual Predator' & warned her not to attack him during the night. To which the reply was 'As long as you don't snore', for the size of this guy it was inevitable that this would be a possibility. We were soon off to sleep despite the noise of fellow party goers (including our roommate). He stumbled his way into the room at some point in the early hours waking Trish up. Needing a loo visit she got up only to hear 2 naughty people getting jiggy in the toilet. Not quite sure how this was possible though seeing as there was barely enough room in those toilets for one person! A walk around the boat to find another toilet & then back to the room she went, only to find our lovely roomy snoring soundly away. A sharp slam of the door soon sorted this out & it was back to sleep for us all. Goodnight!