11/26/10

I woke up at 9 am and was feeling well rested for having gotten six hours of sleep. I started to sort my bags and pack up to prepare for 10 am check out. I also had to put a small bag of clothes and personal items that I was allowed to take on the sailing trip. I decided that this would be a good time to do some laundry and to catch up on my journal since I did not have to be at the boat until 1:30 pm. I also talked with the people at the hostel and found out that I could keep my valuables locked up in a small locker in the office and my big backpack in the garage locker they had in the courtyard. I was able to do my laundry, pack up, check out, check email, and update my blog before anyone else in the room I was in even got out of bed. At 12:30 pm I decided I would start making the walk to the boat and get some lunch on the way. The walk is about a 25 minute walk and I got some fish n chips to go and ate it down by one of marinas on my way. I arrived at the meeting point 10 to 15 minutes early and I could tell who was going on my boat and not the other boats since we were all given the same bags to pack up for the trip. I opted not to bring any chilled beverages for the 3 day night trip. I figured I would be fine having tap water and just relaxing. Had I know pretty much everyone else was bringing a few drinks I would have picked up four or six cans of beer. The Sailboat I was going on was called Silent Night and it was a racing boat built in 1985 but it had a different name back then. The boat held twelve passengers and and a crew of two. The crew was "Foxy" the skipper and "Tommy" the deckie and cook. My hopes for having Captain Ron for my first proper sailing trip were dashed. The group I went out with was made up of a younger couple from the U.K. Who are on a career break and took a year off to travel named Kim and Matthew, two girls from the Netherlands who were traveling together in a camper van named Nicolette and Julie, two Irish guys that are cops on a month long holiday in Oz named Al and Adrian, A guy from Denmark who was traveling for around eight months named Nick, a couple of girls from Germany who had bought a station wagon and used it as a camper and were traveling around Oz, and two other German girls traveling solo.....I do not remember the German girls name since I talked with them the least out of everyone else. We set out on time and next thing you know I was asked to help put up the sail. It was a bit overcast but we were all glad it was not raining since the weather has been very poor for the last few weeks in this area. I keep being told that the dry wet season does not arrive until January but this year has been so strange that it seems to have came early. We had to assume racing positions on the way out where we all were lined up on the high side of the boat since with the sail the low side of the boat was nearly in the water. I also found out that the low side is also referred to as the suicide side. This was fun and seeing the boat in full sailing action was a great experience. Then every once in a while the captain would make the call to change the side and we would all have to hurry to the other side. He never gave us much notice and it was always a mad dash because you did not want to be the one trying to climb up to the other side too late. It was good fun and we got out to Cook Island and we were taken ashore for a little hike and to see some Aboriginal cave drawings. Then later that night we go the the protected bay in which we would stay the night and had nacho chips with salsa and cheese. Everyone was hungry....I guess sailing builds up an appetite. Somewhere around this time I learned a new Aussie term "eskie".....this is what they call a cooler you would bring to the beach, somehow it is because Eskimos live in cold areas so shorten that up and that is what you call a cooler.....I GUESS. An hour or two later we then had dinner. After dinner it was very chill and most people were having a few drinks and some were chain smoking. I was feeling like a dork for not bringing any drinks and the Irish guys offered me a beer more then once but I knew they did not bring enough to share and I did not want to be a mooch. It was a great and peaceful night as we hung out on the deck of the boat and looked up at the stars and got to know each other some. The captain went down to his sleeping spot near the navigation desk at around 9 pm and shortly after that Tommy climbed up into the main sail to sleep. The majority of the crew including myself stayed up listening to music and chatting until midnight. Everyone for the most part turned in at that point. I decided that I would give it a try sleeping on the deck in the front and use the front sail as a bit of a cushion so I could sleep under the stars. I brought up my blanket and pillow and settled in. I got some sleep but the wind picked up and my blanket was not very big and the deck is quite a hard surface to sleep on. After about two hours I decided to retreat to my bed below and was glad I at least gave it a go.