Whitehaven Beach

Ahoy shipmates,  An easy one for me tonight…the mighty White Watch have covered the day below, so there is not much to add other than to say that all are hale and hearty and we are enroute to Magnetic Island…the adventure continues! Over to White Watch…Fair winds,Captain Kenny Ahoy there land lovers. Day 3 of the voyage and what a start it has been. This morning White Watch started its first watch at 0001hrs to 0400hrs; during this time we practised our skills in furling and setting sails, this included the Jib, fore stay sail and main sail. We had to perform these tasks due to lack of wind conditions which caused us to furl the sails and run on the starboard engine in order to make our way around islands in the Whitsundays area and into better wind.Wakey wakey was called at 0700hrs, where all hands were called to breakfast. Following this at 0900hrs we all reported to morning brief to receive our tasks for the day to come. Upon concluding our morning brief all crew proceeded to their designated areas for happy hour; including cleaning and ship maintenance. After our happy hour we continued to motor towards Whitehaven Beach. Arriving at our destination we anchored and began our first lesson of the day: ‘rules of the road’ (basics rules for operating vessels at sea). After completing our lesson all hands proceeded below for lunch in the café.After lunch all crew then had the opportunity to clean, study, do some laundry and get to know some of the other watch members better. At 1300hrs rope races were conducted on the upper deck in order to test our knowledge and understanding safety equipment on this vessel of the last 3 days.  Following this we received a briefing from the safety master regarding operating procedures on the rhib (sea boat) – which meant we were to head ashore!It was a pleasure for all of us to jump into the rhib with our cameras and swimmers adorned to enjoy Whitehaven Beach on a perfect North Queensland day. We all took this opportunity to relax, swim, play some games (dodge ball – which became extremely competitive between watches) and get to know each other more for our evening activity ‘three ways’. For many of us this beach had the whitest sand and the clearest water that we had ever seen and the afternoon was a joy for all. Then, at 1600 we said goodbye to dry land once again, and piled back into the rhib to make our way back aboard. Dinner was an absolute treat, as always, with a barbeque held up on deck with a sunset that would be hard to beat. We then all got comfortable on the deck to being our ‘three ways’ activity, where as group of three we learned about our crew mates lives and donned their identity to speak on their behalf. It was great fun, and many laughs were had learning about our fantastic and crazy crew mates. With our evening activity wrapping up we set into our overnight watches, weigh anchor, and set sail for the next north bound leg of our tropical journey. White Watch – Ben, Jonah, Stuart, Tom, Courtney, and Louise