Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Our maiden voyage

Friday 1st October 2010

All aboard. We all gathered on Sirocco on Friday 1st October after dinner in Sorrento, at a little restaurant called The Beach Shack.

Saturday 2nd October 2010

Woke up to a howling wind, SW 20/25 knots with a confused sea. John and I went for a stroll out to the lighthouse to get a better look at the sea. We witnessed a few small power boats attempting to get out to sea but to no avail. After seeing them bobbing up and down in the ocean and then turning around to come back to harbour we realised that it was not worth going out. Rain was also forecast :(

The kids were mortified and told us to stop being "old wossies" and "lets get this adventure going". We decide to wait until lunch time.

12.00 pm - The wind dropped to 16 knots. The kids were champing at the bit!! We decide to throw caution to the wind and set sail. Off we went, through the channel markers and 10 minutes out to sea us poor ladies started turning green!! Then it started...."Mum, lets go back, tell Dad, we are still close enough". John told us that we were committed and there is no turning back. The sail out was pretty rough. I told the girls that there is life after sea sickness, but I got no response! Johnny very kindly defined sea sickness for us......when you are afraid that you are going to die and then you are afraid that you are not going to die!!

4.00 pm - we arrived at Rottnest Island. Once the anchor was down we all felt a little better. The dolphins came to greet us. John got the tender ready and the kids were off. We made tea and biscuits and got ready for our trip to the Island for dinner. The first thing Ellen and I did was to hound down the pharmacist for some sea sick tabs (we dragged the poor man out of bed!!). He was very helpful and we are forever in his debt. Dinner was lovely. The moon was out and John and I decided to walk along the beach to the yacht. Bradley and Rigby very kindly came and picked us up in the tender once we reached our bay.

Sunday morning - view from our cabin:-










Sunday morning was perfect. The weather was warm and still. The kids spent the morning fishing and doing burnouts in the tender! Johnny and I cooked up a yummy breakfast and it was well received by all. Our trip back home was wonderful. We encountered a baby hammerhead shark and loads of stingers. As we approached HYC we were greeted by all the boats coming of out of the yacht club for the Commodore's sail past. It therefore took awhile to get back into our mooring. A lovely first voyage and looking forward to the next one.