Well I am back from our epic Graduation Boat Cruise through the Whitsundays. It was an amazing week and I will definitely be doing it again - if any of you are looking for holiday ideas, DO IT! There's nothing like being able to throw around the terms "reefing the main", "easing the sheet" and "unfurling the jib" to make you feel like a sailor!

After a a day or two of rainy weather, the sun came out and we did some amazing sailing. We also had a few huge nights out in Airlie, which goes off. Anyway, some photos:


Our yacht ^


Sunset over Cid Harbour ^


Sailing the high seas ^


Me and my mate "easing the sheet" ^

A girl? On QGL?

Looks like a lot of fun! f*** i wish i owned a boat of some kind.

nice... looks like a good time to be had :D what would be the average price per person for a week? do they do any fishing?

I feel sea sick just looking at those photos, especially the last one.

prices from an old (~1 yr) brochure I have

All up (yacht hire, marina fees etc, flights to Prosperine, accommodation in Airlie and food and drinks for 8 days) I reckon it cost me about $1200 - $1300.

http://images.projectstripe.com/images/vorador/phil.jpg
^ S1's yacht

looks like fun, sailing though :s a fishing boat would have been better, guess it's preference

looks pretty rad. did any of you know how to sail before the trip or was it drunken improvisation?

yes this is one thing I want to take the family on...I have had friends do this and they raved about how much fun it was. Looks like you girls had a pretty choppy day in that last pic, caps on the waves ect..

Why the hell are you wearing a cowboy hat, is what I want to know

did any of you know how to sail before the trip or was it drunken improvisation?

One of the girls was an experienced sailor so she pretty much ran the show. 2 of the rest of us had been sailing before, the other 7 had no experience. There is no way I would get on a 50 foot yacht without someone with decent sailing experience. In fact, they wouldn't rent you the yacht if that was the case.

It did get pretty choppy on the last day - we got caught in a "bullet" (sailor talk for massive gusty wind) and our boat tipped so our mast was virtually parallel with the water. Pretty scary!

And clearly I am wearing a cowboy hat cos I am a sea cowboy. Duh.

ooo sailor talk :o

the missus is going to teach me how to windsurf this summer. thats going to be scary :(

Tung you should know that black people aren't meant to go in the water.

"reefing the main", "easing the sheet" and "unfurling the jib"

I just call it jerking off

Nice one. A bunch my friends and I did this years ago. Its something you wont forget. Many good memories.

I just call it jerking off

lol

That would be fun, I guess you sleep on the boat which could kinda suck.

I went on the young endeavour, or similar in grade 10.

Lots more fun :D

looks awsome the water is so blue was it good weather for you?


oh yeah and
insert seamen joke

^ Maybe for you. Not for everyone.

I myself, like a boat that can go tow a Skiier.
We took our Boat up there once, could do all the little islands but couldn't go out far or in the Rough :o

Awsome Scuba-Diving locations up there too.

how many 'stowaways' did you have?

FYI for anyone looking at Chartering a Yacht there are a lot of legalities involved and a Charter Agreement is about 4 pages of very very fine print.

You do have to have some sailing experience before you do it but a Competent Crew Course will let you get away with it. Want to make 2 holidays out of it go to the whitsundays and do a learn to sail course. usually 4 or 5 nights and you get away from your holiday with a Competent Crew certificate and you can see if you like it or not.

Nubbin good to see you enjoyed it.. Which company did you use in the Whitsundays. Was it Whitsunday Rent a Yacht?

That looks like too much fun.

Also tell your friends thundercracker says hi

Yeah we went through Whitsunday Rent a Yacht. Awesome company - would strongly recommend them. If you don't have sailing experience, they offer you a chartered boat or a more intensive preparation course.

The first 2 days we had some rains and fairly unfavourable winds, but the weather really picked up after that and conditions were great.

Our boat slept 12 people - we had 10 on it. 4 bedrooms, so 2 people per double bed plus the crew quarters. We also had 5 bathrooms - pretty special.

looks freaking awesome, I would love to do something like that one day.

I've been on the Fairstar and Pacific Sky (massive cruise ships) and loved them too, would be awesome to actually take control and sail the freaking thing :D

I highly recomend the cruises with P & O - we stayed in a 4 berth cabin (4 mates) and on the 'top' deck (one under the suites) and it only cost ~$1400 per person for 10 nights, that's accom and all the food you can eat, obviously grog is on top - and date rape pills etc etc

such a bad joke :p