Ahoy me heartys - I'm back from my sailing adventure and had an absolutley brilliant time.

I set of on Sunday morning for the Ron of Argyll which was to be my home for the next 3 days. The Ron is a tall ship and I chose it because it looked like a slower paced boat. The Ron is a 50ft traditional sailing boat and was built in Scotland in 1928. Apparently it was used by King George V.

The boat holds 12 passengers and 2 crew so I thought it was going to be huge. When I saw it I wondered how the hell we were all going to fit in it. It was certainly going to be a cozy trip getting to know my new shipmates!

I really struck lucky with the other passengers and couldn't have wished for nicer people. Let me tell you about them:

Colleen and Brian - Irish
Helen and Adam - English
Marleen and Sebastian - Dutch
Sarah G and Sarah V - German
Patrick - French
Maria and Bruce - Australian (This couple are total legends....more on them later!)

Skipper - Ben
Chef - Greg
Volunteer - Jaana

We got allocated our beds, I'm in the dining room/ kitchen area on the bench where everyone eats. Great - that means I have to wait for everyone to go to bed in the evening and I also have to be up earlier because the crew start preparing brekkie. Patrick is on the other side - let's hope he doesn't snore!

We set off all very excited and started to get to know each other. We are all similar ages except for Bruce and Maria. They are in their late 40's and I've never met a couple like it. Maria talks like Dame Edna Everage but about 10 times higher pitched and slower (seriously, I have to do the impression for you when I get home!) Bruce is a little man who as the day progressed I noticed had a funny little twitch! This was going to be an interesting trip!

The weather wasn't great so the boat was rocking a bit. Luckily I found my sea legs and didn't feel sick. Lunch was served - Pasta and salad. After lunch we went for a walk around South Molle Island. It took about 1 hour to get upto the look out. The views were stunning.

Back on the boat for afternoon tea and biscuits - wow, I can see I'm going to be fed well for the next few days!

We made our way to a bay to moor up for the night. Apparently the winds were calmer here and we wouldn't rock so much. Had dinner and we all indulged in a few beers. Have since learnt that drinking on a boat does not work. You feel drunk anyway from the boat rocking and adding beer to that makes it 10 times worse.
The group was bonding quickly and seeing as we had a mix of nationalities it made for great conversations and jokes i.e Patrick: "Would anyone like to try my nuts" Of course he was holding a bag of walnuts and couldn't understand what was so funny about it!

My first bed time on the boat was an experience. I had room spin from the beer and the boat was seriously swaying. I had to stick one foot on the floor to tell my head I wasn't flying through the air! It worked and I drifted off to sleep.

After breakfast on Monday, we set off to sail to Whitsunday Island where the famous Whitehaven beach is. It had been raining all day so we were a little bit disappointed. We were given the option to wear rain coats and trousers which we all did. We all looked like we were going to do some radioactive work! The silica beach still looked amazing in the rain and the water was lovely a warm. I had a paddle but Marleen and Sebastian went in for a full swim - crazy!

Got back onto the boat and headed for the snorkelling point. Great- this is where I try and squeeze into my wetsuit! Was surprised that it went on ok. Still managed to look like Shamu though!

I can't recall ever doing snorkelling so was really looking forward to it. It took me a while to get used to the breathing but I was well away. Looking at the fish was amazing - the colours are so vibrant. I even saw a nemo - deffo a highlight.

Back on the boat for a 1 min shower! Apparently that's a luxury! The shower is a hose attached to the taps in the toilet - yeah, really luxurious!

Steak for dinner tonight - delicious. It was Jaana's birthday today so we all had champagne to celebrate. Jaana was on the boat to help out the crew with cooking, cleaning etc... Not tonight though because she was drunk!! Quite funny that us youngsters were sober and there's Jaana on her 48th birthday trying to pole dance on the boat!! It was a fun evening.

Tuesday was finally here - was quite looking forward to getting off and into a real bed. I slept well on the boat but it's like being on a giant water bed!

Jaana held a yoga class this morning on the beach.  It certainly woke me up.  We probably looked like a bunch of nutters in our bright yellow rain gear!

More snorkelling today aswell. The wetsuit was still wet from yesterday so a bit more of a mission to get on!

Being back out in the water was great. There were more fish than yesterday. Hundreds of them swimming along with you. I got into the habit of trying to talk to them under the water. I didn't realise that through my mouthpiece everyone else out of the water could hear me saying "hi little fishy, you're so cute" How embarrassing!

Saw a huge fish known to everyone as Priscilla. She was massive and scared me a little bit. I always like to think that I'm into nature and animals but I think I would poop myself if I saw anything bigger than a fish - even Dolphins and turtles would scare me! I'm such a wuss!

Finally got back onto dry land around 4ish and all arranged to meet in town for dinner and drinks around 7.30. Checked back into the Bush Village hostel. Got a top bunk - damn it!

Had a few beers with everyone and then a few started drifting off. Maria wanted to get to bed so she said her goodbyes. She liked the music I played on my ipod so I gave her a few names of bands - The Kooks, Keane etc... She also asked Brian for some traditional irish bands - guess what he said to her...... Daniel O'Donnell!!!
Bruce stayed out and we tried our best to get him drunk.

Got home around 2am with some pizza!

Have decided to stay in Airlie beach for an extra day to catch up on sleep, emails, my blog etc....
Will be leaving tomorrow for Townsville. Will my meeting my friend Kath who worked at Merrill Lynch. Looking forward to catching up.

Having trouble downloading pics for the last few weeks. Will try to get them on asap.