We were greeted at Abel Marina by Dave, the longhaired
surfer dude skipper of Blizzard, who
welcomed us aboard the very luxurious and only one year old sailing boat. We
were not really sure what sort of boat we had booked, we couldn’t remember if
we had booked a speedboat style vessel, a catamaran or a mast and sails style
sail boat. Turned out it was the latter, and what a lovely boat it was. There
was only room for 10 passengers, spread across five cabins, which is why we
booked the Blizzard, because we
really didn’t want to end up on a 50 person party boat and spend $400 per
person for the pleasure. After meeting the deckhand Lauren, who would be doing
all our cooking for the next few days, we set sail and headed out of the marina
and out onto the open ocean (well, sea but open ocean sounds better). 
After 30 minutes or so of gentle sailing, driven by the
boats engine, it was time to open up the sails and start some real sailing.
Dave explained to us that he would outline what side of the boat we needed to
sit on, as one side was going to be called the highside, and the other the
suicide (get it?) depending on which way the wind was blowing. Nicola and I, as
well as our fellow passengers, thought it may be a relaxed sail but after 40
minutes or so the wind really picked up and the boat was leaning heavily on one
side to pick up speed from the wind and it became a very exciting
mini-adventure. We were dangling our feet over the edge of the boat as it was
leaning backwards at a 45 degree angle at a pretty quick pace. The crystal
clear waves were splashing up the side of the boat and we could taste salt in
our mouths as we sped along to our destination for the evening, Tongue Bay;
very exhilarating stuff.
On Dave’s signal we had to climb into the middle of the
deck, “Attack Position”, as he was going to attack the wind and turn the mast
to face the other direction so as to continue catching the best and strongest
wind. “Attack Position” was shouted and we tried to climb onto the middle of
the deck underneath the mast, however, due to the acute angle of the boat it
proved quite difficult for 10 people to do at once. Also, once we were in the
attack position, we found ourselves hanging on to the boat’s rails as we were
staring directly into the waves beneath us. The angle of the boat was so acute
at this point that it took 10 – 15 seconds before the mast came around and the
boat started to level out, allowing us to move onto the other side of the boat.
The second time Dave gave the attack position shout, the mast came around a
little too quick and the boat was hitting too acute an angle before everyone
was on the other side, so we had to pull a Polish lady up with us as the middle
of the boat was starting to lean precariously into a 45 degree angle. It felt
like we were in a racing boat, it was great fun. Neither Nicola nor I had ever
been in such a boat before and it was quite a rush.  |
| Our cosy en-suite cabin |
As the wind died down so did the sun, and we were positioned
in a perfect spot, with a glass of wine in hand, to catch the sun setting
behind us as we slowly bobbed towards Tongue Bay to have our evening meal and
rest up for the night. Nicola and I spent some time talking to three people
from the UK, a couple (Dan and Eve) who were spending two months travelling
Australia following working two years in Sydney, and Eve’s brother Max who was
spending a month travelling with them on holiday from his job in London. We had
a lovely evening chatting, joking and sharing our tales from the dairy, and
their tales from Sydney-living before Nicola and I retired to our cabin (how
posh does that sound?) to sleep.
 |
| The kind of boat we didn't want to go on... |
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