Crank it up!
by Jyrki
One of the best things about sailing is the interactive experience! On board our vessel there was a 4 man rew but they can't do all the work so volunteers are needed to help hoist the sails. The main sail is raised manually and then it is winched in and crank up the remainder of the way by 4-6 people. Also when the boat is Jibing or Tacking crankers are needed to switch the sails position. It's pretty fun spinning your arms like a madman wih your partner and you get to feel like your in the middle of an America's Cup race! It's not easy though. I was left out of breath a few times!
Wedding ceremony.
by Steve-H
During the simple ceremony Amanda read a poem for us, LOVE`S PHILOSOPHY by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the sea,
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion.
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In on another`s being mingle
Why not i with thine?
See the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another,
No sister flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother,
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea
And what are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me?
Whitsunday Islands Tip
by alisonr
This is the most interesting thing that struck me about this part of the world - the difference in height between the high and log tides! It is unreal!
When the tide went out, you could walk out for hundreds of meters and find lots of little sea creatures in the water pools!
You can see from the photos the difference!
Great Barrier Reef Information
by Jmill42
One of Australia's greatest atractions is the Great Barrier Reef that hugs the coastline of Queensland almost in its entirity. It is by far the biggest coral reef system in the world, is considered one of the world's natural wonders, and is the biggest structure made by living organisms on earth. The reef is one continuous piece further north and is located very near the shore. In the south, the reef is mainly in little pieces and lies much further off shore.
The entire system contains more than 3000 inidividual reefs which range in size from about 1acre to over 10,000 acres in area. All told the total area of the reef is an amazing 300,000 square kilometres.
Random facts from the net:
1500 species of fish
400 different types of coral
4,00 molluscs
500 species of seaweed
215 species of birds
16 species of sea snake
6 species of sea turtle
are contained in the reef's system.
Have a group pull!
by Jyrki
he lead sail is the harder of the two sails to hoist and thus requires 3 people to hoist up the mast. This may sounds like it makes it easy but if you don't cordinate your efforts you end up working against yourselves and having the skipper yell obscenities at you until you do it. Again the harder you make it for yourselves the faster it gets diificult and the faster you get tired! I had a couple goes at this one. The first was not so succesful as our techniue was terrible and we couldn't seem to coordinate our efforts into the '7' pattern. The second go it was myself and two hulking Irishmen, which made my task alot easier plus we were all veterans by this point and hoisted that bad boy up in record time!
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Rainbow Lorikeet
Sailing on Maxi Ragamuffin
Corals - Knuckle Reef
Knuckle Reef
