I and 18 other wannabie sailers arrived at the Shute Harbour quayside bright and early to catch first site of 'Hammer' our home for the next three days. We were met by our four strong crew; Scotty our skipper (complete with pirate style eye-patch), Turtle and - damn, I've forgotten his name - and Cam our chef extrordinaire. 'No bananas', were allowed on board, we were told. Luckily none of us were carrying the devils own fruit and so we wwere allowed to board, luggage intact (apart from my bottle of vodka which misteriously vanished, never to return...).

Hammer is a 75ft Maxi yacht. She was designed by Kell Steinman and built in 1987. Competing in many blue water events throughout her career, Hammer was best known for her five consecutive placings in the Sydney to Hobart races and being the first across the line in the 50th anniversary race. She even won her final two retirement races on the way up to Airlie, a feat unheard of, normally a boat will be retired when it stops winning races, not while it still can! More technicl stuff that I copied down, but haven't a clue what it means:

There wasn't a lot of sailing today. Well there wasn't a great deal of wind, so it wasn't really a great suprise that we motored out of the harbour. Our first stop was Blue Pearl Bay, Hayman Island for a spot of diving of snorkelling. I wasn't really up for more diving having just come off the three day liveaboard in Cairns. As it happened I still wasn't able to equalise my ears ( when I duck-dived ) so it was a good thing anyway. There was quite a lot of stuff to see, y'know, coral and stuff. I bought myself a pictorial guide to the animals living on the Great Barrier Reef and so I can categorically say that I saw; parrot fish, damsel fish (black and white stipes, like a zebra), wrass (big bl**dy fish - also known as 'Elvis' fish by David, and anyone else, who knows, maybe?!), trumpet fish (long and skinny and look nothing like a trumpet, even if you screw your eyes up and skwint at them a lot).

After Blue Pearl Bay, we sailed (ARSE) over to Cid Harbour between Cid and Whitsunday Island for the evening and night. Cid Harbour was used as the ancorage point for part of the US navy prior to the Battle of the Coral Sea, the turning point in the Pacific theatre of WWII (according to the Lonely Planet guide book!). Whitsunday is the biggest of the group of islands that make up the Whitsundays and is famous fro Whitehaven beach where we'll go tomorrow..

To tomorrow