Monday 5 August 2013, Hamilton Island, Whitsunday Group, Qld  20:20.8S  148:57.0E  

Today's Blog by Alison (Time zone BST +9.00; UTC +10.00)

Onslaught from the Verkroost family J

Arrived safely on Thursday 25^th, after the long trip from the UK.  Ferry trip added to the 3 flights at the last minute as weather prevented David and Simone sailing to Hamilton Island to retrieve us.  ‘No worries’ as they say here; once you have crossed the travelling pain barrier, like the marathon, you just carry on going. 

Spent the next couple of days sailing around Hook island, overnight in Butterfly Bay. Most buoys round there are like timed parking spaces; stay is limited to 2 hours, but if you arrive after 3 you can stay overnight. Hence a bit of careful planning required and possible competition with other boats attempting the same thing. Everyone monitors everyone else very carefully!

Sunday, fantastic snorkelling in Blue Pearl Bay, loads of fish and coral. David saw a turtle (he has the photographic evidence), Jenna was a bit alarmed to find herself surrounded by giant batfish as she swam back to the boat.

Tuesday we sadly said goodbye to Simone. While David went with her to the ferry terminal (more of this adventure in a previous blog), we took a kayaking tour out of Shute harbour. Next time I will know to share with one of the girls - they pointed out to me a couple of times that Peter (sitting behind me) was not paddling at all, whilst I was slaving away in front.

Wednesday, the Verkroost clan  went scuba diving on the dive boat ‘Mantaray’,  to Luncheon Bay on Hook Island. We encountered the usual Australian ‘no worries mate’ when we said the girls had only done 6 dives and that was 4 years ago. In spite of this, all went smoothly and it was good to be scuba-ing again. Also fabulous trip to White Haven beach.

Paddling amongst the sting rays (and the odd baby shark) was a new experience. Apparently Steve Irwin (famous naturalist) died from a sting ray sting (not the venom, it punctured some vital organ - still not much consolation) but we assumed his was a) bigger, b) he was swimming with it rather than paddling in the shallows,  and c) he was provoking it. Whatever, the ones we encountered seemed very benign and more inclined to swim away from us than towards .

Finally Friday back at Hamilton Island, this time without steep seas and strong winds. We spent some time on the crossing with a mother and baby whale. Hump-backed whales often calve in this area, but we were sure we had found a different species as the mother leapt out of the water at one point, displaying a white underside. In fact hump-backed can be black, white, or a mixture underneath. Lovely to see them, especially the baby who seemed to be having a great time!

Thursday saw us arrive at Hamilton Island marina (pic above). This is truly the island that has everything (as long as you have an endless supply of money). The  sulphur-crested cockatoos live on the island, and spend their time harassing tourists sitting in the sea-front cafes to feed them, often positioning themselves strategically in front of the ‘do not feed the birds’ sign.

Hopefully David (‘I’m not a tour guide’) is surviving the onslaught of Verkroosts, complete with teenagers. We certainly are, he is a brilliant skipper. We will see what he thinks in his next blog .....