Oo-Ray and Up She Rises, Er-ly in the Morning. And Other Shanties

She (yeah, I’m giving third person a run) did rise er-ly amidst much excitement, for this was to be the highlight of our trip!

Two days and one night aboard a “65′ luxury world cruising yacht set up for comfortable diving, sailing and entertaining”

“All cabins are double or twin bunk for privacy, along with fresh linen and hot showers.”

“All meals are prepared on board and will complement the fantastic time you are having. The menu varies each day with an accent on fresh quality local produce and ingredients in a fusion of Asian and European cuisines. The entrees served as we enjoy the ‘happy hour’ at sunset provide a sublime experience.”

Those are the quotes that swam in my head, telling me to ignore the price.

This was going to be an unforgetable indulgence.

In-Dul-Gence.

We were going to surprise the kids with the news they were staying overnight when we boarded the yacht, but were too excited and told them a couple of days before – then even used it as a friendly reminder when their voices whinged about… whatever. We’d just say “boat” with that stern and knowing nod, that said “We are paying heaps of money to give you the experience of a lifetime snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef in luxury. Behave yourselves”

Expectation vs reality.

That old conflict of the psyche.

Like I said, we rose early from our crap cheap Cairns *hotel, to be at the marina at 7am.

and it was lovely down there.

The boat wasn’t quite as luxurious as I had envisaged but it had appeal. We got settled with our rooms – our double was right next to the kids’ bunk room and we had a toilet kind of to ourselves – and headed up on deck to acquaint ourselves with the crew and other passengers.

The Vagabond only takes a maximum of eleven people. We were five already, so it was nice to get to know only a few people, and we were blessed with a lovely bunch.

On deck, we were given the safety run-down and told about the toilets and ‘showers’. You know how that quote at the beginning said “hot showers”? Well the hot shower is a hose tap (not even a shower nozzle) in the toilet cubicle, and we were told we had a one minute limit on our use of it.

The only use I made of the ‘shower’ was hosing out Evan’s vomit off the walls and my feet in the middle of the night!

I wish there had been a more accurate description such as “Rinse off under hot water”. “Hot shower” is very misleading.

 

Tom, one of the crew, wanted to teach us about the reef, the coral, and the sealife, so we all sat up the front of the boat to listen, but what started as a breeze in the harbour turned into big gusts of wind and waves splashing over the bow. One by one we retreated to the back. Tom (an easygoing, affable guy) gallantly went on with his talk but in the end, it was too bouncy and one of my kids had started to vomit over the side.

The weather can’t be helped, of course.

It was very choppy (and perhaps I should add here that FNQ in August is not hot. In fact, it was breezy most days we were there and barely made it to 26 celcius. Not cold, but for me, not sunlazing weather) and we were rugging up when Paul, our captain, gave us our options…

We could keep heading for the reef, but the waves would only get worse for the next two or three hours, and still be choppy out there, or we could head to an island and moor in it’s protected bay to explore the fringing reef.

I wanted to go with what Paul recommended. I trusted his judgement on this front, and he said the island was the best option.

I’m glad we trusted his call. Another boat that continued to the reef that day, told us the next morning they had spent the bumpy night with all fifteen passengers vomiting, all night long!

But that was about the best of our captain. He was a gruff bloke, who really didn’t seem to love people, which is a shame in the tourism industry. Lucky his two crew were so lovely.

 

Anyway. We moored off Fitzroy Island and ate a lunch of burgers, and were then ferried in groups to sit on/snorkel off the island resort. The kids enjoyed the trampoline in the water and there were some nice things to see under the water, but with the wind, it was bloody cold, and to be honest,

I was trying not to cry.

We’d spent a lot of money on this overnight trip, and it just wasn’t delivering. As I sat on the beach all I could think of was that we were wasting time that could be spent experiencing more of the area. I couldn’t even take photos because our runabout had broken while down shipping my boatload to the island, so I couldn’t get my camera.

I so badly wanted to jump on one of the mega-ferries and head back to the mainland.

I knew my seasick kids were dreading their night on the boat, and frankly, so was I.

But in the spirit of following through with something, I got back on board.

 

and the sunset light was so pretty

So, the quote earlier… “The entrees served as we enjoy the ‘happy hour’ at sunset provide a sublime experience” was a little inaccurate.

We had supermarket dips and carrots.

And you pay for your drinks. And the wine was awful.

Not a problem, 

Yet, not sublime, not an entree, and not “luxury” either.

 

Still, if the weather was a little more warm and a little more still…

Dinner was beef stronganoff, I think, with some pasta and packet salads. Not exactly the “menu varies each day with an accent on fresh quality local produce and ingredients in a fusion of Asian and European cuisines” I had in mind from reading that quote on their website. I was thinking seafood? Maybe?

 

Anyway, the view was special.

As darkness fell, I looked out into the water, and saw lights. Blinking on and off, floating on the surface near the rocks of the shore. No-one could tell me what they were, but we think they were squid. It was truly magical!

And even though I was woken in the middle of the night to be vomited on,

and I absolutely froze all night because “fresh linen” is a bottom sheet and a thin honeycombed hospital blanket, and that’s all,

so I didn’t really sleep,

well,

we survived the night.

The morning (although early due to a request from a particularly annoying passenger to photograph the sunrise over open water, so the engines started up at 6am) looked rosier. 

Belle was over her biliousness

the wind had dropped, and the sun was shining.

We followed a whale that had been spotted on the horizon for a while, and saw some huge, and oh so cute, sea turtles (my highlight), then moored near a more secluded cove of the island.

We had breakfast – Bel, the other crew member, did a great job of meal preparation with the facilities she had…

and none of the meals were a problem. They were just not what the website had lead us to believe.

Then all jumped in the water.

Evan first.

Brave boy in his pink flippers out there by himself!

I did the Speedy Gonzales terror swim across the deep water with poor India being dragged along with me as my defense against I don’t know what but it possibly has to do with exoskeletons.

But when I got to the coral,

Wow. It was pretty.

Vibrant blues and purples – this photo doesn’t do them justice.

And those fish! So many varieties!

My favourite was this little creature the girls found. Floating and flowery until you got near and it would suck back into the coral. So cute!

I’m glad I braved the cold, and the deep even for the short time I was in.

This is me high-tailing it back to the boat after trying to calm my breathing, again dragging India, my bodyguard…

Rugged up back on board

I can’t say any of us were too sad about heading back to the mainland.

Bushfire season…

I don’t like to speak badly of people or experiences, and the weather is beyond anyone’s control.

I would like to say that the best was made of the poor situation, but I feel we were mislead about the boat, and the inclusions such as food and comfortable bedding, and our captain… I guess he tried. He smiled sometimes, but I didn’t feel it. I felt he was grumpy for the most part, and that’s not what you want in an experience that is intimate (size-wise), pricey, and for most, a one-off.

The feeling I took with me at the end of my adventure was buyer’s remorse.

I would dearly love to snorkel on the Barrier Reef one day, and crazily, a part of me wants to give the sailing adventure another chance.

I’ve read the reviews of the Vagabond and people seem thrilled. Should I have given them another chance?

See, this is the problem with me. I was trying not to cry on that trip, but I still see the good and wonder…..      

I’d just want to check all the details to make sure I wasn’t disappointed.

 

*The All Seasons. Don’t be fooled by the cheap family room at this resort in the Cairns boondocks. It’s cheap for a reason. They couldn’t find evidence of our paid booking when we arrived , and were not pleasant about it either. Our room was ground floor on the outdoor passageway nestled between a flight of noisy cement stairs at the front and under the noisy air-condtioning units in the rear of the nicer rooms behind us. If you had booked the room for your family holiday I think you would want to slit your wrists. Thankfully we were only there for about 10 hours.