Catalina Wine Mixer!

Argh matey!!!! So, we decided that in the 3.5 months that we are gone, we are going master everything we do in order to get a certificate!!! You will be in shock and awe with the stacks of ‘frameable’ certificates we will come back with. We have recently added one more to our previously acquired surfing,, scuba diving, and skydiving endorsements….piracy!!!! Argh!!! Oh yeah and not forgot that we were able to be the ‘deckies’ on the our racing sailboat- The British Defender! To recap quickly, we just got off our boat today that we were very fortunate enough to sail for 2 days , 2 nights around the WhitSundays. There was 24 fellow junior pirates and 4 ‘real’ ones that all aspiring to be one day. This boat was a racing sailboat…she was prime back in her day winning many races. With that being said, to enable manoeuvrability we definitely sacrificed some comfort and a whole lot of space. Brit and Taya were stuffed into coffin like quarters where rolling over was not an option. Claustrophobia got the best of Brit occasionally…but she persevered through it with the help of a port hole above her head….some would say perfect for star gazing, Brit would say just for basic breathing, perhaps for an emergency exit! All in all, the boat was amazing, very clean and the food was delicious.We did have a few mishaps because we couldn’t brush our hair or teeth below deck as per ‘Pirate’ Jessie’s rule because he didn’t want to have to deal with it haha! Fair enough, Taya can sympathize with him. Instead of doing the good old grass test to check wind direction, Briana thought that maybe a mouth full of minty, Crest whitening toothpaste foam would do it. Yup, it definitely was going south covering Tays’s left side of her body…mmm…so fresh and so clean !!! The sailing portion was bit of an eye opener. We quickly learned that it was imperative that we listen to EVERY command that the crew gave us. When they yelled to sit on the high side of the boat, we would quickly scurry to the appropriate side because it wouldn’t be long until the boat was perpendicular to the shark infested waters! We clamped our legs tightly around the edge of the boat to avoid the whole 'man overboard' thing! It was pretty cool , the crew taught us how to be “Grinders’ basically means 6 people working in pairs to raise the sails. There were 3 sets of ‘hand cranks’ that worked in the same fashion as bike pedals. We would simultaneously act based on the commands we received form our head ‘pirate’ Liam… the 4 commands were…’front of the boat’, back of the boat’, ‘hold’ and ‘ oh shit’ aka stop! Pretty sweet how they made us feel qualified sailors! All three of us were able to practice a couple times, with the last being caught on Briana’s video camera…so we can show you all! Included in our basic training we were able to have some downtime….we went to Whitehaven Beach, which is known as one of the ‘sexiest’ beaches in the world because of it’s gorgeous sand which is 98% silica ( NASA actually collects the sand to use because of its rarity) As for the ’sexy’ beach part….not so much! We lowered the standards with our, not so sexy stinger suits- full body, super tight, one piece, scuba Steve unitard! Amazing! HAD to be worn at all times because the jellyfish are abundant and lethal. To wrap this up…the WhitSundays consist of 74 islands with only 4 inhabited…we realize that are very fortunate, it is a rare and breathtaking spectacle. Tomorrow we head to Kroombit…where our next talent will be recognized….GOAT ROPING!!!!! Giddy up! Taya is currently whipping up her Velcro suit in preparation to show off her mad mutten bustin’ skills!Here’s us…signing off!
P.S. We thank every one of you for all the comments…you made our day!!!! Just making sure that y’all still keeping up with us.