Well here we are back on dry land, and this time, thankfully, the weather was glorious and there was not even a hint of sickness. We arrived at Iluka a little bleary eyed but after finding out that there would only be 10 of us (plus 2 crew), which meant we got a cabin - and that cabin hand the only electric-pump toilet - talked about spoilt! Myself and a jocular Cetic supporting Glaswegian (Andy) were the only two blokes on the passenger list although 2 of the crew (Skipper - Pete, and dive specialist Matt) were also of the less fair sex. We were accompanied by Andy's other half - trainee solicitor Jo(sephine), 2 Dutch girls (Gerthia, and Gizmo (!)), 2 English girls (Roma - it was her 25th b-day and Louise), A Red-haired Irish girl (Nuala - Pat you went home 2 days too early!!!), and a (French) Canadian (Annik). On day one we managed to get a dive in - beautiful coral but very shallow - which meant we managed to surface after 50 mins with 90 bar of air left - they wouldn't let us do any more - the spoilsports. All the others that hadn't dived before did an intro dive and really enjoyed it. So off to our first overnight stop - Tongue Bay, from where we walked to the lookout for Whitehaven Beach.

Whitehaven Beach is the 'picture postcard' beach that everyone thinks of when you say 'Whitsundays' and we were not disappointed with tthe view - spellbounding. On that note I've finished Harry Potter by the way and a jolly good read it is too, although I couldn't believe they killed off Ron and Hermione at the end...what a shocker! (Only kidding JK and lawyers...) It was decided that we'd all play cricket on the beach and, unbelieveably, the top scorer was the Scot - they don't even bloody play it up there...There were a couple of pools where there were (supposedly) Stingrays, but despite us having a good look we couldn't see any...despite this though it truely is a fantastic beach which even I enjoyed. Just time for a quick snorkel before another night of wine, talking about football and Championship Manager (me and Andy) and shooting star gazing. We were hopeful of spotting some whales at some point but the best we got were turtles and dolphins...apparently you can spot whales regularly at Hervey Bay (where we head on the overnight bus tonight...). So to the final day - Jen did a 4.4km walk to the top of the lookout where she and the rest of the group saw (apart from the amazing view) a snake although Pete said from the photo it was harmless. Myself and Andy relaxed on the 9-hole golf course where Scotland gained a moral victory as although it finished all square at 47 shots each (we managed one par - mine at the last hole) he beat me by one hole at matchplay. Even though a great hour and a half. Jen managed to get some fantastic photos too so we're all happy!

On the way back there was one last chance to get the sails out and go with the wind and that we did until reaching our final destination at about 4pm. One last group photo before the bus back to the hostel. We're now going to shower and change before the horror of the overnight bus...

Overall we had a fantastic time - we had another great group where everyone got on well (as always getting on with some better than others) and the food, crew, sailing and sights were all outstanding. I would thoroughly recommend them, despite having quite possibly the rudest Scotsman on earth (and that is an achievement!!!) working in their sales office. A fantastic 3 days - we now feel sooo relaxed and chilled (I am sure Mr McCafferty and Mrs Greyhound will shake us out of that tonight...)

So, onto Hervey Bay, and Fraser Island. We want to do it ourselves (not in a group) but we're not sure if that'll be safe and/or affordable with all the dingos on the island and lack of money in our pockets! Either way we're going to have a couple of days in Hervey Bay first before deciding what to do. Unfortunately Andy and Jo aren't arriving in HB until Sunday and we need to have left by Tuesday so we can't share any more footy stories...