Going Troppo

Beautiful Aussie Sunset

I just spent the past four days living on a boat! My mom and dad came to Australia (how sweet of them to travel halfway across the world just to see me…). They drove up to Gold Coast on Tuesday night. Wednesday my dad went to my Buddhism tutorial with me, he really enjoyed it and he and my mom ended up going to the monastery for the day. That night we went out to dinner at a place called Helena and had the best Greek food I’ve had in my life! It was amazing having delicious food again after living off mainly cafeteria food for months… We had our flight early the next morning up to Townsville. When we first arrived it was pouring rain so we were kinda concerned, but the universe was just getting it out of its system for us because we had amazing weather the rest of the time we were there! My parents and I took a taxi straight from the airport to the dive shop where we met up with Rob. We got our dive equipment and headed to the yacht club. The boat we were using, that we got through one of Rob’s friends, was called Iseulta. I had never been on a sail boat before so I had no idea what it was all about. I was surprised to see how spacious the downstairs area was. My mom and dad slept in the front room, Rob slept in the back room, and I slept on the couch in the middle area.

Welcome to my bedroom (notice Mom sleeping in the back)

We motored out to sea and as soon as we got out far enough the guys put up the sails and turned off the motor. It’s amazing what a difference it makes! Turning off the motor and going off of wind power makes things so peaceful. We stopped for some snorkeling after awhile. At the dive shop they told us about these jellyfish called “stingers” and said we have to wear either full body wet suits or exposure suits to avoid being stung by them because it can be deadly. So we were all initially a little nervous about them, but as the days went on we figured out that it was kinda silly. I stopped wearing my full wet suit and started wearing my mom’s shortie wetsuit.  My dad talked to a local on one of the islands and he said you didn’t need to be worried about the stingers…and they could sting through the exposure suits anyway!

I think one of the stingers got Dad....

Our first night we had burgers for dinner that we cooked on the BBQ. It definitely gave new meaning to cheeseburger in paradise! It was kind of a windy night which was nice because a slight breeze cooled things off nicely in the lower part of the boat, but it was also a bit rocky. It rained a bit too and it was amazing feeling the tropical rain coming through the cracked windows. The next day we sailed up to Pioneer Bay.

Captain Rob

It was such a calm and peaceful night and I slept great. The next morning we went on a dive. I hadn’t been diving for years and I was so nice to get back in the water! The coral was so vibrant and amazing. I saw clams that were as big as I was and so many cool fish! The coral was really neat too. I’ve never seen so much coral so shallow. That night we had steak for dinner. The next day we did some diving in the same cool area we had found the day before. When we weren’t diving we’d relax on the boat and just chill and drink beer.

Pure Blonde Aussie Beer

On Sunday morning my dad, Rob, and I climbed to the top of the island. We went at like eight and it was already super hot! It was cool to look back at the ocean from the top and see our boat.

At the top of the island

One of those boats is Iseulta

Then we got ready to start sailing back. We did some snorkeling in some other spots, but didn’t find anything as good as the spot we found before. After sailing until evening we found a spot to stop for the night. We woke up early the next day and sailed back to the yacht club. It was so weird stepping on solid ground! For days after the trip I felt like I was constantly swaying. I flew back to Gold Coast and my parents flew up to Cairns for their live-a-board course.