On Saturday 9th April, 2006, we used the Red Balloon Days vouchers Trina gave us for a sailing trip at Moreton Bay. It was fantastic!

The day started early, meeting at the wharf at 7:45am, where we boarded Solo, our Yacht for the day. Solo is a 4 time Sydney-to-Hobart winner which has sailed around the world. We didn't go quite that far though - only to Tangalooma.

We sailed out of the Harbour (Well, motored as there wasn't any wind) and I was given the helm - it was a bit scary because I didn't really know what I was doing! I basically just had to stay between markers all the way out of the harbour. It was a little nerve-wracking (like your first driving lesson) but fun, too!

On our way we were served morning tea, and stopped to check crab pots which (unfortunately) had no crabs in them but one fish which was cooked up and divided between the passengers. A few people had a go at catching some more fish with rods but it just didn't happen! Along the way we saw dolphins in the distance which was really cool.

When we got to Tangalooma, our destination, we donned wetsuits and snorkels and went out to the wrecks. Neither of us had snorkelled before so it was a little scary at first, but we soon got the hang of it, and it was fantastic! We saw heaps of fish around the old wrecks. The people swimming through didn't bother them at all and they came really close. It was very exciting and the 1/2 hour snorkel felt like about 5 minutes.

After snorkelling, we went on a 'Jetpilot' ride (an inflatable ski tube towed behind an inflatable dinghy). It was really fast and hard to hold on but so much fun!

We were pretty hungry after that so it was time for a delicious lunch, followed by relaxing on deck.

On the return journey all the girls were asked to help hoist the main sail which was harder than it looks but very cool. Not that it did much good because we had hardly any wind - I think the fastest we made under only sail (without the motor) was about 3 knots. So it was a good thing we had the motor or we might not have gotten home!

Matt tried his hand at fishing, but again no luck. We had a delicious afternoon tea of fresh fruit (and Matt & I had a glass of wine to go with it) while we heard some history of the boat itself, which was really interesting.

It was about 6pm by the time we got back to the wharf, so it was quite a long day (we were very tired!) but SO much fun!

A huge thank you to Trina for giving us the vouchers!

For more information on Solosail, please visit their website.