We’ve been having a great trip!
Well it’s been a busy month since we last posted with lots of opportunities for boatschooling the girls! We spent a beautiful week on board the boat we’ve worked for with some of the new owners and their family so that we could show them how beautiful the Whitsunday’s are. We took them to Cid Harbour, Stonehaven Beach, Whitehaven Beach, Hill Inlet and then out to Bait Reef, Hook Reef and Hardy’s Reef. Incidentally if you’re looking for a luxury charter around Cairns in the next few weeks the boat will be ready to go. Check out the website here: Galaxy I Luxury Charters
Lagoon Escapade 2017
Thanks Lagoon for this great pic!
After our whirlwind tour of the Whitsundays we headed over to the other marina in Airlie called Able Point Marina where we had signed up to join in with 18 other Lagoon catamarans for an ‘escapade’ to Gloucester Island, about 18nm north of Airlie. We enjoyed two days of cocktail parties, breakfast in the marina and lunch at the island but the highlight of the trip was when all 19 boats left Able Point Marina together to sail in convoy to Gloucester. You can imagine how exciting this was for us and the girls and lots more boatschooling happening as we headed north. There was even another kid boat, Pacific High, who you can follow on Facebook here. Oh, and did I mention we won an awesome stand up paddle board!?!
More boatschooling kids
After Gloucester we bade adieu to the other Lagoonies and continued north to Cape Upstart then Magnetic Island. We were surprised to find another kid boat we have been following for a while heading in the same direction, so of course we caught up for some kid play time on board and on the beach. Their facebook page is here. It’s a pity we didn’t have more time to hang out with the kid boats but will have plenty of time to do that when we leave Cairns later in the year. The girls have now managed to meet quite a few kids who are all boatschooling in different ways.
Sewing pillows for their Barbies – Boatschooling!
The girls have also been doing lots of stuff that might not look like school to the naked eye but will to fellow unschoolers or boatschoolers like us. Their latest thing has been to keep all the things I’m about to throw out like packaging and leftover fabric and turn it all in to Barbie doll clothes and furniture. They have been Googling how to make doll clothes, been watching Barbie video tutorials on how to make rooms and printing out ‘wallpaper’ and pictures of light fittings and switches etc to put in their house. Lots of research, reading, measuring, sewing and negotiating. I also love hearing their narration of what the dolls are doing. Sneaky boatschooling and recycling as well! Unschooling for the win!
Learning happens in lots of different ways
The girls have been keeping up with their diaries, watching loads of Horrible Histories on long passages to keep busy, cooking, doing chores, playing games (including a wasgij jigsaw puzzle with 1000 pieces and only clues as to what the puzzle should look like.) We’ve played Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on a DVD I found at the op shop that is interactive with your remote. I have to admit I’m a little addicted to this one myself. They’ve been reading loads, playing Minecraft and OSMO, and drawing in their notebooks they received from a friend before we left Sydney. Following the whales as they migrate up the coast has been thrilling and we are really interested to know what we are looking at so even more Googling and watching videos. If you follow my Instagram Page you will know we came across a whale’s tail up in the air for over ten minutes. Kind of like a whale handstand.. Weird. The jury is still out whether it was napping or practicing nursing.
Boatschooling on the beach is one of the great perks of living aboard a boat (and cruising the QLD coast of course.) Building houses on the beach out of dead trees and having sandcastle building competitions, snorkelling, being pulled along on the biscuit behind the tender, kayaking, stand up paddle boarding and more playing on the beach. We’ve also done some great walks with educational info about the area where we all get to learn something new.
Not long now!
We are now getting so excited to be back in Cairns for a bit I’m hoping the wind gods will help us get up there even quicker! Our speed through the water paddle wheel shaft is worn so we don’t know how fast we are travelling but the spinnaker we bought second hand is helping pull us up the coast as fast as we can! I can almost smell the coconuts! If you’re boatschooling and want to stay in touch, check out my Facebook Page page and message me with any questions, I’m always happy to help if I can!
