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Saw my first whale today. The photo is not fantastic but I’ll include it anyway. I hope to get some better ones later

We got under way around 10am after a busy morning. I got up at around 6:30 and headed for the showers and then took some early morning photos while having a walk around. After the others got up we prepared sails, sluiced down the decks,  then packed provisions into the fridge, and checked the motor’s water and oil levels.

I flew into Hamilton island via Jetstar Airlines and the minute I hit the tarmac I felt the tropical heat. However I opted to walk the kilometre or so from the airport into the yacht marina over a small hill and carrying my bags. I was dripping by the time I got there. After wandering around for a bit and asking people who had zero idea, I ended up on the right marina arm and found Kioni, my berth for the next 7 nights.

The skipper Nick arrived at the same time as I did, and we started off by cleaning up the mess in the galley the previous crew had kindly left.

The smell of deep heat, sweaty shoes and socks, the sound of whistles blowing, balls bouncing and shoes squeaking assault the senses as you walk into the stadium. Visually there is activity everywhere. Three courts with players moving, bench officials waving and gesturing with referees and small kids bouncing balls in corners. Photographers crouch in corners with long lenses and stadium officials lean against the walls with arms crossed surveying it all.

We walked into this environment as a team for the first time 5 days ago. We is, Will 51, Linda 41, Myself 41, Amanda 20, Stephen 20, Jemimah 19, Nathan 16, Thomas 16, Esther 16, Kahlila 15. These are the kids I have been coaching for 2 and a half years and Linda and Will joined in. We decided to enter the 2009 QLD Masters tournament in a social mixed division. Unfortunately no one else did so were grouped into a 45+ Mens division, playing teams who have represented Australia at the World Masters and also teams from interstate.

We had an absolute blast playing these giants. Every team had players well over the 6 foot mark and myself and Nathan are the tallest in our team at 6 foot even. Still we played our best and learned a lot. the other teams were happy to offer advice and assistance. Our best game we finished within 14 points of the other team. Our most fun game was the team that gave us 40 points head start and made it a very close finish – we ended up losing by 3 points. One of these games incidentally was played without Stephen and Will who had taken injuries on the first day. We played 6 games altogether.

I also took a lot of photos, and Jude and Esther (Nathan’s sister) photographed our games for us. Linda is  missing from the second team photo because she went for a shower early  at the end of the last game. Some of my best photos are below. All the photos can be found on my flickr account.

August 30 saw Judith and Jadeen compete with another 47,000 odd runners in the annual Bridge to Brisbane charity fun run. Jude and Jadeen competed in the 5km run finishing in the first 2000 odd runners I think. Official results will come later.

I took a bunch of photos – 942 to be precise – these are posted up on my flickr account with the bridgetobrisbane tag. Here is the public listing of photos with the bridgetobrisbane tag

Here are some of the best / funniest ones I took. Number 32531 was the winning woman. Judith was number 40065 and I didn’t see Jadeen bolt past me in the crowd so I didn’t get a photo of her.