Whitsundays Sailing Adventures Blog » Emperors Wings

Save Our Seas from Pollution

Gabby — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:52:21 +0000

Since Skipper Ian Thompson (Thommo) joined Whitsundays Sailing Adventures Islandive, he has always valued the company policy in helping protect and preserve our Great Barrier Reef Park and the marine life within.

Over the years, Islandive’s Company Directors Keith Roberts and Mike Keyte have avidly supported and been pro-active within local committees in the prevention of waste infiltrating our ocean. Islandive and its staff continually works in conjunction with the Queensland Marine Park and its environmental program.

Ian is a participator in Islandive’s Eye on the Reef Program and is well informed and knowledgable on the natural heritage, conservation and the colossal eco-system of the Great Barrier Reef and its environmental threats.

We are proud he is actively going out on his own in April 2010 in his quest to sail around Australia to raise awareness of plastic bags polluting our ocean, and the devastating effect this has on our marine environment. Ian has Islandive’s full support and we are pleased to be able to contribute to his campaign.

Plastic bags are a true menace to our marine ecosystem. Non- recyclable, the Australian Government is working with the industry and the community to reduce the environmental impact of plastic bags. Everyone shares some responsibility for this problem as nearly half a million plastic bags are collected on clean up Australia Day each year. It takes only four grocery shopping trips for an average Australian family to accumulate 60 plastic bags. Many people are starting to use reusable bags such as the ‘green bags” you buy at supermarkets.

Plastic bags which are made from natural gas or oil, are especially dangerous to turtles who mistake them for jellyfish, their main food source. 86% of all known species of turtles have had reported problems of entanglement or ingestion of marine debris. ,

Our marine creatures are dying and they need our help. We ask you to support Ian in his determination to break the record of the fastest person to sail solo around Australia, and to be the voice of our endangered marine creatures.

Islandive has put on every vessel a tin can in the hope that passengers touring on an Islandive vessel will donate a gold coin to contribute towards Ian’s food bill over the 50 days he is at sea. This donation will go directly towards his expenses and his voyage around Australia to save our wonderful marine creatures.

Anyone wishing to support his campaign should visit the campaigns website at www.sosoceanracing.com

Sailing Adventures on Emperors Wings

Rani — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 04:28:19 +0000

After a leisurely breakfast at Beaches Backpackers and a little last minute shopping around Airlie Beach, we arrived at the dock in the afternoon. The crew were all smiles as they welcomed us on board and we set off sailing! After quite an entertaining run down about living on board and what to expect during the trip we were split into groups: those wanting to snorkel, then certified and intro divers and we geared up for our first dive.

It was my first attempt ever at diving so I was excited and a little nervous but Richi my dive instructor was amazing, on our first attempt he made sure we were comfortable with our equipment while we were still at a spot where we could touch the sand with our toes and any nerves I had dissolved in the sea, Richi made it all so easy and I always felt safe.

He said…if you loved that, the next one will blow your minds… WOW!! It absolutely did!! My favourite was the dawn dive when the fish were still a little sleepy and Manta Ray Drop Off where I got to hang out with a sea turtle and see white tip reef sharks!

After a big day on the reef, Tanya cooked us a spectacular dinner, it was great food, meals like steak and chicken with salads and lots of fruit for breakfast, just what’s needed to start a big day. Our hostie with the mostie was Tanya such a cool chick and looked after me really well especially with lots of yummy gluten free food.

Playing silly buggers on the amazingly beautiful White Haven Beach was a heap of fun and all the girls enjoyed a natural beauty treatment, exfoliating with the powdered sand made and making our legs silky smooth. After a stunning sunset, we’d watch the shooting stars from the deck at night.

Our captain Mike was easy going and great to chat to about life on the reef, Stu our hilarious first mate helped keep us on course and laughing at all times, Dylan showed the certified divers around the reef and from looking at the photos we saw in the slide shows at night, they had a blast, (and just watch me smile with a regulator in my mouth)!

To the amazing Richi, I will be ever thankful for introducing me to the reef and for ’holding my hand’ on the first of many more dives to come. Diving for me was such a peaceful amazing experience and I’m so keen now I’ve booked in to become certified so I can do a night dive on my next trip!

Thank you so much Emperors Wings!!!!

Amber Pitt
Travel Adviser
STA Travel Gold Coast Uni

The Outer Reef on Emperors Wings

Russ — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:17:02 +0000

Winter in the Whitsundays is a truly magical time. Warm days, clear skies, no threat of rain to spoil days spent gently yachting around the pristine islands. Winter also brings a few extra surprises, some friends from down south, a certain elite group known as the “Megaptera Novaeangliae”. This group create quite the spectacle for seafaring tourists and locals alike and are more commonly referred to as the Humpback Whales!

Emperors Wings Dive Deck

Winter shined a lucky light on me this year as it was my turn to experience the newest (note: brand new!) addition to the Whitsunday Sailing Adventures fleet and the outer Great Barrier Reef at the same time! The 18 metre fibreglass, custom built dive catamaran was to be my home for the next three nights, and I was not complaining!

The first of the features immediately demanding my attention as I followed the 25 other passengers to the marina arm was the impressive, stainless steel dive platform that dominated the stern of the vessel. The platform serves many purposes during the trip, the first of which was being demonstrated with the collapsible arms folded down and supporting the Vessels large yellow tender. I would get to experience the other reasons for myself once we arrived at one of our numerous dive sites.

As soon as we stepped aboard we all felt very welcomed by the extra friendly crew who were as excited about the trip as we all were. As a side note, we had three dive instructors which indicated we were in for a REAL diving adventure! The next impressive feature I noticed upon stepping onboard was the shiny new Nitrox tank filling compressor. This will allow the crew to prep SCUBA tanks with a richer oxygen mix allowing for deeper dives and lower nitrogen build up in the blood. A very handy device to have on a serious dive vessel.

The comfortable big catamaran was to be the platform for a number of excited travellers first ever dive experience. With so many experienced dive instructors on board everyone was equipped and ready to dive with routine efficiency. First in the water were the introductory divers, completely ‘fresh’ and brimming with enthusiasm. The following two groups of certified divers were chomping at the bit to prove their skills in the calmer waters of the fringing barrier reef before the expedition to the impressive Bait Reef.

Manta Ray at Bait Reef

Although our vessel was perfectly equipped for diving she also had Whitehaven Beach set clearly in her itinerary of beautiful places to visit. Early morning had us waking up at Tongue Bay to the sporadic games of hide and seek played by the resident turtles surfacing to see if we were watching or not. The sheltered bay is a feeding site for sea turtles being home to plentiful floor coverings of sea grass. With that as the first sight of the day it was hard to see how the day would improve. Just thirty minutes later improvement arrived. We were standing atop Hill Lookout admiring the world famous Whitehaven Beach and Hill Inlet at low tide displaying for us the stunning artwork of ivory white sand and the most luminous sky blues; a unique tidal tapestry woven that morning for our eyes only.

Under full sail we point point the bow directly away from land and enjoy the journey. At the end of some pleasant sunbaking we arrive at the impressive and otherworldly sight of the Great Barrier Reef. Completely surrounded by the living organism protruding from the water with no land mass in sight, we are reminded it is low tide, and we are VERY lucky to have this as our resting place for 2 more days!

The return sail from Bait Reef to the mainland provided much more of the best, sunbaking, relaxing, sailing and of course more whale watching! Having been absolutely spoilt with freshly prepared and cooked food all trip I was feeling quite content and glint of disappointment crossed me as I realised I was returning to the real world! My aquatic playground home had come to an end and I was feeling much richer for the experience.