Set some time after the Baby in the Box tale .

After we had transported the new born baby Garth ( he's now 17 !! ) northwards in his cardboard box cradle , we picked up the Warriuka , Bruce's father's eight berth catamaran -- which he had built himself -- at Airlie Beach on the Whitsundays .

The crew then consisted of Bruce , Vanessa , Bruce's father Peter , me , and Garth -- who had little to contribute to the sailing at about three months old . If it comes to that , neither did I have any boating expertise in anything other than in twelve foot aluminium runabouts , in which I almost managed to drown myself on a couple of occasions anyway . Therefore I took it on myself to leave the nautical expertise to the other three , while I was happy to be chief cook and bottle washer , with now and then the happy task of tending young Garth .

All those years ago !

Much of the memory of the eight weeks we spent cruising as been conflated with the trip that the wife and I had done on the boat a year or two previously . I have lost the basic references which I had briefly listed in my tiny diary , such as places visited and the order in which we made landfall . Therefore I am forced to recall through a failing memory some of the highlights of the weeks .

Two events jump immediately to mind however . Vanessa and I were lazing in the sunshine on the foredeck , watching the dolphins playing around the prow and just relaxing as one can do under a light sail on a fresh morning . We also kept an eye out for any whales that might be journeying along the coast because , though we did not see very many , there was always great excitement when we did . Every now and then I or she would also work round to the stern to check the long lines that always trailed behind the vessel , in the hopes that we might have hooked a mackerel -- always a welcome addition to the meals .

I sat up to go round , when I noticed a large dark object quite a long distance ahead , and checked with Vanessa to see that she had seen it too. She had , so we called back to Bruce who was helmsman at the time , and pointed it out . It was the only big rock poking up out of the Whitsunday Passage for a huge distance around .

Bruce congratulated his eagle-eyed lookouts -- because that was the major reference for which he was steering , and though there was never any chance of us running into it , he was pleased to be able to get his exact bearings from its presence . With the tide , it was barely visible , just a hump with an oily swell breaking over it , so Vanessa and I felt we had done our sailorly duty with great acuity .

The other occasion while at sea rather than on an island , was a sailing leg we did at night . It was a long distance between the two islands from which and towards which we were heading , so Peter , as navigator , and a very competent one at that , decided we should make most of the trip by night . The reasoning behind this was that , since we were well out of sight of land anyway , we might as well save time and be at the next island for exploration during daylight .

Sometimes , with reluctance , I had steered the Warriuka , but always in daylight and under the watchful directions of the others. So , while Bruce and Peter steered in shifts , I was able to take naps , make coffee and now and then enliven proceedings with my illuminating conversation .

We used the motors rather than rig sail in the dark , so the night passed to the sound of the thump of the big diesels till very late indeed .

On one trip out to the cockpit with coffee , I sat out and looked at the stars and sniffed the sea smells , thinking to myself what a great way to spend a holiday .

It was then that Peter remarked on a distant light , speculating whether it was one of the big sailing beacons along the reef . If it was indeed a small lighthouse then he was of the opinion that his reckoning was out.

However , it was not a beacon , but a brilliantly lit up prawner vessel , anchored off a big sandy island . It seems that the current was much stronger than Peter had allowed for , and though there was no danger , it had carried us quite a few nautical miles eastward out of our direction .

We ourselves were able to drop anchor in a bay not far from the prawner , and next morning Bruce took the small dinghy and motored over to buy some prawns . He came back with half a box at a very low price . After the prawns are caught and cooked they are boxed up and set into refrigerated store rooms , and it was a good deal for both sides , as half a box is not a lot of use to the prawner in the markets.

Thus it was what we had a supply of prawns for a couple of meals-- and I can affirm that not one of which among the eighty or so of them was any shorter in length than twelve inches with the heads off -- indeed they looked almost the size of small lobsters .

By going ashore between the rocky points of the low island , Vanessa and I were able to collect a couple of quarts of oysters , shelling them as we went , and the seafood feast was , to say the least , remarkably satisfying as we journeyed on towards our original destination .

A slight miscalculation but it all turned out remarkably well for us .