Helicopter Ride

Friday was a great end to the week. It was a beautiful, sunny, 5 knott day, and my last day of training on the Quicksilver VIII vessel.

Part of my job on board the vessel is to sell to passengers other packages and tours the Quicksilver company offers. In doing so, us hostees obviously have to experience the tours ourselves to give our educational and personal touch while selling the package. The Helicopter guys on board had told me that they would try and get me up in the air when there was an availability but I didn't think it would be within my first week of work! The actual tour costs about $125 for a 10 minute flight so being able to do this for free was a bonus!

So around lunch time friday I was asked if I wanted to go up with 2 other passengers during my lunch break. I was soooo excited! I'd never been on helicopter before so having the chance to go on one whilst flying over the Great Barrier Reef was a pretty rare opportunity.

The Quicksilver VIII vessel is a pretty big boat but not big enough to hold it's own helicopter pad. When we reach the pontoon out at Agincourt reef, the boat docks itself and the passengers then hop on to the pontoon to go snorkelling, scuba diving, eat lunch and go on the subs. To get to the helicopter pad (which is situated close by but still in the middle of the ocean) a small boat takes you from the pontoon out to the landing pad.

On the small boat trip there you get a little life jacket put on (which really is a bum bag clipped around you waist) and told what to do in the case of an emergency... which is something you really don't want to hear before getting on board. It is necessary of course but it did make me a little nervous!

I had to sit in the back as I wasn't a full paying customer but it didn't bother me at all. The view out my window was absolutely magnificent. The pictures i've uploaded are nothing compared to the real thing. The chopper ride before us saw a shark and some stingrays but by the time we got in the air it was gone. It was still pretty cool seeing the different colours of the ocean, all the different bits of coral plus the boats and snorkellers below. I had forgotten my camera that day (I kept meaning to take it with me all week) but luckily one of our divers on board called Dolphin lent me his camera and then burnt my pics to disk for me to take home, which was nice.

Although it was only a 10 minute ride it seemed to last for ages. There's just so much to look at while you're up in the air you forget about the time. It was definately the highlight of my week!

I've been off sick yesterday and today with the flu. I'm getting better but if you have any signs of sickness they send you home as you can't be handling food or beverages if you're all germy. I was supposed to be doing my training on the Wavedancer vessel which is a catamaran that is also a sailing boat. This vessel takes you out to Low Isle, a little island close to the coast of Port Douglas. Hopefully tomorrow I will be much better for work and can update you all on how that goes.

I've put the pics on the site - remember to click on Brian as the author, as all our pics up here will be in that folder.

Cheers