Ningaloo expedition recap
August ‘23
It’s 5am, the sun still a long way from rising. Liv and I stand in a silent kitchen forcing each other to eat breakfast because we told everyone else to. The air is thick with nervous energy and anticipation, but also a resolve. There’s no turning back. Twelve months of discussions, debates and endless dreaming. And all we want is for it to go well. Please, be good. As an emergency nurse I’m accustomed to pressure, so I’m surprised to find myself here, in this kitchen, feeling it. After all, we’re far from a life or death situation, we’re about to go sail the Nyinggulu on a catamaran for gods sake! But I feel the pressure of the hopes of the six guests joining us. They who’ve entrusted their holiday and leisure and enjoyment to us, as caretakers of a good time. With my CWA grandmother looking down upon us, we clink our tea cups, we’re ready, let’s host.
The pre dawn light is a deep red on the horizon as we load the last supplies onto ‘Ningaloo Virgin’, our home for the next five days. Flo, or “Flo Daddy” as he quickly became known, is at his post at the helm, ready to fearlessly guide us on this journey. The girls arrive, jump on and we cast off, the harbor glass and the morning light clear. Liv and I meet on the bow as we sail out the harbor and squeal and hug and jump up and down, it’s finally happening! Our first morning is powered by wind, the girls learning how to hoist a sail as we cruise the gulf. Mid morning we round the point and moor in a huge open bay below the lighthouse, the first dive site of the trip. The water is crystal clear, with a perfect sandy bottom below. We start the dives and on the line we can hear whale song, loud, everywhere. From the boat Flo watches them skirt around our boat, curiously checking out their new visitors. As an instructor the dives are hard to interpret, strange movements, stopping, long hangs. Back on the buoy the reason is always “but I could hear the whales!”. At the end of the session no one wants to get out of the water and back on deck everyone is buzzing!
Whales. The true hero’s of this tale. The backdrop to every conversation, teaching session on the bow, arriving when every meal was served leaving a table full of food and six excited faces hanging onto the rail. Humpbacks, usually with calves, surrounded us day and night, sharing the same sheltered waters as our ‘virgin’. Every dive had the soundtrack of whale song and this, out of everything, is what will stay with me forever. I’m not going to lie, after five days of near continuous sightings, the call of ‘whale’ was not enough to raise me from my chair. Fussy whale spotters not wanting to know, ‘how close?’ or ‘do they have a baby with them?’.
Of course the other hero was the people. What an incredible, diverse bunch of humans who became a little family afloat for five days. From the Sunshine Coast to Melbourne, to Perth to Exmouth, they came from all corners. Like all good things, diversity was our strength. Liv and I stood in awe of the graceful way these strangers developed friendships, unraveling the threads of one another’s past to find the common one that had brought them here. We laughed, we cried, watched sunsets and sunrises and marveled at the wonder of Mother Nature. To these people, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for losing our virginity together, for we all had a little bit to lose, but so much to gain.
