GHOST

A blog account of the activities of yacht GHOST.

Vessel Name: GHOST
Vessel Make/Model: Hanse 470e
Hailing Port: Southampton
Crew: Brad and Kat McMaster
06 May 2011 | Melbourne
01 February 2011 | Melbourne
05 December 2010 | Sydney Harbour, Australia
28 November 2010 | Pittwater, NSW, Australia
28 November 2010 | Sydney Harbour, Australia
28 November 2010 | Pittwater, NSW, Australia
23 November 2010 | Pittwater, NSW, Australia
17 November 2010 | Coffs Harbour
12 November 2010 | 100nm NE of Coffs Harbour
10 November 2010 | closing on Australian coast east of Brisbane
08 November 2010 | On route to Oz
07 November 2010 | Baie de Prony, New Caledonia
06 November 2010 | Vanuatu & New Caledonia
03 November 2010 | Noumea, New Caledonia
25 October 2010 | Santo, Vanuatu
14 October 2010 | Aore Island, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
13 October 2010 | Aore Island, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
12 October 2010 | Aore Island, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
05 October 2010 | Aore Island, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu
16 September 2010 | On route to Vanuatu
Recent Blog Posts
06 May 2011 | Melbourne

It's Official

It's a sad but good thing, we no longer own GHOST. She is now owned by an architect in Sydney who has plans of sailing the South Pacific once again.

01 February 2011 | Melbourne

Reality bites!!

It's been a while since we updated the blog. Apologies for that but we've been busy fighting off the onslaught of reality, not really wanting to admit it's over! After arriving it was the welcome party in Sydney, followed by a hectic week of moving ALL our personal stuff off GHOST. On a side note, it [...]

05 December 2010 | Sydney Harbour, Australia

Pictures from the party & sailing around Sydney harbour

See pics:

28 November 2010 | Pittwater, NSW, Australia

GHOST for sale!

Well it's sad news but GHOST is now officially up for sale!

28 November 2010 | Sydney Harbour, Australia

Welcome to Sydney GHOST

Well it was a brilliantly sunny day as we set off from Pittwater in GHOST, entering the Sydney heads about lunchtime. It was a pretty emotional sail through this iconic harbour which Brad has envisaged sailing into as long as he's dreamt of sailing home to Australia. Soon we were pulling up to the [...]

Dive liveaboard - this is the life!

29 April 2010 | Around the Galapagos
Kat
After 3 years of pretty negligible birthday celebrations Brad was determined to make up for it this year, and following a pretty stunning dive at Gordon Rocks (where Jay saw his first hammerheads - not bad bearing in mind he's been diving for years) we were keen to dive more, so Brad seized the opportunity and booked us unto a liveaboard dive trip.

There are only 3 companies that run dive liveaboard trips in the Galapagos and have permission to dive at Darwin and Wolf islands which are over 100nm NW of the main Galapagos islands. Aggressor was our choice given their mixed itinerary of dives and land tours - it's a luxury boat so they really look after you and the guiding is supposed to be fantastic both in and out of the water. Big thanks to Jay who volunteered to stay behind and look after GHOST for us - we haven't spent a night off the boat for a year so it's nice to have a break, thank you!

We joined the boat in Santa Cruz where GHOST was anchored but the trip really started the following day in San Cristobel, 50nm to the East, when the rest of the guests joined. After a delicious lunch we headed around to Isla Lobos, a sheltered bay where we all had a test dive to make sure everyone's gear was in order. By the time we had all unpacked and showered it was time for cocktails and dinner. The first night was pretty restless as the boat rolled from side to side on our way up to North Seymour island, north of Santa Cruz. Why were we here - GHOST is more comfy than this!!!

It all became clear the next day, following the 6.30am wakeup call and after being treated to a yummy breakfast (not having to cook being a special treat for me!), we had a dive briefing and then a couple of dives in North Seymour. Unfortunately the visibility wasn't great and it was generally disappointing after our dives in Gordon rocks - in fact one of the guys christened the site "Sealess rather than Seymour". In the afternoon our dive master Jamie (pronounced Heime) took us on a guided land tour of North Seymour which was fantastic. It was hard to know where to point the camera with land iguanas, lava iguanas, blue boobies, great frigate birds displaying courtship red breasts, sally lightfoot crabs and sealion cubs lining the shore. After another delicious dinner we settled down to a good night's rest as the crew motored the 120nm trip to Wolf Island. Another treat not to have to get up for night watches!

The focal point of the trip was finally here - the boat reached Wolf Island at around 7am. After breakfast (I am now getting used to musli & fruit followed by poached eggs & bacon served up for me!), we took the first of 4 dives here. It completely lived up to its reputation as one of the world's best dive sites as we saw schools of 40+ hammerhead sharks, galapagos sharks, reef sharks, black tip sharks and silky sharks together with various schools of fish, enormous 3m+ tuna, pacific turtles, eagle rays, lobsters with bright blue markings, enormous 1m+ moray eels... this list goes on. The best strategy seemed to be to park yourself behind a rock and wait for the sharks and fish to come to you! Brad (our usual photographer) agreed to let me have the camera (encapsulated in a waterproof contraption good to a depth of 50m) for one of the dives, but regretted it afterwards as it was the best dive of the day for close shark encounters! Amazingly these fierce creatures are very shy when it comes to humans but we had some fantastic photos throughout the day nonetheless. I seemed to have an amazing pull for the moray eels, one of whom decided to take a snack on one of my fins! The crew really look after you with tea, cakes and hot towels ready after each dive which definitely helps you get through the 4 dives in the day. Brad and I also did a nitrox course so were diving on oxygen enriched air which makes you less tired. After all the dives we had a tasty dinner on board Aggressor and headed to bed.

The boat left at 4am to motor to Darwin island, about 25nm away - Brad and I just snuggled into the duvet - it's great to be able to stay in bed as the boat moves to the next site! And then began what must be one of the most perfect days ever. We were diving at a site near "Darwin's Arch" - a large natural stone archway on the reef about 100m from the island itself. As soon as we rolled into the water from the panga (Spanish for dingy - I think this term has definitely stuck as the new term on GHOST!) we descended straight away and almost landed on top of some hammerheads, this was a great dive but even better was to come in the second dive when we tucked ourselves in amongst the reef and let the wildlife come to us. The ploy worked as an enormous school of hammerheads (50+) passed straight over our heads, Brad was able to take some really amazing pictures and it was a truly memorable experience. In fact we saw tons of hammerheads on each of the 4 dives that day, plus black fin sharks, silky sharks, loads of turtles and for the first time, a dolphin underwater following along behind the hammerheads - fantastic. The crew had heated up the hot tub so after the last dive Brad and I headed straight in and watched more dolphins from the warmth of the tub as Aggressor headed behind the island to anchor for the night. Then followed a movie on the blu-ray & big flat screen and another yummy dinner. Far too easy to get used to this treatment!

For our last day around Wolf/Darwin we all took a vote as to where we would like to spend our last day in the northern islands. Due to the sheer number of hammerheads and better visibility we all voted to do 3 more dives at Darwin. The diving didn't disappoint - there were more hammerheads than red buses on Piccadilly, and we were able to get some great close up shots. We also saw eagle rays, pods of dolphins (but only really on the surface above us), more turtles, a sealion and generally had another fantastic day. Highlights included our dive guide Jamie being whacked on the head by a turtle's fin and the strong current which whisked us away from the pangas giving us an excuse to put up our dive rescue flags (we were also all given personal EPIRB's so weren't too worried in any case). After 3 dives we all tucked into a yummy lunch while the crew started heading the boat back to the main Galapagos islands - around a 16 hour trip. Time for afternoon naps, editing photos and a movie.

We were sad to leave Wolf and Darwin but a few more dives awaited - a couple at a site called Cousin's Rock (off North Seymour) which was great for seeing rays and focusing on the smaller fish tucked into various crevices - it was so cold though (22 degrees C) and the visibility was poor at only around 10m. The following day we did a dive at Gordon Rock's - the same place as our original dive - we saw a few hammerheads but it didn't really compare with Wolf and Darwin! We also had land tours at Bartolome (where we walked to the top of the hill for the classic Galapagos view of the islands) and saw some penguins and at North Plaza where we got more photos of sealions and lots of land iguanas.

It has certainly been a great trip - I think we're pretty dived out, completely stuffed with food and satisfied with some of the lovely photos and memories we have of the trip. The Galapagos tour was a real treat and certainly made the most of what is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We think dive liveaboards are definitely the way forward!!!!

For photos see: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bradmcmaster1/DivingGalapagos
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