Peter Greste dreams of bareboating in the Whitsundays
Australian journalist Peter Greste is currently rejoicing in his newfound freedom back at home in Queensland with his family. As news reports start to surface about his ordeal in an Egyptian prison for 400 days, it has been revealed how Peter kept his mental strength, and it leads to a bareboating holiday in the Whitsundays.
“To get through it you need to be fit – that’s not just physically fit.
“It meant staying mentally fit, intellectually fit and spiritually fit and so I and my colleagues made deliberate efforts to stay physically fit … we kept ourselves healthy.”
Surviving 400 days in Cairo’s Tora prison needed more than strength – often Greste’s thoughts would turn to happy times with his family.
“You always have your dark days and I often closed my eyes and just let my mind drift to where it wanted to go and almost invariably it went to the beach, to the coast, to the sea in some form,” he said.
“Me and Andrew, Mike and my sisters-in-law, we all went sailing in the Whitsundays in 2013 and I always went back to those days on the boat wandering along the beach, beach-combing, swimming and so on, so to stand there and feel it between your toes was awesome.”
“The thing about this is you realise how important those little things are.
“I didn’t see a whole lot of sunsets in the last 400 or 500 days or so.” Peter said.
On this note, Director of Whitsunday Escape, Dan Tannock, has promptly offered up his own boat to Peter Greste for a much needed holiday. The boat, a beautiful 41 foot Seawind 1250 sailing catamaran, is the newest boat in the Whitsunday Escape fleet, having been launch in mid 2014. Featuring three double cabins, 2 bathrooms, and luxurious living spaces, the ‘Lady L III’ is Tannock’s pride and joy.
Whitsunday Escape hope to be able to offer Peter Greste and his family another taste of the pure freedom of a bareboating holiday, and some of the most beautiful sunsets in the world, over the uninhabited Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. A welcome relief after his tiresome ordeal in Egypt this past year.
