Another blast from the past.
While deployed near Rockhampton for Exercise Kangaroo 3, a group of around 40 of us had earned a rest day off after 3 weeks of continuous 12 hour shifts.
We were allowed to use 2 trucks for the day for the 30+ km trip towards Yeppoon.
We went to Rosslyn north east of our location and parked the trucks with thoughts of travelling the 15 km across to Great Keppel Island for the day.
We had a choice of either a standard ferry cruise of around an hour duration, or the high speed catamaran. On checking the prices, the fast cat (30 minutes) was found to be twice the cost as the standard ferry for the trip. I approached the ferry operator asking for a group deal, and we were offered a 50% discount.
I then asked the fast cat for a group deal. They quoted the standard price, at which I exclaimed "We can take the standard ferry for a quarter of that cost!"
They said "We can do a special deal for you, we will drop our price by 50% for the group."
So, we took the fast cat service, went to Keppel for the day, did the fun run down the sandhills on the northside of the island and attended a late afternoon BBQ on the beach before returning to the mainland. A great day out, and at a great savings for each of us.