We took another Greyhound from Mission Beach to Airlie Beach. We wanted to go sailing, and the Whitsunday Islands off of Airlie is the place to do it. We landed in town, explored, and lined up a 4-day 3-night sailing trip.

Our boat, Spank Me (no that isn't a request...it is the actual name of the boat), could hold up to 28 people, and we had 22. It is a racing boat that won a presitgious race from Hobart, Tasmania to Sydney in the late 1990's. It is a no-frills boat with a basic deck, no common area or bar, and tight quarters. But, the boat travels to the outer Great Barrier Reef for diving, which is what we have been looking to do.

Our fellow sailors included folks from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, and England. We were the lone Americans. The Irish guys all play on a professional rugby team together.

Most of the other fellow travelers were students taking some time off to explore. Australia has a reciprocal student work visa program with Europe and many other nations (sadly, not with the US, because of us, not them), so many of these students are on 6-12 month trips where they work picking fruit, in meatpacking plants, or on ranches. They get paid pretty well, and they can leave whenever they want, so they spend a good deal of time traveling all over Oz. The only other non-students were a couple from England, around our age, who took a leave from work to figure out their next step in life. We enjoyed their company immensely.

It did rain on and off for three of the four days, but we didn't let it stop us, and on the last day we even mustered up some good weather. On day one we got acquainted with the boat and each other. There was a dive briefing with a racist, misogynistic dive master. He thought he was being funny, but he actually succeeded in offending pretty much every woman and a good handful of the fellas. I sat back and listened, in shock, as almost everything he said would have gotten him fired in the US. :)

Anyway, it was raining most of the night, so when we went to sleep, we couldn't open the hatch above our bunk for fresh air. As a result, we fried. It was just about the hottest we have been all trip indoors. Oh well...we finally fell asleep about an hour for breakfast, so it felt awesome when the cook went around screaming that breakfast was ready at 7AM. As you can guess, we missed it.

We landed at our first stop, Whitehaven Beach, known by some as the most beautiful beach in Australia. It really was quite beautiful. Pristine forested islands give way via beaches to waters in amazing shades of blue. The sands are as fine as talc, due to the constant grinding of tectonic plates off shore, and creatures like sharks and stingrays abound. It really is what postcards are made for. We had just under an hour of sunshine, but everyone came alive during that period.

After the beach, we returned to the boat, began sailing, and made our way to a bay for our first dive opportunity on the inner Great Barrier Reef. After the dive, we snorkeled a bit and then swam back to the boat.

The captain was on the boat with the cook, throwing bread into the water as we swam up so we could get an up close look at the batfish and travelly fish. The travellies can get pretty nasty around food, so we had to keep our hands away from their mouths. Surprisingly, while Bev kept her hand from the trevallies, she left a finger for an overly excited batfish that took the whole thing in its mouth. He left a bite mark at the base and scrapes all the way up to the fingernail from when Bev pulled away. Their teeth are small and they aren't venomous, so Bev was fine, albeit surprised. The scrape marks were cool, and Bev was a popular kid on the boat for a few hours while she showed off her finger.

Our last full day on the boat we sailed 17 nautical miles to the outer Great Barrier Reef for more diving and snorkeling. The reef is 3000 km long stretching down most of the east coast of Australia. It comprises 1500 individual reefs and is the only natural wonder visible from space. It was beautiful. We wended our way through purple and yellow coral in all shapes and sizes, and we saw a giant Maori wrasse, reef sharks, a clown fish, a yellow boxfish, and tons of other interesting critters.

That night we had a Texas Hold 'Em tournament. Bev and I made it to the final four, and Bev fought to second place for a payout. It was Bev, aka the Black Widow, versus Alec, aka Doc Alec. Alec could do no wrong, and eventually his luck overtook the Black Widow. It was a great time!

The next day was our last, and we snorkelled one final time. The fish were out en force, and we spent at least one quarter of the time following a gorgeous Giant Maori Wrasse and watched it feed on coral.

During the trip, the captain let us help out by having 8 of us on the grinders, which are used to hoist the sail. It is hard work while it lasts, and my back and shoulders got a nice little workout when we did it. Captain Azza, a kiwi, also let us take the wheel on occassion, and the ride back to Airlie Beach was fast and smooth, with good winds and the sun on our faces.

We passed out when we got back and then headed out for a post-sailing party at a local bar called Beaches. It was an excellent night, and we let out all of our pent up partying from 3 nights of rain. The night ended at 4AM. Waking up the next day felt good, though. NOT! Oooof. It was tough to get up, but we got our stuff together and prepared to head south to Noosa, where Bev will finally get to have surfing lessons!