After spending one night in Airlie Beach preparing for our much anticipated sailing trip, we headed off the next day on our Maxi racing yacht, called Hammer. We spent two days and two nights sailing around the absolutely gorgeous Whitsundays islands. There are about 74 of the islands in total, based right on the southern edge of the Great Barrier reef. We spent the first afternoon relaxing onboard and helping the crew sail the boat. The Maxi racing yachts are quite famous in Australia as they have all one heaps of races over here, but most have now retired to do the tourist trips in the Whitsundays. So, in short, it was quite an experience getting to help sail these huge yachts, pulling up the sails, winding them into place, and steering the boat when we weren't going to fast!! There was only 9 of us on the yacht, plus 4 crew, so we ended up getting to know them quite well, and had heaps of room to sun ourselves and relax, and were spoilt rotten with fab food! During the two days we were at sea, we did some snorkelling in the reef, and it was absolutely beautiful, really good visibility. There were numerous times when we found ourselves amongst a swarm of beautiful, brightly colured tropical fish, swimming all around us! It was amazing, Dan even found a little Nemo (clown fish) hiding in the coral, too scared to come out! ahh!! We also saw lots of huge loggerhead turtles swimming around, and they were so so cute! When we saw one we all used to point from the boat going "look theres one!", but they quickly dived under water never to be seen again. Our skipper then told us that you shouldnt point at them because years ago, the aborigionals used to hunt them with spears, so when you point at them, they think theyre being hunted and disappear under water! They were so clever, some being over 100 years old, so we never pointed at them again! We also visited the most stunning beach called Whitehaven, with pure pristine, bright turquoise water. The water was so clear and the sand so white, and was definetly the most stunning beach we have seen so far in OZ. It was like a picture postcard! After our last day of sailing we stopped for the night and watched the most beautiful sunset in the middle of the ocean, and spent an evening wrapped up in blankets on deck, looking at the sky filled with stars and counting the shooting stars. It was so clear, and i dont think i have seen so many stars in my life! It was a perfect way to end an absolutely brilliant trip, a definite highlight of Australia. We sailed back to land the next morning, and had a barbeque at the local swimming lagoon with our new sailing pals, and a few OZ beers in the evening to celebrate a fantastic time. xxx