G'day there or should i say 'ah hoi there me hearties'... yes you have guessed it, we have just returned from sailing around the Whitsunday Islands!

Since our last blog entry from Fraser island, we have taken a 12 hour bus trip from Rainbow beach to Airlie Beach. Airlie is a lovely seaside resort and is where the majority of sailing boats leave from for the Whitsundays.

We set sail on Tuesday from the marina, on board our boat aptly named the British Defender! It was an amazing racing boat, which was sailed by the British Armed forces in the Whitbread Around the world racing maxi so it was bloody fast when we put the sails up!! Now when i say we, the 27 people on board and the crew all had to work together to get the sails going cause it was such a huge ship! Chris and I grinded the sails up (sailing term?!) which was hard work!

On Tuesday we sailed to Hook passage where we spent our first night at sea. A little bit rocky so we were forced to reach for the sea sickness pills, which thankfully knocked us out totally so we slept like logs despite the wind and rain!

On Wednesday we got up at 6:30am and set sail to Tongue Bay, where we all boarded Dingies and travelled toward land. We then did a bush walk through to Whitehaven beach, which is known to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, with pure white sand and crystal clear water. For those of you who have heard of it, Whitehaven is where they are currently advertising for an Island Caretaker to live on the island and look after it!

We then sailed to Luncheon bay, where we stopped for a gorgeous lunch. The food on the ship was amazing, we ate so well and so much!! We wondered whether they were trying to feed us up so that they had more weight on the top end of the boat when it tips on its side whilst sailing...as they do! After lunch we donned our stinger suits (as there is a risk of being stung by deadly jellyfish out there including the Portuguese Man of war!!) and hit the water for a spot of Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. It was amazing, so many beautiful fish and the corel beds were incredible (but bloody sharp it you accidently caught yourself on one!). After a dubious start and a slight fear of fish, Chris absolutely loved it and was soon swimming happily through schools of parrot fish and unknown fishy creatures about 2 foot long!!

In the evening we headed for Stone Haven bay, Hook island, where we dropped anchor and setttled for the night. We had yet another gorseous meal and spent the evening laying on deck and watching the stars :O) Very beautiful!

This morning we got up at 7 and Chris, myself and a few others from the group couldn't wait to get back in the water for a spot of snorkelling. It was all lovely although their happened to be several more jellyfish in this cove, so after seeing the 5th one we decided it was time to move on! The boat set sail back towards Abel marina where we started.

All in all sailing was great fun, and we can't wait to do it again in cairns, where we are heading on teh bus (another 10 hours) tomorrow morning, so do think of us whilst you will all be tucked up in bed! Its a hard life :O)