November 2nd, 2010 --- Sailing the Whitsundays

Today we checked out of our hostel at 9am, just in time to miss out on free breakfast (don't we just have great timing?!)So instead, we grabbed a bite to eat at a nearby café where I had a veggie quiche and an amazing smoothie.Yum!We were required to check in with ABC travel prior to our Whitsunday Island sailing tour, so we did exactly that.Here we were told that we couldn't bring any bags with zippers onboard in order to prevent the spread of bedbugs, which have been a re-occurring problem for the backpacking world. So after a bit of bag shuffling and signing a few waivers we were good to... wait!We thought our boat left at 11am, but due to tide levels it wasn't leaving until 3pm.So, Allie and I sat at the harbourfront trying to think of ways to kill time... so naturally we did what we do best... eat!By 3pm we were ready to board the Atlantic Clipper for a 3-day, 2-night tour of the Whitsunday Islands.The boat was a 240 tonne vessel with approx 60 passengers aboard.We met a bunch of Irish, British, Dutch, Germans and 3 other Canadians.Surprisingly there were no Americans!It was a bit of a weird change as I'm used to always being on tours with our neighbours to the south.We settled into our cabins, Allie and I thought we lucked out and had it to ourselves, but "Tom", our mysterious roommate later appeared.(Although he pretty much was a phantom roomie because we never saw him until we woke up the next morning!)The evening was spent on the top deck getting to know other travelers over a few drinks.We were lucky to have a few dolphins join us at our anchor site and put on a bit of a show for us... a perfect supplement to the swaying of the boat and the evening stars.

The Route:

1.Abel Point

2.Nara Inlet (overnight achor)

3.Tounge Bay

4.Whitehaven Beach

5.Luncheon Bay (lunch & snorkel site)

6.Blue Pearl Bay (overnight day 2, snorkel)