The Whitsunday Islands

It has been an amazing couple of weeks, hence the lack of writing, just uploading lots of pictures, with many more today.

Rather than go way back over what I did weeks ago, I think it would be best to tell you how awesome sailing in the Whitsunday Islands has been.
We arrived in Airlie Beach on the 26th April. Airlie is a very small place with the main town being one road. We had a few days before we were going sailing and I would love to say that we spent those days on the man made lagoon, sunbathing and swimming, HOWEVER… it was raining/cloudy/cold for those days which made us a bit depressed for the sailing yet to come. We did however check out the bars and clubs in the town which were great fun. Lots of dancing!

Thursday arrived and it was time to head off early. The boat I was on was called Ragamuffin 2. It was 53ft and looked like a good sailing vessel (based on my limited knowledge). We met the crew and the rest of the passengers. We set sail and the wind picked up as soon as we had left the harbor. We hoisted two sails and we were off doing about 8 knots already, we all had our feet over the edge as the boat was seriously leaning – it was great , just what I was looking for. The rain came in so it was time to don coats and then I helped talking down one of the sails as it as getting far too windy so I had to stand at the front of the boat gathering up the sail with no life jacket in sight. Great fun. We cruised into the first bay and it was a short walk to the view point of Whitehaven beach - the most famous of the beaches in the area. It is just like the pictures. It is truly breath taking. Although I took a lot of photos I made sure I took time to just look at it. Amazing place. We headed to another part of the beach to spend the first night but we got to have a walk and we enjoyed our first beer of the trip sitting on the beach watching the sun set.

I will only mention this once – THE FOOD ON THE BOAT WAS FANTASTIC. LOTS OF IT AND DELICIOUS

We settled in for the night and I decided to sleep out on deck. It was a bit cold and windy and the boat rocked violently from time to time, but it was totally worth it as every time I woke up I got to see the stars and the moon and then the sunrise in the morning.

The next day we set sail early for the first snorkel spot. Whilst on the way there I got to steer the boat which was fantastic, we were getting battered by the waves and people thought it was me causing the swaying of the boat. The snorkeling was ok we did see some very cool fish but due to the cyclone they had had a few weeks ago the water had been churned up a bit too much so the visibility was not as good as it had been in The Reef outside Port Douglas. We set sail for another place for our second night. Again spent the night outside – much colder this time and mush stronger wind, but slept ok due to having a few beers with dinner – ate too much again!!

The third day we managed to get to snorkels in. The first was spent at a fantastic Island were half of it gets cut off by the tide leaving just this sand bar for us to play on. The views of the Islands was wicked as you could see for miles. The last spot I had these very cool back and silver fish following me as I swam, they were very inquisitive. I did have my underwater camera with me and I have no idea what type of photos I have got , but I may have got one when I fish was looking straight at me. I will have to wait until I get home to find out though. I thankfully did not get a photo of me wearing the stinger suit to stop you getting stung by the nasty b*****s that float around and some of them are almost totally invisible. What was mother nature thinking of when she created them!!! The stinger suit is like a wetsuit but thinner and they just make you look very funny.

The sail back was again fast. Both sails went up and we hit about 10 knots – which was fast as it was impossible to stand up on the boat, you had to kind of crawl around and being below deck was not a great experience. Before any of you think it, I was not sick the entire trip.
The crew of the boat were great fun and worked hard to make sure we had a great time. We went with Explore if you ever make it here. The rest of the passengers were awesome, would just like to thank them all for making it an awesome trip, the memories will last forever!

I am off to a place called Fraser Island were they allow tourists to drive 4WD jeeps around this Island, which the Aborigines call Paradise Island and it is a World Heritage site – I don’t understand it either!!!

I will then be travelling back to Brisbane and off to Melbourne as soon as I can sort out a flight.