The Whitsundays

So here it is. What we have both been waiting for - a sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands! We booked ourselves on a 2 day 2 night cruise when we were in Melbourne, our Christmas present to ourselves. At the time we thought booking ahead would be a good idea seeing how busy everything seems to be everywhere we go! However, we soon found that there was no need and could have probably got the same cruise for much cheaper :/ Oh well we were never very good at getting things at a bargain.

We spent the evening in Airlie Beach which is a really lovely town with great views of the ocean wherever you seem to be. There isn't a beach as such and it's also high season for box jellyfish or 'stingers' which give a pretty unplesant sting so we didn't mind not swimming too much. That said, it did look very inviting.

Being surrounded by such beautiful views of the sea we were tempted into a slap up meal at one of the better if not the best seafood restaurant in town (sea views and all that) and we went ahead and orderd the seafood platter. It was wicked, the best one we have ever had and it was huge. After our bellies were full of all the seafood you could imagine we rolled home and got ourselves ready for the big sail the next day.

Our boat wasn't due to leave until the afternoon so we were picked up in town and taken to the harbour where we boarded our home for the next couple of days the 'British Defender'. The boat is a Maxi yacht about 80ft long and can hold about 26 tourists when it is not racing. The boat was used to race in the Whitbread Round the World boatrace by the British combined forces in 1989 and it actually started its journey from the lovely Southampton (jo-pops you would be proud). They have spent loads of money on it since then and it was a pretty cool boat (Zaida speak for very nice yacht).

All the punters were in bunk beds that were ok-ish apart from hitting your head or various limbs on the boat in the middle of the night. The food was wicked and there was plenty of it which was nice. The people on the boat were all very chilled too, in fact no pissed up 18 year olds at all ;o)

The first afternoon sailing was wicked. We had all the sails out and were tearing along the water at a 45-degree angle for most of the way. It was apparently the best sailing the skipper had experienced in over 12 months so we were pretty lucky! After a hard days sailing we moored up in a really nice bay and watched the sun go down and later on did some star gazing. Later that evening the weather started to come in which meant it was far too windy on deck to sleep under the stars. (Shame).

The next morning the weather really had come in and there were big black gloomy clouds everywhere (boo!). Shortly before we were about to lift anchors and get on our way, this customs speedboat came out of nowhere and an official looking chap in a long coat and Mick Dundee's bush hat boarded our boat - luckily there was nothing dodgy onboard otherwise we would have been towed home. But the skipper did get told off for mooring the boat in the wrong place which meant we were there for ages until they finished all their appropriate paperwork - doh! Our skipper who was a moody bugger at the best of times had the hump big stylee so the rest of the day was a rude and obnoxious bugger to everyone - Aaaagghh lilly livered land lubbers...etc etc!

After the mornings dramas we headed over to Whitsunday Island and moored at Turtle bay - which true to it's nick name we same a few rather large turtles bobbing around. Chris got a nice picture of a turtles head. Whitsunday Island is home to the very famous Whitehaven beach that is made up of pure silica deposit which is the whitest fluffiest sand ever - almost like flour! There is this great lookout point several meters above the ocean which looks down onto the crazy sand formations and out to the ocean - it really is so beautiful (the pictures sort of capture it - shame about the clouds though). After the trek up there we went for a nice walk along the beach - we couldn't swim though because of the stingers. Mer.

We only spent a couple of hours on the beach as the weather wasn't too good and the wind was starting to get a little bit stronger (typical) so we were all ferried back to the boat for lunch. From the moment we lifted the anchor the boat was moving up and down so much it was pretty difficult to move around but lunch on the move continued. At one point this huge wave broke on the front of the boat and flowed in through the open hatches (all marked "keep closed whilst underway'). As a result the top deck and dining area got pretty wet which drowned at least half of lunch - well at least you didn't need to add salt after that. All the bobbing up and down made Zaida a wee bit seasick and she had to take some seasickness pills - bless! The turbulent seas were all a bit too much and the skipper managed to get us into some shelter between some islands where the seas were much calmer.

When we reached calmer waters the weather improved and the sun even cam out which meant we could go for some snorkelling as well as some snoozing in the sun on deck. Chris still wasn't too keen on the snorkelling thing and managed to loose his snorkel when faffing with his mask Numpty.

As it was our last night together, the crew on the boat managed to encourage everyone to participate in drinking games. Chris wasn't so foolish as to join in but Zaida did and ended up having to down a whole mug of Jack Daniels with very little coke in it - unlucky! Later on that evening the heavens opened and absolutely chucked it down - a storm whilst in the sea was quite cool and the lightening was spectacular. The rain must bring all the fish out as we spotted a dolphin hunting and watched her swimming around the boat for ages. Beautiful!

Our last morning on the boat was spent chilling on the deck of the boat reading books and sunning ourselves - perfect! We were back on land by midday and got straight in our little car and drove to Cairns - 7 hour drive here we come!