Wandering the Whitsundays…

After a very comfortable night in the Brisbane Hilton, it was time to move on to Airlie Beach ready to embark on a trip to the Whitsundays. I flew up to Prosperine Airport which serves the Whitsunday area, and arrived on a Monday afternoon, without any onward plans – hoping to be able to get a live-aboard sailing trip within a few days time. As it turned out, Monday and Tuesday are fairly quiet days for sailing tours, but according to the specials posted at my hostel (ugh!) – there was a 3 day 3 night cruise which went around the Whitsundays and out to the Outer reef on Wednesday – perfect. That gave me a couple of days of down time to hang-out, explore Airlie Beach (took about 30 mins!) and to plan the rest of my trip.

Our boat was the Pacific Star, there were 19 passengers and 4 crew and we had a blast. The conditions were perfect – sunny blue skies, calm seas and a great bunch of people on board. I shared a cabin with David, Chris and Amanda – conditions were v cosy – the room was about 6’ by 7’ with two bunks on either side, and a v narrow passage between the two sets. I considered myself to be very lucky – at 5’4” I could stretch out and just touch the end of my bunk – David on the other hand was about 6’2 and his feet hung-out over the end!

We cruised around the Whitsundays, which were absolutely stunning and then headed out, traveling through the night thanks to skipper Shane so that we could reach the Outer edges of the Great Barrier reef – visiting Whitsunday Island, Bay Reef, Net Reef, Club 21 Reef, Elizabeth Reef and Hayman Island – highlights of the trip included:

- Finally being among a mixed age group and not feeling totally ancient

- Seeing stunningly beautiful clear waters and catching my first glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef

- Snorkelling over the reef, seeing so many fish (no nemo!) and swimming right next to a shark

- Getting completely freaked out about jelly fish and getting back on to the boat!

- Lazy evenings sat on top of the boat – trying to get the perfect shot of the sunset (thank goodness for digital cameras!)

- 1 min showers to conserve fresh water – the skipper kindly offered you an extra few minutes if you wanted to shower with him ;)

- Stopping off on the way back in from our trip to just jump off the boat for a swim in the middle of nowhere… that was great fun until a shark came jumping up out of the water… just a small one – but I was more concerned about what he was jumping to get away from!

Chatting, hanging out, playing cards and drinking wine (thanks to Michael and Michaela) with a great bunch of people

Coming back to land was a real challenge – life was good on the open seas!