Whitsundays Sailing

Another one of the trips we had left to do was the Whitsundays sailing that we had booked. We arrived in Airlie the day before we sailed off; this was a really lovely little town and we had a fairly nice hostel with its own pool. 

The next day we left to go and get on our boat- the New Horizon. When we turned up there were also a lot of people there who were sailing on the party boat- the Clipper. When they split us into our boats and we set off we soon realised that the clipper was an entire boat of boys and we were on an entire boat of girls- the disappointment on the boys faces when they realised they were going to be partying on this boat with a load of guys for the next few days was absolutely comical. Lucky for them five Swedish girls saw an opportunity and paid $100 to change onto their boat(!) 

I had seen pictures of the Whitsundays and previously thought that it was mainly just visiting beaches during the day. This, however, wasn't the case as we soon learnt that we would be getting the chance to go snorkelling- our first taste of snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. We didn't do much of anything on the first day except settle into our dorms (where we had been told before leaving that bedbugs were living). 

We didn't get too drunk this first night because we had been told we would be woken at 6.00am the next day. We did manage to meet a few people off the boat though and luckily everyone was really nice.

The next morning our lovely crew member came and woke us up with a rap (I am NOT a happy camper in the mornings and I definitely did not enjoy this).

It was worth getting up though as we sailed to one of the world’s most beautiful beaches called Whitehaven, unfortunately the weather wasn't great so we didn't see it in its full glory, but we weren't complaining because at least it was dry.

We were now in the North of Australia and in jellyfish season which meant we had to wear stinger suits whenever we went in the sea. They have two of the most dangerous types of jellyfish in the world there so I was definitely keeping my suit on. 

After having a little swim and messing about on the beach, where we met up with Chad, Matt, Loring, Grant and Lasse, who were on the Clipper, we went back onboard for some lunch- they really provided with the food and I found myself stuffed the entire time.

In the afternoon we went snorkelling; they had told us that on the first day it was mainly looking at coral and that the following day we would be seeing more fish. I thought this would be a bit of a snore but the coral was absolutely incredible and we actually saw a lot of fish. We also saw so many jellyfish- so when they told us that you hardly ever see them it was a complete lie. They did tell us that only two out of 300 types of jellies are deadly though. 

That evening we played a few games, including one where Gwenda had to lick vegemite (gross version of marmite) out of my bellybutton. It was a good way to make friends though and we met three nice English girls, Abi, Amy and Becki, who we saw quite a bit along our travels. I also had to play a sex position game with Abi, so as I say, a lovely way to make friends. Later on, we saw some dolphins, a reef shark, some stingrays and squid from the side of the boat that had been attracted to the lights. This was amazing because the dolphin was jumping in and out of the water for ages, chasing fish that were skimming across the sea’s surface.

The next day we were woken again by a crew member who this time made a crow call to get us up. This was slightly better than the rap because it didn't last as long. We headed straight off to the reef after having breakfast and got our stinger suits back on to jump into the water. We had an amazing time seeing hundreds of fish including some that looked like zebras, rainbow coloured ones and a huge one that they called Elvis. I got to stroke him as they were throwing him some food off the boat.

After a bit more snorkelling we went back to the boat and spent some time jumping off the diving board. We were all sad for the trip to end and when we went to sit at the front of the boat our crew played Titanic music for us.