Whitsundays

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Just got back from an amazing two days sailing around the Whitsundays on "SV Whitehaven".

We boarded on Tuesday at lunchtime and set off at 1pm. The ship was a lot smaller than I had imagined and the cabins were below deck and totally claustrophobic, with people sleeping about 3 inches from the ceiling - no room to breathe! I was like NOOOOOOOOO at first, and when we got shown how to pump the toilets I really wanted to head back to shore!

Eventually I just thought "No, I'm going to enjoy this!" so it was off outside to sunbathe and relax. We sailed for a while with music on, then we stopped for snorkelling. I was far too worried about it to have a go, so I went out on the boat with Andy, the deckhand and looked at the fish from there.

The food was great that night - chicken curry, so that's another new food to add to my list! It was really nice as it was so mild.

The evening was spent just chilling out and playing silly games and drinking. I slept out under the stars as I didn't like our little cabin - but eventually got so cold about 3am that I crawled into bed knowing that everyone was asleep and nobody would shut the door or turn the outside light off, lol.

Wednesday was fantastic - we stopped off at Whitehaven Beach - you have never seen anything like it...I hope that when I get the photos done, they do it justice...it's the closest thing to paradise I have ever seen....turquoise waters, white sand...amazing. We had to wear stinger suits to go in the water, but that was ok.

In the afternoon, I gave snorkelling a go! Andy helped me out by sorting out the mask etc for me, and gave me a noodle to hang on to so I could float. Heather was my snorkel buddy so it ended up being really fun! I eventually got the hang of it and it was absolutely amazing....we saw stripy tropical fish under the water. It still doesn't seem real.

Last night again was chilled out. I was chatting to Ash, the skipper, and he's an aussie who used to live in Oakley for almost a year!!! What a small world!!! He was staying with a relative there - I was like NO WAY!

Tip to all others going on a Whitsunday's sailing trip - take enough cigarettes! lol.

Right now I just feel totally overwhelmed with it all...at the time I appreciated it, but now I look back and can't believe how I just spent 2 days in paradise....tropical fish...that's something I never thought I would see.

All I can say is, WOW.

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