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Published: February 29th 2008
Harbour
Awaiting the sailing dream...Our first impressions of Airlie Beach was that it was a fun and vibrant town, full of travellers, and surf bums, looking to have a good time. In between the bars and restaurants, the tour agents compete for business on Whitsunday sailing packages. The choices at first are mind-boggling; classic sailor, or modern catamaran, romantic voyage, or party time, 1 night, or 6 nights…. After sifting through the glossy brochures we made our decision: The Alexander Stewart, a classic vintage sailing boat, marketed at the ‘couples market’, and the 3 day/2 night trip promised to be an eco-friendly, relaxing, experience. We booked through our campsite and even got 2 free nights camping for the deal.
The Whitsunday’s are a collective of 74 islands that fringe the Great Barrier Reef, and the waters that surround them are favourable for sailing due to calm waters, but considerable breezes. On the morning of departure we met our crew and fellow guests at the marina, before hopping aboard the Alexander. Our tour guide was a South African chap, with an extraordinary knowledge of everything ecological and anthropologic, and proved to be a compellingly interesting man. The remainder of the crew was made up of
The Captin
Our captin and eco knowledgable guide. an Irish traveller for a deckhand, and an Aussie Captain who kept fairly quiet throughout. The other guests were a mixture of Brits, Aussies, Danes, Germans, and Swiss, and were a nice bunch. As for Alexander Stewart herself, well, she was beautiful; carved with the finest woods, and decorated with inspiring features, she was a true gem. Keen to know the itinerary, I was shocked to find there wasn’t one, we would sail around and make our own according to the mood in the group. As the winds were low we used the motor most of the day but did hoist sail once, which woke everyone from their comas. In truth I had wanted a little more action, but on the same hand was glad not to be knocking back tequila and playing ridiculous games, so there was nothing else for it; time to relax. At around 3pm we reached Whithaven Beach, and were dumped for 2 hours. Tiem and I took a walk, it was a nice beach for sure, but just a beach really? Glad to be back on deck, we enjoyed some music and beers, before being treated to a wonderful dinner of reef fish and mashed
potato. Everyone hit the sack nice and early. Our double was great; the superb woodwork continued throughout the boat, and it was quite comfy too, and I slept rather well.
The next morning we awoke to cries of “breakfast!”. There really is nothing like the fresh sea air to wake you in the morning and we enjoyed our toast and coffee on deck. Going ashore we learned about the ecology of the fauna and flora, and admired some sublime views from a lookout position. We once again hit the open water and kicked back for a few hours as we made our way to a snorkelling site. Having personally witnessed sharks in these waters I was a little nervous about jumping into the sea with them, and if the sharks didn’t get us the deadly jelly fish might! The session was wonderful and we saw some beautiful coral and strange colourful fish; the fish had a habit of swimming right up to your mask to check us out before swimming off with their buddies. The second night on board the Alexander we spent spotting giant trevally fish and even a shark, with the boats flash light, plus also enjoyed
some more great tucker.
As we made our way to another snorkelling site the next morning, news filtered through of another boat snorkelling in the same spot we had the previous afternoon. There had been an incident where a young guy was stung by an Irakangi jelly fish across his face. In the proceeding hour we witnessed a helicopter air lift him out of the Whitsundays, thus ending his trip, lets hope not his life. Suddenly the mood on the boat changed and unsurprisingly nobody fancied going for a snorkel anymore. Instead we all took a contemplative walk along the beach, before sailing back into Airlie beach.
The sailing trip had been worthwhile, and it reminded me how much I love the water and being on a boat. Next stop would be Bowen.
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