Sailing the Whitsunday Islands

---

Back on the bus about 30 minutes after the skydive finished and we were on our way to Airlie Beach ready for our sailing adventure.

AT 7pm the next day we boarded Anaconda III, a giant mega-yacht, to sail around the Whitsunday islands. It was lashing rain within an hour of departure and the crossing to our anchor point for the evening was an experience in itself. I loved the massive rocking from side to side, but Blair, Siobhan and Hatty, our room-mate for the trip, were all feeling worse for wear. Siobhan and Blair each went to have a look at nature from the back of the boat - that's what they say when you spew up off the side! In some ways it was disappointing to not see a lot of the scenery at its finest in blazing sunshine but in another way it was fun to have such a rocky ride, that was an experience in itself!

The next morning we were on the move again to a new location and the waves were out in force. I was trying to get down to our room to get my mp3 player out of my bag but a wave sent me careering one way and into our neighbour's room (the doors don't have locks on them), then before I could get my balance we rocked the other way and I fell to the opposite side sending that one flying open too. Someone must have still been in bed because as the door was slammed shut again just as I managed to get out of the way.

Our first stop was at Whitehaven beach. We all had our stinger suits on to protect us from the Irikanji Jellyfish which can cause a cardiac arrest if not treated urgently. When the rains came we all kept our suits on, but the sea was still warm, so the only thing we really missed was the blue sky and sea that's usually the norm for Whitehaven. We stayed for a few hours and even though the sky was overcast, we were all completely burned to a crisp because we hadn't thought to put suncream on.

I did a dive later in the day, which was alright, but really made me appreciate how good I'd had it when I did my first dives in Fiji. The visibility in the Whitsundays was about 2 metres, whereas it was at least 20m at Volivoli.

The next couple of days were pretty similar as we toured the nearby Whitsunday Islands. We should have been venturing to the outer reef and I was looking forward to doing some more diving, but unfortunately the weather was just too bad, which was why we stayed in the same relatively sheltered areas. It was still a lot of fun to live on a boat, so I never wished that the trip had been cancelled.

I did manage one more dive which was included fish feeding. The visibility was a little better on the final day, as was the weather, so we had a good view of all the fish as we kneeled on the bottom of the ocean. We had a bottle filled with bread and would squeeze it to let a bit of bread out and fish would just go crazy. It was amazing really. The guide had warned us about a huge fish that usually arrived for the feeding and when it finally did (when we'd all actually run out of food!) I was absolutely stunned at the size. It was a fish that was bigger than a dolphin, bright green with lips like giant Pork Sausages. It had creepy big eyes the size of Golf Balls that tracked each of us in turn as it circled the group. I have the type of fish written in my Log Book, but unfortunately I don't have that with me just now so I can't say what it was, but it was a slighty scary, but really interesting experience and definitely made the dive worthwhile.

We arrived back at port in Airley Beach later that day and I think Blair and Siobhan were glad to be back. I was a little disappointed at missing out on the Outer Reef and would have quite liked to have gone out there even with the bad weather, but having seen the news this last week, I can see why our skipper decided not to!

Five days after we got back, Cyclone Ului hit the Whitsunday region and our boat was shown beached on its side on the news. Airley Beach was left without power for days, so I'm quite glad that we got out when we did!

---

Photos

Motley Crew
Me, Hatty, Blair and Siobhan

Chilling Out
At the back of the boat

The Front Bedroom Doors
(The left and right ones I fell into)