Sailed Away, Sailed Away, Sailed Away

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So, see ya Rockhampton, hello Airlie Beach! After another long drive (this time, we did see water briefly on the Bruce Highway though, even though it's called the coastal highway), we stopped for lunch in a funky little town called Mackay, had a wee wander and went again on our way. Funny here that instead of raccoon or squirrel roadkill, here the streets are lined with kangaroo roadkill! We stayed with a friend of my camp friend, named Pete, a lovely guy who offered to put up two traveling Americans for a few nights without even knowing anything about them! Good guy. After stretching our legs after a 12 hour journey, we hopped in the car and drove into the town of Airlie Beach that reminded me a bit of a Spring Break destination, with bars and pubs and travel agencies lining the street and backpackers everywhere! Pete had a friend that worked in a travel agency so he made us an incredible deal on a 3 day 3 night sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands, even one that goes out to the Great Barrier Reef! It was originally A$480, but he gave it to us for A$310. Not bad, right considering we get a free intro dive and all snorkeling equipment and meals included. After, we drove out to the beach and had a bonfire under a sky with more stars than we had seen in awhile. The night was complete with an Aussie bbq and some VB, perpetrating any stereotype of Aussies that we may have had previously.

We spent the next day doing what most people do in Airlie Beach: preparing for the departure of their boat trips and then NOTHING! The town is swarming with all types of backpackers, ranging from your dreadhead to your beach bum. There was tons of interesting people to look at. We wandered around a few of the shops, buying some bathers (boardshorts/bathing suit) and sunnies (sunglasses, polarized though of course Dr. Brown). Ironically, even though the town is called Airlie Beach, there isn't really a beach at which you can swim because stinger and jelly fish stingers spans almost all year, therefore they have created a man made lagoon (with lights for night swimming) around which everyone sunbathes and swims and plays frisbee. The funny thing is, the beach is right behind it so someone who didn't know the real story would question why people were laying on the fake beach instead of the real beach. And everyone is very chiiiilllllllled out here so that's what we did, we chiiiiiiiiilllllllllllllled out. We read, we watched the sunset, we scanned the newspaper, contemplated if and how much motion sickness medication we should bring, etc. Good times. We finished the day with dinner and drinks at Beaches Backpackers, a wild backpackers hostel with loud music.

Friday morning, we got up and organized ourselves for the boat trip, picking up a few last minute necessities and guessing that since the boat was 3 days long filled with crazy backpackers, we probably shouldn't step on board without some sort of alcoholic beverage (go figure that while we showed up with a 6 Victoria Bitter beers and a 4 litre BOX of wine, we were the driest people on board). I majorly underestimated the amount of time that it would take for us to walk from Pete's to the marina and next thing you know, we were late as can be, struggling with our enormous bags. When our the shoulder strap of our bag and the plastic bag carrying our beers broke, spilling the beer everywhere, I decided we were hopeless and hitches us a ride (from a policeman, don't worry parents) to the marina. I was really nervous, as I wasn't sure what to expect. We were actually the second people to arrive so it was all good. People came, carrying small bags and copious amounts of beer so we knew it was going to be an exciting few days. Spank Me, our boat, was a bit indescribable. It was a 26.3 meter sail boat, with nothing but ropes and sales up top and down below, and bunkbeds for 30 people, a small kitchen, and 2 bathrooms down below. I'm not going to lie, I shed a tear when I saw how dark, crowded and dingy it was, but I pushed my princessness aside and prepared to enjoy it. In a small room, about 8 ft tall, 10 ft long, and 8 ft wide, we shared a sleeping area with 10 other people just to give you an idea. The bathrooms required first turning on the salt water tap, then depressing the flusher for 15 seconds, then turning the salt water tap off again. The shower was basically a hose above the toilet and you couldn't even come close to standing up in the "bathroom". There were 24 "paying" passengers and 5 crew. The passengers ranged in age from 19-33. People came from 13 different countries including Norway, Finland, Denmark, Israel, NZ, France, Switzerland, and Germany JUST to name a few. It was incredible the smorgasbord of languages one could hear. We motored our way between two of the islands composed in the Whitsunday Island for the group and had dinner and got to know our boatmates for awhile. You really lose all concept of time on the boat, since the sun sets early and the days are quite long. It wasn't easy falling asleep on a rocking boat, but I seemed to be the only person who was bothered by it.

Early the next morning, the anchor came up before 7, creating a sound like none you have ever heard before and we kept on moving. We arrived at Whitehaven Beach, a gorgeous beach with the softest, whitest sand ever (more than Lake MacKenzie as I previously described) and the brightest blue/green water ever. It was incredibly gorgeous. It felt weird to walk around more than 10 feet, even though we had only been on the boat for a few hours. We then kept on moving to another spot and after lunch, prepared to snorkel/dive. Ben, being a certified diver, was given his equipment and was told to have a good time. When he jumped in the water, his and everyone else that he was with had their tanks fall off of their vests in the water. Great. No worries, as they say in Australia, because after a few minutes, they were able to get their equipment back together and had a great dive. I snorkeled for a bit, acclimating myself to the wetsuit and mask while mentally preparing myself to try diving. Our scuba instructor, a 29 year old Kiwi named Che, did a good job of quickly explaining all the "skills" and rules necessary to dive. And without thinking too much about it, I put my regulator in and gave it a go. Ben passionately has been talking about diving so it was great to be able to experience what he had experienced. I was quite nervous but managed to a) actually go through with it and b) enjoy myself! We didn't go too deep but still stayed under the water for awhile. The fish and coral under the water were incredible. They are so colorful and a lot of underwater matter looks like it has been handpainted . After the dive, it was back on the boat for he evening. That night after dinner, everyone sat around together singing along to people playing the guitar, like a campfire but without the campfire. And mind you, we're out in the middle of the ocean. You could see a bunch of other boats around us, also docked, but I could assure you that those passengers weren't having as much fun as we were.

The next morning, we raised anchor around 5:30 am, so it was an early start, in order to give us enough time to get out to the Great Barrier Reef. Once

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how do I get to the next page? I'm left off on Barrier Reef?!