Twilight Sailing in Airlie Beach

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wow, another beautiful day in Airlie yesterday, boy was the sun shining. In the morning I went and had a look around Abell Point Marina. Simply an awesome marina with boats ranging from little tenders to big Gin palaces😊 There are some beautiful maxi yachts there too which have won Sydney to Hobart races and i believe are now commercial vessels servicing the tourism industry. Ill be checking them out as an option to explore the magical Whitsundays islands soon!

After Abell point i went back to the shops to pick up some groceries to cook up a little barbecue on the beach. Got some lamb cutlets and sausages from the butcher MBW on the barbie, in the Whitsunday Shopping centre. BOY where they tasty, definitely getting my future meat produce from them from now on!

I have a friend who lives here and they invited me on a boat he crews on for Wednesday evening racing from Airlie Beach Yacht Club on the other side of town. So after my barbecue i hopped on the bus back to town and walked over to the yacht club. I've done a bit of sailing myself so was excited to go out on a locals boat and meet some people who live and breath in this magical place and do some proper sailing. Apparently you can put yourself doown on a crew list if you dont know anyone i later found out, so if you like racing head over to the yacht club and introduce yourself.

I met my friend and the boats skipper and we proceeded to rig the 26ft boat before putting her in the water. then we motored out to the start line while putting our sails up. Wind was pretty gusty so we used a smaller head sail as it was gusting up to about 25 knts. The sea's where a bit like a big washing machine with no clear direction of wave path. I was loving it! 4 minute gun went off and we were in good standing, so much so on the starting gun we were first over the line. Great start!

The wind was very gusty sometimes completely dropping off, but lots of fun. then on the windward mark we nearly had another boat collide into the back of us, missing us by a couple of inches at most. we had given them room to go around the mark but they went the opposite direction. Close call i have to say and they were at fault. After a few yells we were back on track for the finish line and ended up coming third in our division.

Couldn't be happier. After de-rigging and taking the boat out of the water we headed up to the yacht club to hear the results. They have an awesome buffet meal service and wow what a view. There's a big balcony overlooking the beach and sea. they also have a raffle which i bought a few tickets for but to no avail.

After getting our prize i then decided to call it an evening and head home. All that sailing had made me quite tired, but there's nothing better than being out there and breathing in that salty sea air.

Another beautiful day in paradise.

Bon Voyage

JP

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