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Published: August 9th 2007
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We find ourselves in Airlie Beach, the launch point for trips around the splendid Whitsunday Islands. This is an interesting little town wholly populated by posers and backpackers with a few salty sea dogs thrown in for good measure. It seems that if you are not suntanned to within an inch of skin cancer then you clearly do not work on a boat or you have not been travelling long enough. Both of these circumstances render you largely second-class in the strange class system of Airlie. Many of the young Aussies here are, as the saying goes, far too cool for school. Unfortunately if they had been a little less cool and a little more attentive at school they may not be now serving me drinks and cleaning toilets on boats. That said Airlie does have the most impressive food court I am yet to encounter with table service and great street side ambience. Enough about the port and on with the real adventure!
We booked ourselves onto an exclusive vessel guaranteed to take only 8 passengers and with the primary activity being sailing. We have been here twice before for trips around the islands and on each of those
Whitsundays Passage
Our handsome boat for a few days. Whitsundays Passage
Our handsome boat for a few days.visits the main focus was diving, we were keen to have a different experience this time. Also the thought of being lumped with 30 backpackers packed into a racing yacht didn't appeal.
Our boat and home for 3 days and 2 nights was a 40-foot cruising yacht called "Whitsunday Passage". We arrived at the allotted time and were kept waiting for a short while giving us a chance to be horrified by our potential travelling companions. Thankfully the departing backpacker boats mopped up the scabbier looking characters. Our shipmates proved to be harmless, a mother and daughter combo from Huddersfield and a young London couple. The skipper was a young fella called Rohan; keen as mustard and obviously lived and breathed sailing. Our hostess, Mel, was hugely smiley and incredibly accommodating. Impossible to know if it was genuine or not but who cares. Because the boat wasn't full, Rohan had brought along a mate, Nathan and his brother Andrew on the scant pretence that they were literally learning the ropes. It soon transpired that Nathan's primary interest lay in fishing. Fishing of all varieties was clearly a passion and so it was
Queen Fish
Nathan proves himself worthy of a free trip. that within minutes of leaving the harbour and
Queen Fish
Nathan proves himself worthy of a free trip.setting sail there was a trawling line behind the boat. Within the hour it yielded a huge Queen fish and it became clear that Nathan was not only keen but also very capable. Rohan had us sailing at a fair clip in no time and I was suitably impressed with things unlike our cockney girl who had clearly expected something much larger with more deck space on which to sprawl. Fortunately she soon came round and the whole group had a nice feel. The crew were mercifully unpretentious and not at all cocky.
Our first snorkelling stop proved entertaining when it was revealed that few of our shipmates had snorkelled before. This isn't largely surprising but some of the subsequent questions were. Such as, Q: " Do we keep the other end of the pipe out of the water? "
A: " Well, if you want to continue breathing…" The visibility proved, as on previous occasions to be poor hence no underwater shots.
Predictably the food was plentiful and frequent with Mel intent on having us leave fatter than when we got on
Hill inlet
The typical view of Hill inlet, possibly the most photographed inlet in the world! board. We actually ate some of the Queen fish that was caught and I surprised myself by
Hill inlet
The typical view of Hill inlet, possibly the most photographed inlet in the world!really liking it.
The next day found us at the world famous Whitehaven beach and Hill inlet. This is the typical postcard view for the Whitsunday's with pristine white beaches and crystal clear waters. We did have to share the experience with about a million other folks but you can't have it all. Nathan was, as ever, with fishing tackle and set about expertly landing small sand sharks from the shallow waters. This obviously created a bit of a stir and fairly soon everyone was getting the chance to catch a shark. I slept through the most part of it waking only to see a wide-eyed boy from another boat thanking Nathan unreservedly for a great experience. We had been promised bigger and better….
That night we set about the task of catching a real shark. The first step was to catch baitfish. Then, using live bait, we had to catch bigger fish. This was my job. After catching the little fella and then using the unfortunate soul
Shark Hunt
With this terrible trio, no shark is safe. (or should that be sole?) to fish again I was fairly convinced I'd hooked a great white. It turned out to be a 'Stripy' and a fairly small example at that. Still
Shark Hunt
With this terrible trio, no shark is safe.it proved irresistible to something massive and soon the reels of the shark rod were screaming. The plan was to get in the tender boat to land the thing to stop it wrapping around the propeller or keel of the yacht. The thought of getting into a 2-metre dinghy to land a 2-metre shark seemed a touch dicey. On the first 2 occasions the shark was too strong prompting great stories of the one that got away. Third time lucky and it had proved to be a 3-man job, one to drive the tender- Rohan, one to fight the fish- Nathan and one to hold the torch- Emma! As the reels squealed the crack team leapt into the tender and it was on. As they disappeared from sight we could only hear girlish screams and that was just the boys. A certain amount of thrashing and swearing later and the team returned triumphant trailing with them a huge hammerhead
shark! According to fish man this was a scalloped hammer head- very vicious and capable of amazing flexibility meaning that a good bite was never far away. The plan was to haul the beast up by its tail to take the
Shark
victory photos before releasing it. Unfortunately the job of holding the rope fell to the unfortunately oafish Andrew and as the shark swam triumphantly away he was heard to say," No-one told me to hold both ends of the rope."
Nevertheless Emma was wholly delighted and described the whole experience as amazing. Truly not something you could hope to experience without spending a lot of money. Everyone was delighted and I was delighted that Em got to have such a part in the whole thing, even if I was quite jealous! The shark was not greatly harmed either as it's spirited departure showed.
All round, a resounding success on the sailing and fishing fronts. The snorkelling was good, the food and company very pleasing also. This was definitely more the honeymoon I think we both had in mind.
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Julia
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Loving It!
hey you 2 - what a great entry! Am loving reading this blog, Steve you should be published! I laughed out loud at several parts (colleagues in office now think am mad. Probably thought that before but too polite to say. (??) Obviously I am working extremely hard at this point but this is my 'fag' break (you know like air guitars, you can have 'air fags' I think)Glad to see you both smiling and yes, if you get your Rod Stewart tribute concert off the ground in that wet suit thingy then maybe you can keep Em in the manner in which she has come accustomed - altho maybe someone else would be behind the helm whilst she drinks bubbly on the deck in her Robert Cavalli shades! lots of love xx keep having fun!