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Published: March 5th 2007
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The Whitsundays is a collection of 74 tropical islands concentrated into no more than 100 nautical miles. They are famous for their turquoise waters, dense coral reefs, lush rainforest and fine sandy beaches. The whole area is World Heritage Listed and part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
For the next 3 days and two nights we would be spending the majority of our time aboard the sailing ship ‘Dream Catcher’ a classic 19m Clipper Bowed Ketch. It promised a more relaxing and intimate experience (a maximum of 14 guests) compared to the more hands on appeal of the larger boats and catamarans which catered for as many as 30 people.
Once clear of the mainland the sails were up and we spent the afternoon cruising at a fair pace to our overnight mooring spot in a sheltered bay on the south side of Whitsunday Island. The journey there took in some outstanding sights none more so than the deserted Islands covered in lush vegetation. By late afternoon the beers had been cracked open and everybody was enjoying each others company chatting up on deck watching the sunset until the evening stars come out to dazling affect. We
got on well with a couple called Cathy and Stuart who liked a good chat and shared a similar sense of humour. There was also a couple from London, a newly wed couple from Ireland (who both couldn’t swim!!) and a group of four Canadian girls, all nurses 😉 purposely brought along to keep up the moral of the crew, Craig and Dieta.
The day before, we had arrived in Airlie Beach amidst thunder storms and flash floods, but by our first morning the weather had improved considerably and the forecast was predicting a scorcher for the next few days. Unfortunately, fine weather is rarely accompanied with strong sailing winds and low and behold for the remainder of our trip there was little to no wind and we spent our time cruising around on engine power.
Our first destination was Whitehaven Beach. It wasn't long before we were moored off a sandy bay a little way up an inlet directly behind Whitehaven beach. It was while Dieta was giving one of his trademark thorough briefings of dos and don’ts that I noticed our safety boat we had been towing floating past off our starboard side…….”erm Deita” I said
“is that meant to be floating past?” “Yes, that is fine” he replied matter-of-factly. “Only the rope is all frayed and not connected to anything!!” with that he stirred a little and calmly ordered Craig to go fetch it. Being that it was probably his mistake in the first place if I was Craig I would have told him to go jump. Nevertheless, Craig leaped over the rail and rescued the disappearing safety boat. It was just as well he caught it as apart from swimming it was our only way ashore.
Whitehaven beach is a must see and popular stop off for anyone traveling to the Whitsundays. You get an amazing view of it from a lookout point above the beach and imediately figure out why your here. The white sand stretches out for miles. Behind the beach an estuary meanders its way through the sand and disappears between tree covered hills. This place is beautiful. Looking at the pictures below you can see loads of little black dots scattered along the shore. Those little black dots are not seals but tourists in their stinger suits! A stinger suit is like a wetsuit come lycra jumpsuit. Unfortunately it
is an essential piece of kit to wear to prevent you from being stung to death by miniature jellyfish too small to see. They are only about during certain months of the year and we just happened to have timed our trip to perfection!! Nothing better than slipping on a tight black lycra jumpsuit in 40 degree heat!!
During our trip we stopped off twice to do some snorkeling. The first time may not have been the most enjoyable, but it was certainly the most memorable. Dieta spent the best part of an hour briefing us on anything and everything in the water that could hurt, maim or kill us. By the time we eventually came to get into the water we had all these things going round our heads of what not to touch or what to swim away from it wasn’t surprising we were a little edgy. The murky water didn’t help either and we soon had that feeling of being watched, you know the feeling you get when you’re just not comfortable in your surroundings. So when I glanced round and witness an eye the size of a tennis ball looking back at me I nearly
soiled myself!! In shock I breathed out so hard I popped the snorkel out of my mouth and steamed up my mask. Panic set in as I thought I was about to go the way of Jipetto (swallowed by a whale if you don’t know the story of Pinocchio). Then when I felt something grab my arm I must confess to letting out a bit of wee!! But to my slight relief it was only Jo in a similar state of panic! I grabbed her arm and in a spilt second we thrashed our way to the beach. After catching our breath we signal that we wanted to be picked up in the safety boat. Deita came to get us and we wasted no time telling him what we had just seen. An enormous giant great big fish, the size of an elephant. He asked us whether it was blue. Yes. He asked us if it had a big bulbous head with big thick rubbery lips. "YES" we said nodding in tandem. "Oh that’s Elvis" I thought it was a bloody great big killer fish. Apparently ‘Elvis’ is a bit of a celebrity. He’s a friendly giant Maori Wrasse.Dieta goes
on to tell us that Maori Wrasse are very inquisitive fish and if they like you they'll come right up close and allow you to stroke them. Hummmmmmm!! Thanks Dieta, pity you forgot to mention that in your briefing.
On the second occassion we went snorkeling Jo decided she'd rather stay on deck. Not surprising really. However, this time the sea was a lot shallower and clearer. I was greatful that I did as towards the end of our time in the water I got the opportunity to swim with a turtle. The Turtle was just effortlessly gliding along while I was struggling to keep up. The experience came very close to upstaging our encounter with 'Elvis'.
The whole trip was fantastic, very chilled out with nothing more to do than lay back and take in the scenery. Everyone onboard was good fun and we had a great time chatting away to everybody. One word of caution though, to anyone wanting to go in the future. Make sure you avoid the months when the small dangerous jelly fish are about and also the large May flies which bite. They're a right royal pain in the backside!
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Mike&Claire
non-member comment
Holy Cr*p.....
Mate, I take my hat of to you for going back in the water after your first sighting of Elvis.....it's put me of swimming in the sea for a while :s. The beach photos look amazing, very tranquil. Looks like you are still having a fantastic time, will you ever come home to lovely old rainy UK.