Sailing the Whitsundays

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We stopped for 2 nights in Airlie Beach - a small town basically serving as a hub for tourists to set-off on their voyages to the Whitsundays from. It is still a pleasant little village, however, and has a really cool Lagoon - perfect for chilling off in after a couple of hours catching rays on the nearby beach.

We boarded our vessel and home for the next 3 days - 'The Bomerang' - and headed out into the Pacific towards he world famous Whitsunday Islands. The Boomerang was an 83ft former racing yacht, and previous winner of the World Series. It has now been outdated but certainly provided us with a great feel of the conditions the crews of such boats live in, as well as the rush of sailing out into the Great Barrier Reef at Sunset with the wind breezing through your hair.

Although not strictly classed as a party boat compared to some of the ships that sail from Airlie Beach, the Boomerang caters for 4 crew and up to 28 passengers, so with a good crowd and a few boxes of goon we managed to party away both the nights pretty loudly, with only the local marine life to disturb. They soon forgave us, however, when we went snorkelling in some coves near to Whitehaven Beach the next morning, with an abudance of living coral to see, as well as at hundreds of fish - the largest of which was a 2ft-long Wrasse, who apparently waits there to greet every group of passers by.

Whitehaven Beach had been our first stop of the day, where we were fortunate enough to see Manta Rays gliding around in the shallows and proceeded to join them (wrapped safely in our stinger suits to protect us from the seasonal jelly-fish).

That evening we anchored up in the wind-shadow of another small island (the name of which I have forgotten), and saw one of the most amazing sunsets we've seen on our trip. The East Coast generally only yields sunrises (from the East, of course!), but being out at sea gave us a great view of the disappearing sun and set the mood for another night of beers on the deck!

On the third day we were scheduled to do some more snorkelling, looking at a fringe reef, but the weather had taken a turn for the worse (still not too bad, although we later found out that a cyclone warning further down the coast had closed Fraser Island - unlucky for the backpackers there as that was arguabky the highlight of our Australia experience!) so we made our way back to port and the more familiar feeling of 'Terra Firma'.

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Photos

BOOMERANG
Maxi Racing Yacht: Boomerang. Our home for 2 days

Ben at Whitehaven Beach
Shortly after running nearly the full length of it with a hangover....