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Published: December 4th 2008
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I arrived in Airlie Beach on Sunday evening after a few hours in a bus. I spent the evening and Monday morning pottering around the town and getting ready for my sailing trip!
I stepped aboard "Whitsunday Magic" on Monday afternoon and spent three days and nights on her. She was a beautiful boat, really traditional, I felt like I was on a pirate ship! I shared a cabin with a couple of other girls, it was tiny but actually quite spacious compared with the rooms that held double beds! There were 22 passengers on the boat and 8 crew members.
Each day we had breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, lots of yummy seafood each time, it felt quite decadent and it was nice to be away from the mob of packbackers and see some grown ups for a few days! We spent some of the time on board sailing around the islands (there are 74 in total), they were just beautiful, we saw green turtles and dolphins in the process.
We also went ashore a few times to go to the beaches, there was a fellow frisbee player on the ship so we had
a bit of a chuckabout. We went on one short walk, in which time I managed to burn my hands and feet and get a blister on my chin. Thank fully these burns weren't too painful, I'm so glad the rest of my body was sun-screened! We went snorkeling a few times which is something I'd never done before. I'm very glad was able to do it first at the Great Barrier Reef! It took me a while to get used to the mask and breathing through my mouth, I accidentally tasted sea water which felt like burning at the back of my throat. On the up side I saw hundreds of beautiful tropical fish and many different varieties of coral. The first couple of times the coral was a beige/brown colour so that was a bit disappointing, this morning however we saw some beautifully coloured coral - lots of different shades of pink. It was like being in a giant fish tank - amazing!
I am waiting on a picture of me snorkeling which I will post when I get it, you can't really tell it's me but it's fun nevertheless.
I spent one night sleeping out
in the open on the top deck - it was so nice to be really cool for once. It was great to stargaze away from city lights, I did manage to see the Southern Cross at around 3 in the morning.
On the second day I managed to get sea sick (yum), I made friends with a lovely yellow bucket for the day. I was fine for the rest of the trip though, thank goodness!
There were lots of great people on the boat and it's the first time I've got to know people properly on this trip so far. It was the first time I've slept in the same place (sort of!) for more than one night too.
We got back to Airlie this afternoon and I got stuck into some laundry with a guy from the ship. We fancied ice cream so popped to the shop and bought an entire tub which helped pass the time way - yum! I best eat just salads for a few days...
Friday and Saturday I've got 600 miles of coast to cover, should be fun!
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bond.
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Jealous
Aw man, I'm proper jealous now. It's raining in Coventry, I'll have you know. ;) Your ship looks awesome. 10 points if you spot a turtle when snorkeling! bond. x