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Published: August 8th 2007
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Greetings from Airlie Beach, the gateway to the majestic Whitsunday Islands. Its 74 islands are surrounded by one of the world’s seven natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef and are well worth a visit. In fact, I would go so far as to say that our 3 days sailing around the Whitsunday Islands has been my favourite activity here in Australia.
On Friday (18th of May), myself, Brenda and Linday arrived on Airlie Beach and checked into "Magnums" hostel into our deluxe bungalow (by deluxe I think they meant it had a roof and running water, ha..). After this we headed over to ABC travel for a brief about our 3 day adventure onboard "The Atlantic Clipper," a 140 foot boat, that came highly recommended and lived up to its name. The boat itself had 3 levels; the dorm type accommodation on ground, kitchen and dining area next, and then the deck itself (jacuzzi included).
Later that nite we picked up a few necessary items for the boat, i.e. sea sick tablets, vodka, mixers, snacks and bags with no zippers (bc bags with zippers were not allowed on our boat). After a bite to eat we headed back to
our cabin in an effort to get a good nite sleep to recover from the lack of sleep in Rockhampton. Unfortunatley, this just wasn't meant to be, courtesy of the 5-12 people who decided to have a party at the table outside our cabin, lights going on and off in the room all nite, some random guy entering the room and turning on the main light at about 2am looking for someone, and music blasting until 5:30am. You could say we were not three happy bunnies when our alarms went off at 7am on saturday morning.
After getting some breakfast into us and heading outside into the scorching sun we soon perked up. Around 2pm we headed to Abel Point to meet with everyone else getting on our boat and to board. By sailboat standards the Clipper is pretty big, and held about 55 of us crazy boys and girls. After some safety tips about what to do in the event of an emergency we were shown to our cabins/rooms/boxes. Now, I knew they would be tiny, but words can not express just how tiny they were. Lets just say there was a single bed and a double bed
on top of it in a room that is about the same size as an elevator. After a bit of a toss up about who would sleep where, it was decided that I would go on the top bunk with a view of the sea (i.e. porthole which actually freaked me out bc you could see the water at level beside you). Within just hours on the water, we realised our boat was actually the sweetest one on the water. Most others were smaller, and didn't have sleeping quarters, or serve food, etc. Dinner on the boat was top notch. Our Belgian chef prepared BBQ fish (but I managed to get chicken😊), the yummiest mash ever, bread rolls, and salad. Not surprisingly, TEAM IRELAND were the first to que for food that nite (and every subsquent meal ).
After dinner, myself and Lindsay decided to be sociable on the upper deck and join in "Ring of Fire" (game) with TEAM ENGLAND/GERMANY/SWEEDEN/CANADA. This was also the nite that some ejit decided to drink soo early that he was completely gone by about 10pm, and rather than being sick in his own room, he had the nerve to wake up....go into
Team Ireland and the Scot!
L-R: Lindsay (aka the Scot), Brenda, Anna, Jessie and myself and myselfthe room across the hall and puke in their room...YUCK! Needless to say he was blacklisted for the rest of the trip. Luckily, his room was on the opposite end of the boat to ours. We soon realised who the "cool" people on the boat were and had a nite full of stories, games, and laughter. Lindsay and myself hit the hay around 2am, but Ms. McNeill was the last girl to bed that nite ha... go Brenda!
Around 6am the sound of the engine started up and by 6:30 the wakeup call echoed all over the boat for breakfast. I woke up as bright as a button and stoked because we were going to be the first boat stopping on Whitehaven Beach sunday morning. Stretching over nine kilometres, this pristine stretch of pure white silica sand fringed by brilliant blue water and lush tropical island, is one of the jewels of the Whitsundays and is recognised as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world...something I will not debate. Once the anchor was dropped on the Clipper, we all put on our wetsuits to avoid being stung by jellyfish or stingrays, and got on a smaller
boat which took us ashore. We immediately went to the lookout point and then ran down to Whitehavens main beach. Out of nowhere hundreds of crabs emerged from tiny holes in the sand on one particular strip, it was one of the strangest sights I've ever seen. Our crew from the boat sat on the beach with the ipods blasting, taking in the sun and enjoying each others company before setting back out to the open waters. Mid-afternoon we made another stop to do some snorkling on the Great Barrier Reef. I absolutely loved this, it was my first time snorkling and I couldn't get over all the colours of the reef, how close the fish would swim to me and I even saw a turtle! Later on that day myself and Lindsay decided to give the old scuba diving a go with our instructor Sam. I found breathing through the mask quite difficult so I didn't stay down as long as Lindsay (the real trooper..ha). The oxgen tank and all the other gear weighed a tonne, when they were first strapped on my back the crew had to hold on to the tank to keep me from falling with
the weight of it ..quite funny. Being in the water on the Reef was just amazing and I really enjoyed it, particularly the snorkle.
After grabbing a quick wash, we were quickly evacuated from our rooms and sent to the upper deck after a false alarm fire. Apparently smoke was coming out of the kitchen and they thought some part of the boat was on fire so the alarm was raised, fortunately all was okay. Once dinner was finished, the crew decided to try to bring the party up a notch and brought out the strobe lights and cranked the music even louder on the upper decks. At this stage, the anchor had been lowered and the lights were on all around the boat. We could see several small sharks swimming around the boat with the lights and even saw a dolphin. We could also here the pinning of the other passengers who's boats were anchored nearby, but were lifeless...no fun at all. They soo wanted to be onboard the Clipper..ha. Afterall, we were playing "Disco Box," whereby the box used for wine is placed in the middle of the floor. Each person takes a turn trying to lift
Divin diva!
Susan with Sam, the scuba instructor the box using only their mouth. If you touch the floor with hands, hair, knees, etc on strike one its a freebie, strike two got a smack with the big yellow flipper, and strike three involved finishing your drink and being removed from the game. Each time the task was completed around the circle, a strip of the box was removed to make it smaller and smaller. By the end of the game, it was literally a piece of paper lying flat on the floor. Needless to say I was out by this stage and that every person on board, including the crew managed to make complete fools of themselves..ha. Mighty craic!
The next morning we were all up at sunrise again for early morning snorkles and dives and for some people a wee lay in bed til about 7am. Once back on land we headed back to Magnums for some well needed showers, pampering (i.e. bug spray session) and food before heading to "Reefos" for the afterboat party for the Clipper and Tarongara passengers.
Tuesday everyone had a bit of a lay in and then met at the Airlie Beach Lagoon midday for some swimming, and laughs
at Jaime's monday nite experience (ps---keep your luggage away from him when your sleeping..ha..). That nite all the girlies met up at an italian bistro called "Boltz" before heading to "Beaches" for one final nitecap.
Really enjoyed our trip around the Whitsundays and couldn't have asked for better company, all and all this was definitely my favourite spot on the east coast so far.
Next stop: Magnetic Island!
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Amy
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Whitsundays
Sailing around the Whitsundays sounds like a very nice, relaxing activity. Hahaha, I love how you wrote that you picked up a few necessities for the trip and sea sick tablets and vodka were right next to each other. lol. Why wouldn't bags with zippers be allowed on the boat?! It's cool that the whole group was twenty-somethings. I bet it would have been a very different atmosphere had there been older people with you. That picture of Whitehaven Beach looks so surreal. Amazing. "Disco Box" must be an interesting game to say the least. I'll have to try it sometime! lol.