Whitsundays Sailing

It is 5 oclock on Thursday evening, and I only have 2 days left in Australia, although essentially my trip is over because the next two days are travel days. I have absolutely loved my time in Australia, and definitely am looking forward to coming back here sometime soon (hopefully), and when the weather is a bit warmer!

The past three days, the Ross girls and I, spent sailing on a maxi yacht. The boat, named "Spank Me," was a former race yacht, that won some important race in 1989. So, while it was cool to be on a fast sail boat, it wasn't exactly the most comfortable boat, especially compared to the yachts I was used to from Sail Caribbean! The boat measured approximately 100 ft, and including crew, we had 26 people crammed aboard.

Our group was great, very multicultural--including Swiss, French, Irish, American, Austrian, Danish, and Scottish. Again, we faced the task of changing the rest of the world's opinion of Americans. (Side note: one of the most common comments I hear is "Americans never travel) I must say, I think we did a good job, especially since one of the Swiss guys did admit after meeting us, he did change his views of Americans, from being lazy, loud and self-centered. We were among the youngest on the boat, but there were a number in our age range. The others went up to age 27, but despite the age difference and nation difference we all got along very well.
The first day began in the afternoon, and we immediately began sailing for the inlet by one of the Whitsunday's islands where we moored for the night. Once we arrived, our hostess passed around a snack platter while we got to know each other. We had a delicious, hot dinner, cooked and cleaned for us, which was such a nice change! The wind was pretty strong, and the temperatures were less then optimal (pretty much the story the whole time...) so after hanging out for a little bit, I went to bed pretty early. The next day, we awoke at 7 for breakfast, and the n sailed for a few hours to our snorkeling and diving point for the day.

I was nervous to dive because I had not dived since 2001, but I was comforted by the fact that the dive master on board told me my dive certification was one of the best, and compared to the others who had really speedy courses, in places like Cairns and Thailand, I was a little more reassured. We had split into diving teams the night before, and I was diving with 4 other certified divers in the first group, so there wasn't much time to get myself nervous or fret about the cold! We got to the beach and put all our equipment out and then snorkeled to the coral reef we were to explore. I initially had a lot of trouble getting down, so after a bit, we all came to the surface and two of the girls gave me some of their weights and after readjusting, I was able to get down just like old times.

I had a blast diving. While I remember loving it in the Caribbean, I had forgotten that amazing high I got from being under the water and in a completely foreign and astounding world. The next day we were meant to be sailing to the outer great barrier reef, which I was looking forward to especially because it meant that I could cross off another thing on my list of "things to do in life"list. Unfortunately, the poor weather prevented this from happening, but we were able to dive at another site, just off one of the other islands. This time I had a lot more fun (if that's possible) because I was a lot more confident about what I was doing, and more focused on the stunning coral and underwater life than on the actual diving. The two girls in front of my buddy and I saw a reef shark and a manta ray...I was so mad I didn't see those two animals, but, honestly, everything I saw was so impressive, I can not complain at all. The coral had beautiful vibrant colors, and was a lot more extensive than I can remember any coral we saw in the Caribbean.

My experience diving off the Whitsundays Islands made me want to continue to pursue diving around the world. I am already planning on coming back to Australia so I can go to Cairns and do the actual Great Barrier Reef sometime in the warmer months. I am going to start checking the discount airfare sites every so often to see if I can get a good deal. I also am going to make sure that when I travel to S.E. Asia I dive there as well. We got back to Airlie Beach on the third day around 11, and immediately proceeded to our hostel to take much needed showers and rest. While the sleeping conditions weren't too bad, our early mornings made us exhausted. Our boat is meeting up tonight at a bar for drinks and dancing, and I'm looking forward to being able to hang out altogether at night without having to wear lots of layers and shivering in the wind!