Sailing the Whitsundays, Day 3

7/30: Whitsundays, day 3



Our last day of our sailing trip... it was bittersweet, knowing that it'd be some time before I had the chance to enjoy being on a sail boat of this size again.

We had a great surprise as we cruised to our last snorkel stop – with a whale surfacing about 200 meters away...



Then it was the best snorkel stop of the trip, with seriously varied and complex coral formations.

As we suited up, Josh and Cat saw that the couple of sea eagles that called this bay home were around, so they threw a bacon-wrapped onion into the water, where it floated about 25 meters away...

… the eagles were pretty used to sail boats, and one swooped in and grabbed it in a flash. What made it even more amazing is that eagles' feathers aren't waterproof, so if they even slightly misjudge the dive, they would be stuck on the water and forever unable to fly away.




Once we got in the water, I almost got lost, which is pretty funny if you think about it. The water was clear and shallow, only about 10 to 20 feet deep, but as you got going among the winding coral alleys, if you wanted to turn around, it was occasionally a very tight fit. You can't go up and over, as the razor sharp coral reached near the surface, so it was the snorkelling equivalent of a five point turn... very, very carefully.

Finally, it was time to head back to Airlie Beach, mostly under full sail and no motor. It was sad to leave, but all in all, three days was just about the right time to experience that – still a novel treat, without it getting even tinged by becoming routine.

Here's the route for the trip:



...and a pic of how we generally spent our time, when the boat was underway...



The rest of the afternoon was spent in the resort town of Airlie Beach, and then it was time for a 12 hour bus ride down the coast, to our launch point for Frasier Island in the morning!

Sailing the Whitsundays, Day 2

7/29 - the Whitsundays, day 2:

The next morning, I got up early and had the pleasure of having the boat to myself for a bit in the early light. No dawn, as the island whose harbor was sheltering us blocked it, but it was a great chance to just soak up the scene and realize (again!) how unbelievably lucky I was. Yup, no chance of me taking this sort of thing for granted...

The waves were higher as we rounded the point, so we had an hour of decent-sized swells crashing over the bow, keeping us alert by randomly dousing us with water... the best defense was a good offense, so I ended up sitting right on the bow triple-dog-daring the waves to get me. I ended up pretty wet and humbled, but it was still a very good time.



Our morning sail took us to Hook Bay, with some more snorkelling among some awesome multi-level coral formations, then it was off to Turtle Bay, named for (drum roll, please)... well, turtles. With loads of sea grass, dozens use this harbor as home, so we got to see a bunch just tooling around the water...



We took the launch ashore, and had an afternoon on Whitehaven Beach – one of the larger of the Whitsundays. First it was up to a view point... you can't see in the pic, but the shallows were rife with dozens of stingrays.



… and then we got a view of a somewhat closer nature – a (to me at least) freakishly larger Golden Orb spider in its web.



No, no – no girlie squeals here... I just made seriously sure that my camera lens was no where close to the web. Closeups are great – but that would be pushing things a bit...

We got to chill out at the beach itself, and thankfully, the stingrays bailed out while the tourists were about, so we didn't have to worry 'bout the odd stinger in the foot.

Some more sun, biscuits, and some frisbee and then we were back on the boat for a lasagne dinner, and teaching Hearts to a cool mother/daughter Alaskan duo.