Whitsundays - Part 1

Tuesday 25^th July

One of the attractions for me in going on a sailing trip was to experience a proper sailing boat and with this in mind, I paid out for a trip on a boat called ‘Eureka II’, which is a maxi-class boat – approximately 80 foot long. Wayne – you’d love her! Anyway, the boat would be undergoing a re-fit once she’d finished the trips this week and being raced in the Sydney-Hobart.

She was departing the Marina at 2pm and we were advised to get there for roughly 1.30 to hear the pre-sail briefing and all that truck. I rocked up to the meeting point and joined 3 others who were also catching the Eureka. A lovely Dutch couple and a Yank from Washington who had joined the boat for a week to gain some sailing experience – hard core!

As 2pm came and went, I started getting a bit twitchy and walked over to the harbour master for instructions. It turned out that the Eureka II meeting point was across the other side of the Marina – and as we were already late I had all sorts of visions of missing the boat. Eventually, we were met by a guy who looked quite bedraggled and worn out as he’d been running between the two meeting points trying to round up everyone – there had evidently been a cock-up!

Once on the boat, all was well, the Cap’n showing us around the boat – beauty mate! It even had working showers and everything! O kick us all off, hose of us who were interested were shown a bowline and asked to practise it – reminding me of my Boy Scout career! After we were clear of the harbour, we could raise the sails and that was good fun as the wind whipped the sail about as we were trying to raise it! A buckle from the end of the sail flew up and nearly hit one of the guys in the face – it was life or death out there!!

Due to the late start with all the farting about trying to find everyone, we basically headed straight to where we would be spending the night, which was on one side of the island where you find Whitehaven beach – which we would visit the next day. Just after dinner, I’d settled upstairs with a beer when we heard this chirping and squeaking from the side of the boat and saw a dolphin – how cool is that?! A couple of us stripped off and jumped in but the schlippery schucker decided to disappear unfortunately and I was left to have a little swim as the sun set – and what a sunset it was, as I hope the pictures show.

The camera unfortunately doesn’t do the actual view justice but it was still awesome.

The evening was very relaxed, as we settled down to a few beers and a board game where you had to complete the remainder of the song, quote from film or children’s nursery rhyme. It was a very frustrating game but great fun as we all shouted and bawled our way through the answers!

That night, due to an administrative oversight it turned out that I didn’t have anywhere to sleep and as it was raining up on deck, I couldn’t crash under the stars which was something I really wanted to experience. In the end, I just passed out on the main table with a swag bag – a cool waterproof sleeping back with a small mattress inside – very comfy and warm!

Wednesday 26^th July

Another shitty day in paradise – what a beauty – the hangover cleared up straight away as soon as I jumped into the milk pond ocean. The best part of this was seeing one of the girls getting dressed on the bow of the boat thinking there was no-one there. Her face as I climbed out of the water was a picture to behold and I could see she was dying to ask me what I’d seen! I saw it all luv and it was beautiful – thanks! X

First stop then, Whitehaven Beach, which is so named as its white! It truly does look like paradise and the only slight disappointment was that the water was very shallow – making swimming a bit of a chore. I also had my first taste of green tree ant here – one of the guys had mentioned that they tasted of lime and sure enough they do!! Couldn’t eat a whole nest but certainly one or two is no problem! Mmmm.