We were up nice and early this morning because we had to pack our bags for our Whitsunday's Sailing trip, go to a checking in meeting and check-in to our next hostel - Magnums. We won't be staying there for 2 days, because we'll sleeping on the boat, but we will need somewhere to keep our bags whilst we're away. We had breakfast and then checked out before walking up to the shop Destination Whitsundays. After our meeting, we walked along to Magnums and explained our situation to them - they were happy to look after our bags... for $10. We packed the things we wouldn't need away (laptop etc) and left.
Our boat, the Habibi, was leaving at around 2pm - so we had to meet the rest of our group down at the marina at about 1.30pm. As it was still only about 11am we had a look around Airlie Beach for a few hours. Airlie doesn't have much of a beach (for some reason), but it does have a huge lagoon-type pool where people relax. So we shared a Subway sarnie and then chilled out there for a while.
We took the nice walk along the shore to the marina and got there in plenty of time. We met everyone else who would be sailing with us (there are 26 in total - plus 3 crew) and boarded the boat. At first we had to check ourselves in so that they could find out how many were in each group, and how many people were planning on going snorkeling etc. I made a point of telling Dan, one of the crew, that we were married - and i'm glad I did, because we were given our own private room - with double bed. Everyone else had to sleep around the boat on tiny bunks - some in the corridors with only curtains for privacy!
Pretty soon the Habibi had set sail and we were sailing from Airlie up through the Whitsunday Islands (there a 74 islands in total - and have been voted the second most beautiful set of islands in the world). Not long after setting off we had afternoon tea and then after a couple of hours sailing we stopped at a place called Tongue Bay - there were a few boats there, so I guess it was quite a good spot.
This evening we had a bbq for our tea and then we sat around drinking and chatting. When the sun had completely set the skipper took us to the front of the boat, where there were no lights, and showed us some things in the night sky. Being so far from land - with no bright lights about, the view was stunning! He showed us where the Milky Way was, where Scorpio was and pointed out some other things. Afterwards a few of us lay on the benches around the deck and were spotting shooting stars. Me and Nikki saw about 10 in total.
Aye Aye Captain... Whitsunday's straight ahead!
No comments:
Post a Comment