The Whitsundays

Whitsundays

Sailing around the Whitsunday Islands was quite an experience. It was hard work, but a real adventure at the same time. (After the reaction to my previous comments about bad weather I had decided not to talk about it again, but to leave it out of my tales about the Whitsundays sailing trip would be like not mentioning I was on a boat - the weather is such an important part of being at sea.)

Hard work due to the terrible freezing weather and the cramped conditions below deck - I kept banging into the ceiling above my top bunk & got little sleep. There was only 1 toilet and no shower on board. It poured down the first day and was so cold, but the weather dried up and wind dropped as the 3 days passed and we actually caught a glimpse of the sunshine as we sailed back into the Airlie Beach marina! (It's raining heavily again now though.)

But the islands were beautiful even if they looked much more dramatic than normal due to being covered in gloomy clouds and misty rain. Whitehaven Beach still looked fantastic and was the prettiest place we visited. The sand on Whitehaven beach is 99.9% silica which makes it the whitest & finest sand you're ever likely to see. The lens on the Hubble telescope was made from this sand due to its quality. The silica washes up from an old volcanic crack in the sea bed not far off the beach, it's quite unique. Whitehaven is one of the most photographed beaches in the world and if you've seen a postcard from Oz with a beach scene on it, chances are it is Whitehaven.

I'm told that on a dry day the sand squeaks between your toes, but the rain had compacted it down a bit when I was there. It was still incredibly soft in the shallow waters on the sea's edge. Plus we saw lots of rays swimming about the inlet there as it is a big breeding ground for them. That was cool.

The sailing was a highlight too. Hammer is an ex-racing yacht and was placed a few times in the Sydney - Hobart race. There was plenty of strong wind to catch (one positive about the weather) and we got up to 12 knots. At just under 25 kph this doesn't sound fast but it is very quick to be pushed along the water by wind power alone. Some of the faster racing yachts go about double that speed in ideal conditions with a professional crew, so our speed wasn't bad for a bunch of amateurs.
It's very exciting when the boat is tipping sideways at around 45 degrees and we are all clinging on to the high side of the boat to balance it out and keep from tipping!

I'm back on dry land now waiting for the next leg of my bus trip south, which is tomorrow morning at 0700.