14th October - Pirating the Whitsundays

We have been out of contact with the real world for about 4 days or so now. The excuse is because we were sailing around the Whitsunday islands off the coast of Oz from Airlie beach. We went out on a cruise package thingy on a boat called Summertime. It was a cruise, dive and kayak tour and it was awesome. If you go to Australia this is something you have to do. The islands are amazing and sailing them is the best way to do it.

Summertime was a medium sized boat with 3 crew, a skipper called Chris who was a kiwi and had dreads and was particularly piratey. Ezza was our dive instructor plus entertainment specialist and then there was Carla, who was our host and cook and she was good at that we ate well for three solid days. I particularly enjoyed the pre dinner snacks she served up which were a meal in themselves.

We also had a top contingent of passengers too, 16 of us all together. Thoroughly international, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, English, Australian, Irish and the Scots. By the end of the trip we had all got to know each other pretty well and it was pretty sad to see people go. Some of the French and Dutch passengers got to know each other a little better than the rest making their own little 'love boat'.

As with all of our boat adventures it started out rough, 4 people were seeing their breakfasts after a mere 10 minutes of pirating. We were not phazed at all as it wasn't as rough as previous trips and we are now highly skilled in the sea legs department.

We got to blue pearl bay where we anchored up and got some protection from the sea. It was so calm and peaceful there. We did a bit of snorkelling and those that could dived. We saw some massive wrass fish, normally there would only be one hanging around but today there were 6 in a pack. These things were huge, much bigger than Sarah and nearly as big as me.

After we set off again for somewhere to sleep.

In the morning, we went to another bay for more snorkelling and diving. This reef was so colourful and amazing. The Irish party, Sam Fox no less (same name but much better person), came up from the water saying 'It's just like the discovery channel down there' and she was right.

Sarah's dive was cool as she got to go through rock tunnels underwater. Well jealous as I would kill to do that. But instead I jumped off the side of the boat with the Scots, Cameron, Maggs and Tom. That was a lot of fun and we were even spelling out words on the way down for the guys coming back onto the boat.
There were turtles all over the shop and some sharks too. Fish were everywhere.

The next day we went to Whitehaven beach, the number 1 beach in the world voted by national geographic and it was easy to see why. Whilst there we took (were made to take) cheezy photos, especially one of the two of us.

cheese

And we also did a human pyramid with 15 people, not easy. I got the bottom role, Sarah got row 4, but that was as far as we got, row 5 collapsed on the way up and we all went down and Carla got an awesome photo of us crashing down.

The trip was great, so easy and so relaxing. Totally awesome.
We did so much other stuff too but I've said too much already. Kayaking, more jumping off the boat, eating, drinking, rope trick games and more...

Spent now

Laters

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