Hello again folks! Darren and Kerry here, having returned from our excellent sailing trip around the incredibly beautiful Whitsunday Islands. For those who don't know anything about the Whitsundays, they consist of 74 separate islands that millions of years ago used to be connected to the main land as part of a mountainous area. Once the sea levels rised after the melting of the ice age, the valleys flooded with water leaving only the peaks remaining, which are the islands we see today. The islands were named after Captain Cook sailed through the area on Whit Sunday however the islands are curiously misnamed as once Captain Cook arrived back in England he discovered that his meticulously kept log book was one day out of date as he had failed to unjust for the International Date Line! To fill you in on what the last couple of days have been like just read on:

Wednesday 25th April

Woke up really excited in the morning as neither of us can wait to go sailing. It was ANZAC day so there was a lot of Navy personnel gathered around the harbour in their white uniforms. At 1:30 p.m. we met the Boomerang Crew at Abel Point Marina and also the rest of the group that we would be sharing the sailing adventure with. Luckily enough everyone was really nice and there was no idiots among them. The boat crew consisted of Jimmy the skipper, his right-hand man Max and Jenna and Louise who cooked the meals and helped with hoisting the sails and steering the boat. The ship itself was pretty impressive especially once we got underway out into the water and we could hoist the sails up and properly sail with the wind. I was chosen a lot during the sailing to help with hoisting the main sail with 3 other people, which was quite a new experience and hard work! We soon got chatting with everyone and making friends as we headed for our first destination, which was passing through the narrow inlet that seperates Hook Island with Whitsunday Island. As we exited the inlet we got to perform the first boat manouvere of the adventure by tacking out of the wind and changing direction heading down the East coast of the main Whitsunday Island. This was pretty exciting as the boat was sailing along at a really steep angle with everyone sitting on the high-side of the boat! We spent the rest of the afternoon slowly sailing down to Tongue Bay where we set anchor just as the sun was setting and we all cracked open some drinks and enjoyed a meal of steak.

Thursday 26th April

Woke up at 6:45 a.m. and enjoyed breakfast with everyone on the deck of the boat and we even got to see 3 or 4 large Loggerhead Turtles swimming around the edge of the boat which was really special. After breakfast we jumped aboard the small dingy that's towed alongside the main boat and jetted over to a small beach, where we all trekked up to Hill Inlet, which has the famous stunning view that you see on all the postcards of the Whitsundays, overlooking Whitehaven beach. After we took some amazing photos we walked back down the track and detoured to spend a couple of hours on Whitehaven Beach, considered to be the best beach in all of Australia. It's not hard to see why as the sand is 99% silica (ground-down quartz) meaning that the beach is the whitest, softest sand you could walk on and some of the girls even took to rubbing the sand into the skin due to it's ex-foliating qualities. The water there was crystal clear and we waded about taking lots of photos and trying to take in the beauty of the place. Around 11 o'clock we trekked back to the landing beach where we boarded back on the dingy back to Boomerang. We then set sail again, heading back along the coast of the main Whitsunday Island, then up to the tip of Hook Island where we dropped anchor again and all donned our wet suits for some snorkelling in Manta Ray Bay, where we saw some beautiful coloured fish and coral, including a huge metre-long Wrasse fish that we got to swim alongside! We then got back on the boat and sailed a bit further along to Maureens Cove, where we got back in the water for some more snorkelling, this time with some even more colourful and varied coral than before! Afterwards we got back on board Boomerang for some lunch and then some sailing around Hayman Island, finally dropping anchor at Stonehaven Bay, just off Hook Island. The sun quickly set and we enjoyed a meal of BBQ chicken and salad. We then got involved in some drinking games with everyone and then all went to bed feeling a little worse for wear!

Friday 27th April

This morning we were up eary again for breakfast and then we all got our wet suits on again for some more snorkelling. This time we didn't see quite as much coral as the previous day due to the tide being higher, however we still got to see some impressive coloured fish. Near the end of the session we started to spot a few Jelly fish so we were glad to get out of the water as Box Jellyfish and Irakunji Jellyfish are able to cause death. We then spent the rest of the morning doing some more sailing and sun-bathing on deck before arriving back in the harbour at 11 a.m.

Tonight we have been invited to a boat party with everyone on board to have a few drinks so will probably go for a few before heading off again up the coast for our next destination! We're hopefully going to start having a look around at prices to book our diving course, so we should be updating you all again in around a week's time with more news on our adventures!