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We got up on Wednesday the 23rd and sorted our stuff out then, checked it into the storage blocks, grabbed lunch, pottered round town for a bit then headed to the harbour for 12:45. We waited for a little while in the undercover waiting area. Then a couple of girls came up and asked if we wanted to spank them, after considering it for a couple of seconds we realised it was a boat they were after called 'Spank Me', we shuck our heads and sent them on there way. Shortly later an Irish girl called Emma (one of the crew) arrived asking for people who were on 'Prima', there were 11 of us 4 couples, 2 French girls and an Italian girl. So a nice small group and no Schoolies. We got sized up for our stinger suits and then escorted through the harbour to the boat. We then met Mitch who was our skipper and warned us to be careful when climbing the stairs onto the boat as they wobble. Since I was at the back of the queue I had forgotten the warning by the time I got to the front and nearly went flying over the side, guess I failed the first test.
We dumped our stuff in our little cabin then headed up on deck and sunbathed while we headed out of port towards the Whitsunday Island range. On the way out we saw a turtle swimming on the surface which was cool. After a while we arrived at a little island and we stopped just off shore and got into our stinger suits. We then got taken closer in their inflatable motor boat and jumped into the water. We snorkelled around seeing some amazing coral and some cool fish before we got told we had to head on. We got back on the boat and were told we had been out there for an hour and 20 minutes, it seemed like it had only been half an hour. We then headed onwards and the sails were raised and we sailed through the Whitsunday's. Was lovely relaxing on deck without the hum of the engine. He then asked if anyone wanted to jump of the front of the boat, I quickly jumped up and said yes, I was shocked that nobody else wanted to do it, then realised why…… he wasn't planning on stopping the boat while I did it. I climbed up onto the railings at the front and dived off….. well kind of lost my balance and tumbled off. I then quickly swam back towards the boat and managed to quickly grab the rails at the back just before it went past. Emma then did the same which made me feel a lot better as when she did it it really looked like she just tumbled off.
After a few hours relaxing on deck; sunbathing and eating Nachos with cheese and salsa, while we sailed along we arrived at a place near Captain Cook Island. We dropped anchor and got taken over to another little island to sit on the beach and watch sunset. While watching the sun set we saw dolphins in the distance jumping up and down on the surface of the water. We then headed back to the boat for dinner; Chicken stroganoff mmmmm better then our usual pesto pasta. After gobbling it down we went and sat up deck drinking for a bit, someone then spotted a fish over the side, we shined a few torches down and saw that the ship was surrounded by millions of little fish and a shall of squid. We watched for a while then saw a shark appear and swim around, amazing sight to sea, we watched while sharks appeared and disappeared into the depths. Mitch then headed down and grabbed a chunk of Tuna attached it to a line and then dipped it in to try and get the Shark closer. Unfortunatly by the time he had done that the fishes and sharks had decided to swim away and all that were left were the squid swimming around.
We relaxed for the rest of the evening and Mitch said in the morning we could either have a lie in or go snorkelling in this area. I said I would be up ready for snorkelling, Rachel on the other hand, had another look over the side where the sharks had been and kindly declined. We then headed to bed to be rocked to sleep by the waves.
The next morning I was up bright and early while Rachel continued to relax in bed. I suited up and got taken out with two of the others and dropped into the shark infested waters. We swam around for a while but the area was too misty to see anything impressive (probably good as it meant we couldn't see any sharks swimming around our feet. We then headed back to the boat for breakfast which we had nearly missed. We then headed towards the Whitsunday Island to sea White Heaven Beach, which is a beach, which goes for miles. The sand on the beach is so fine it was melted down into glass and used for the Hubbell telescope. When we reached the start of the beach we raised the sails and sailed along the shore, while we relaxed on deck with tea and biscuits.
When we reached the end of the beach we anchored up and people grabbed there stuff ready to head over in the little motor boat. Realising this would take to long and wanted to maximise my time on the beach, I left me stuff for Rachel to bring over and jumped in and just swam to shore, and yes I did beat the motor boat. We took our first steps on the beach and it was amazing, the sand was so fine it just folded around your feet. It was lovely, we laid on the beach relaxing while reading our books for a couple of hours. We then head a walk along the beach and saw lots of fish swimming just a couple of meters from the sand. On the was back we also saw a massive Sting Ray, which followed us along the shore line.
We were then picked up and headed back to the boat. We sailed around for a bit longer before getting to another little island where we were the only boat there, apparently your only allowed there if you have less then 12 people on your boat so we just made the cut. We stopped there for a while to do a bit more snorkelling around and then swam back to the boat and continued sailing towards Cooks Island again. When we reached Cooks Island we anchored up again near a part of the Island which had a resort on it which allowed us to use the how showers. Which was nice since the boat just had cold showers, which you had to hold and take in a tiny little room, so needless to say we had been having baths in the sea instead.
Me and Rachel decided to have a snorkel before hand so we sent someone else over with our bags and we started snorkelling about, but after 5 minutes Rachel's mask started leaking so she went ashore for a shower while I continued…..yes in the shark infested waters…… yes all alone. After a little while I found a large bit of corral with loads of fish swimming about it. I swam over and after floating for a bit loads of fish were swimming around me, there was a nice purple looking one, which tried to nibble my goggles and camera case, which was cool. After playing about with the fish for half an hour I started to remember the sharks from the night before and decided to swim to shore and grab a shower. Since Rachel was already in the shower and had the bag with all my stuff and I didn't have a clue when she would re-emerged from the shower I decided to have a swim in the lovely hot resort pool. When she did finally come out of her hour long shower I headed in for a quick soak before we headed back to the boat for some wine and spaghetti bologna's.
After filling our stomachs we headed back to land for a few drinks at the bar. We sat by the edge of the beach with some of the other couples having a couple of quite drinks, while there were a large group of youngsters playing drinking games closer to the bar. It then started to rain lightly so Mitch said we should go under the cover, there was a free bench to the side of where the youngsters were so we sat there. Then Mitch turned to the youngsters and asked if they minded us joining in, they agreed and then Mitch turned round to us and said he was going back to the boat and would pick us up later….. cheers mate get us into the drinking games then run away. Turns out there drinking game was more to slow your drinking down then speed it up, you poured a sip of your drink into a plastic cup then you were split into 2 groups and had to take turns in your group drinking your sip then placing your cup on the edge of the table and flipping it so that it was upside down, if you couldn't flip it you kept trying until you succeeded, but you only drank once. My improvement would be every time you fail in flipping the cup you need to top it up again. So we had a few games then made our excuses and went to the beach to drink down there since the rain had stopped and we realised it would take about 10 hours to finish our 1 drink if we carried on playing. We wondered along the beach for a bit then Mitch came back and picked us up and we headed back to the boat for a rocky night sleep.
The following day I got up while everyone else remained in bed and suited up for another snorkel. Just before getting in the water I saw a massive turtle swimming on the surface. Unfortunately by the time I got over there it had disappeared, I swam around for a bit and found the purple fish again and swam around with him and his friends for a bit before I headed back to the boat. Rachel had arose and we had breakfast, then the boat headed back towards mainland. We sat relaxing on deck in the roasting heat looking out at the Whitsunday's Islands as we passed. We also spotted some jumping fish and some dolphins playing further out. We finally got back around 10:30 and took a couple of group photo's before we said our farewells to the crew and group.
- comments
Mum Sounds like you had a wonderful few days. The photos are super.Love ya xxx