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Got up and dressed with probably too much stuff fort sailing with us (defo) and headed out tyo Gloria's cafe on the old marina for our pick up to take us to our luxury catamaran called Avatar...All good, got our stinger suits and paid our reef taxes and headed out to the vessel with 24 other adventurers...all was fine and we were intorduced to Ben (the deckie), becky (the chef) and Steve (the skipper). All were thouroughly nice and gave us the obligatory health and safety talk about do's and don'ts while sailing...Sarah is in busman's holiday heaven...everything is just peachy and we head out under inpulse power (this vessel is supposed to be quick as you like) and then we go to our bunks for the next two nights...sorry about this but they are s*** after being sold on a private cabin we ended up with a hole at the front of the ship with dodgy wireing, a room not big enough for the whitsunday cat swinging championships and bouys and ropes for pillows, Sarah was not a happy sailor I can tell you!!!
Anyway, we got underway and Steve helped to hoist the mainsail and we headed out for aroung three/four hours (getting V Sunburned in the blazing sun) to Whitsunday Beach...WOW..The view is amazing and the sand is around 95% silica so it is just like powder..we had a game of catch and all was well and this halped to take the sting out of the aforementioned burn...it was just the most amazing beach I thought I'd ever see, but then there was Betty's..more on that later..We then headed back to Avatar and had some scoff and goty to know the crew and the other travellers..Everybody was really nice and we had a laugh with a getting to know your fellow man stuff with the whole group and the skipper..that really helped to break the ice..was also saw a moonrise which was pretty special..the first nights kip was not our most pleasant experience though..after a few beers, we decided to turn in...I got maybe 1 hrs and Sarah less than me due to not being able to get comfortable and a very noisy snorer from Canada who decided to sleep on deck but 1 ft away from our luxury bunk...Sarah wanted me to kill him...I didn't...I am not that much of a hypocrite yet...So Sarah is not really that grumpy considering that she has had nee sleep and I am Ok and we went to the lookout in the morning..Sarah didn't go with but she missed out here as the loookout was a really cool vista but Betty's beach was just out of this world...the sand was almost as fine as that on Whitsunday island but the view to the other islands and the rays and the dunes and...have a look at the photos anyway...If there is a place i'd like to return to..it would be there..amazing..We then got the tender back to the boat and went snorkelling...1st spot wasn't all that as it was a little cloudy but the second was good and the blue coral was amazing..That night we (well I) had a few more bevvies and we slept on deck...It was an amazing sight to see so many stars in the sky and Sarah looked amazed by it and so was I..Sarah slept like a bloody log, me not so good, but hey, one out of 2 ain't bad..more snorkelling in the morning and thesights were really good, v claer and an abundance of big fish (sarah now wants to adopt a batfish I think) We also saw turtles, dolphins and a humpback whale...just amazing..Sarah stayed out of the ferocious sun on the way home and I was doing my sailor bit on board for a while...we then raced another vessel back to Airley Beach...al was going well until the skipper snapped the chain on the rudder steering (and hilariously fell on his arse) 10 mins from harbour and we went into a spin and nearly clobbered the other boat...after some crude fixing we limped into Airley marina and said goodbye to everybody for a couple of hrs as we were meeing them for drinks that eve...now knackered and not having had a shower for 3 days we waked up a v steep hill to get our car and then had to find a room for the night...found one..went out and got very drunk until around 1am with Ben, Senna and Rolf..bit of a mad one...next installment from Hervey Bay
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