Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Got to airlie beach on 29th june and spent a day shopping and taking in the lagoon, bars, restaurants and beach which really was stunning. Met back with the boys at our orientation where a drunken western aussie was asking if I wanted a free trip on a boat round the islands the day after. After thanking and declining him at once I then find out that he will be my skipper for the next 3 days...oh dear!
Up nice and early, all aboard the boat after finding out that the other 11 people on our boat are irish apart from 2 germans...this combined with meeting our skipper the night before left us feeling..well doomed really. Could we have been more wrong! This was the most amazing experience of my life. Absolutely breath taking and so much fun. Everyone on board was so nice, after motoring out of the marina and being given the rules by our deckie j, the skipper took us onto the deck to tell us about the boat. Ragamuffin 2 was a racing boat which had competed in the admirals cup and was now being used for tours however when we loosened and tied the sails, Ragamuffin 2 was restored to her former glory and we tilted and flew into the group of 22 whitsunday islands which were discovered by captain cook on 3rd June 1770 (whit sunday).
First stop was at the nara inlet for a bush walk and lunch which helped us realise just how stunning the scene was for our next 3 days travelling and this is where we took the photos of our boat floating on the ocean...unreal! Next we were off to dunbell island to snorkel, help one of the girls overcome her fear of fish and feed an eagle who caught the bread we through in huge talons while doing backflips...amazing. Next onto tongue bay to moor for the night before getting up early and going to the infamous whitehaven beach made of white silicon sand and the most turquoise sea you'l ever see. after some jewellery cleaning and exfoliation (which we'd been promised worked really well in this sand) we headed up to the lookout to take photos and then went back to the boat.
Onto luncheon bay to swim through a complete coral garden of incredible coloured coral and a huge amount of stunning fish...quite scary not knowing what was round the next corner but truely amazing and totaly breath-taking. our skipper also took us round to another bay where he gave us bread to attract these huge wrasse fish and gave us a glass bottom bucket so we could see them more clearly. gregson stuck bread in a snorkel mask and put his head in and got fully attacked by fish...really funny, fool! back to the boat, more eagle feeding, more amazing food and to sleep after a few beers up on deck where skipper showed us that when you moved the water, the phosphorous reacted and sparks flew by starking up the motor boat on the back...it was really strange and after a few more beers, the boys found they could recreate this sparkling effect by peeing over the edge...scrummy...definitely time for bed
we woke up early the next morning and went over to an island which was like a personal tuny sandbank and got to snorkel with turtles and relax for a few hours before heading back home from the most incredible trip, in the more incredible place with the most gorgeous sunsets. however, it was definitely not over as all in one day we got to see turtles, the first humpback whale of the season swimming past (which we were happy to view from afar but as the skipper started powering towards it to get a closer look, we all became very aware of how small out 13-man sail boat actually was!) and then after the whale, fish, turtles and coral came a school of dolphins swimming right under the bow of our boat...back to airlie beach completely speechless for a night on the tiles which ended fairly early on as we were all wiped from sleeping in tiny cabin beds which lined the walls of the boat for the last few days.
Unbelievable experience and not a cloud in the sky all 3 days!
- comments