Whitsundays Sail Day 1 3/19/07

3.19 Sailing the Whitsundays

Today is sail day!!! We arrive at the beautiful Avatar, a huge trimaran sitting in a huge marina filled with so many big, gorgeous boats. There are 25 of us and 3 crew members for our 3 day cruise, the nice thing about the Avatar are the trampolines on either side that hang over the water and give lots of extra deck space. We head out of the marina, once clear we hoist the sails, 10 people on the main mast to pull her up....Such a beautiful boat when she is sailing!! We will sail for a few hours this morning and go out to Maureen Bay to snorkel and have some lunch. The islands are scattered around, all 74 of them that make up the Whitsundays, most are uninhabited, all are so beautiful, it reminds me of the thousand islands region in upstate NY.

We arrive at Maureen Bay and anchor and stinger suit up!!! The very stylish stinger suits,which include booties and hoods,really good lookin'- are suppose to protect us from the deadly box jellyfish, not so much from the small thumbnail size irigangi jellies, that can also be fatal. The snorkeling here is quite cloudy, we heard it would be, with all the rain and silt washing into the ocean the water is churned and murky..it was a bit disappointing to me, and being Russ's first snorkel couldn't have been to exciting... I will tell you what was exciting!,me, deciding I was done snorkeling and instead of raising my hand for a boat pick-up deciding to swim back! Oh ya, no problem...I can swim, until I start freaking myself out half way back to the boat, I am sure there is a shark following me out there in the open water! Holy Shit,what am I doing???, now I am swimming very fast and about to pass out, when I finally make it back to the boat,damn!!!

. Food on the Avatar was very good, Erin put on quite a feed for each meal, and each day for sunset we got plates of veggies,crackers, cheese and spreads..all went down well with the goon. Have I mentioned goon yet???? Goon is wine in a box, and if you say you are drinking wine you get laughed at.....$12.50 for 4 liters is goon, with names like fruity lexa and dry white...it is the drink of choice among backpackers -as it travels so well once you shed the box and sharpie your name on your goon...soo sad....I refused to buy the $12.50 variety, had headache written all over it!!! Oh to be young again!!

We are off and sailing again...now heading out to Whitehaven Island for the night. We get a great anchor and go ashore for a walk at sunset on the beach...if you see a picture of a gorgeous beach on a post card from Aussie chances are it is Whitehaven Beach....beautiful...powder soft white sand, you just want to walk on it all day, or perhaps roll in it naked! and the rainforest reaching down to meet the beach....lovely...5 of our crew are camping on the beach tonight...

Whitsundays sail Day 2

Day 2
Up by 7am and sailing by 7:30...cruisin around the islands and more snorkeling for the day..doesn't matter it is beautiful and relaxing...we have 11 countries represented on our boat..and 1 older couple...and that is not us..for once we are not the oldest!! The snorkeling is better today and the weather is perfect. This afternoon we will sail to a cove near Hayman island, an exclusive offshore resort...very swanky...We get a good spot for the night and soon lots of boats are surrounding us. We are treated to a double rainbow and then a gorgeous sunset!!!!!! that lingered forever. Dinner was a prime rib roast and very good, and later slaps, a drinking game the..Irish girls taught everyone "what's the name of the game..slaps..what's the aim of the game ..get f*&^&(% up" best game I think I have ever played...scary playing a drinking game with goon....Our boat was rockin until about 3am..after slaps will brought out the guitar for a sing along and then most people passed out...Ferg our crew member from NZ slept up in the main sail...like a hammock

I grabbed my pillow and sheet and slept up on deck on the tramp, our room was in one of the side pontoons, you had to jump down a hatch in the ceiling, however Russ was snoring so loud he was heard all over up on deck!!! The clouds and the moon were mesmerizing and I could barely go to sleep...suddenly there is music and it is 5:45am....payback for our antics last night from another boat nearby..ouch!!

Skipper Adam slept on deck as well, we wake up around 7ish with lots of people up and around and ready to go! and so we go....

Sailing the Whitsunday's day 3

Day 3

It is good Friday today, we will sail all day and arrive back to port around 4pm, the boat has been great..great people, great crew and great time...I find a piece of rope on the boat and skipper makes me a Turkish rope something..he tries to explain to me as he is tying it how it is done....uh...no not getting it, but I get a cool anklet, in America they are big in Nantucket where I think they are called something else????

The winds are fast today and the weather brilliant, we arrive back in Airlie to early and have to tack and turn and go back out to sea for a bit...it is fun and we get to see and race a few other beautiful boats along the way. We all make plans to meet for dinner and drinks at Beaches tonight..later to learn all the crazy good Friday rules..So on Good Friday in Australia there is no drinking alcohol, restaurants get around it if they are serving food....so....we get to Beaches and the line for the food is to the door, you can order food but you get a slip with the time on it and you can only drink for 1.5 hours after you order the meal and no one can drink at all after 10pm...soooo... at 8:30 the doors are shut and no more food cause it is 1.5 hrs til 10pm and..all our crew is left on the other side of the doors...all bars and restaurants are now closed until midnight when they can reopen!!!! We are stuck in beaches and about 2/3 of us are stuck outside...bummer...Thanks for the trip!!!

Fraser Island 3/13/08

3.13.08 Fraser Island

Today we have a bunch to do to organize for our camp!!! Up and out of the rooms by 6:30am....Watching videos, getting maps, learning Dingo safety, how to drive on sand, how to get out of sand if bogged down, not to drive thru ocean water...etc...by *:15 we finally have our group of 10...Team 1..and we are off for the grocery shopping. We have a schedule and have to catch the ferry over to Fraser at 11am, we make it.

We drive our jam packed land cruiser onto the ferry and have a 45 minute ride over to Fraser island, the largest sand island in the world, it also has a rain forest and several eco-systems as well as several fresh water lakes.

First we have to lower the pressure in our tires and head into the sand tracks..damn..really crazy tracks, especially with 10 people in the car and all our gear!! We spend about 45 minutes in the deep forest until we come to Lake Mckenzie.

Lake Mckenzie is a gorgeous fresh water lake with turquoise water and snow white sand, the sand is so fine and soft it is great for cleaning jewelry and even whitening teeth and scrubbing feet. It is a bit overcast so the water does not look as brilliant as it truly is. Dingo's are all over the beach and the parking lot...beware of the dingo has become our motto..altho it is hard to think of them as wild animals..they look like timid dogs...but remember..the dingo ate my baby!!!

We head back thru the Eucalyptus forest out onto 75 mile beach, it is the main road on the island..and also the runway, so you must keep a heads up for planes and yup one landed right in front of us... we are heading to find our campsite along the beach for the night as the tide is rising and we have times we have to be off the beach driving...after a few trips up and in the dunes we find a spot and start pitching tents, really simple..only one pole!!! old army tents, a small bit alarmed about all the snake holes, oh crab holes according to some...but we later learn they are funnel web spider holes...google the funnel web if you want a real scare...I still cringe!!! we eat a lovely meal of sandy sausages and hot dogs coated with sand too..too much drinking goon and cooking, and head with tarp in hand to a neighboring site for fun and games. Night.

Fraser Island 3/14/08

Day 2
This morning we all head out with the shovel to find our personal dunnies, oh the joy of the bush! Me, I go out into the sand dune and hope no one is driving by...I will not venture into the woods like the others, who all come out shrieking with stories of many spiders and critters....The spiders and critters in Australia are very big,furry,deadly and have been seared into my brain for eternity! The dunes are wide open and there is no fear of any crawly thing climbing on me while in a squat!

Back to back the land cruiser..and ...my most horrible memory of Australia!!!! As I am handing in the tents and such I look over on the seat of our land cruiser and see the biggest, furriest, nastiest spider I have EVER seen or even thought of!!! I scream and point it out and of course people are going nuts!!!! Next thing I know someone is swinging the shovel at it...please don't miss and let is burrow somewhere in the vehicle, cause I will not get in!!!!! It flies thru the air...looks like a bird it is sooooo big!!! and then splat on the floor of the truck...oh my freakin shit!!! It was as big as a softball, black and brown and furry and so scary it makes me squirm just thinking of it...and DEADLY as we later found out...you die with in 15 minutes of a bite...oh yay..good to know...can you guys drop me off at the ferry....

Back to the cruiser, it took a lot of inspection time before any of us would get in... we head back out on the beach and stop at the rusty wreck of the SS Maheno a luxury liner that crashed on the island long ago. We keep driving up to Champagne Pools where the violent sea is kept at bay and little Jacuzzis of safe water are filled with bubbling seawater. This is the only place where you can actually swim on the island other than the freshwater lakes in the center of the island, the ocean is too dangerous and filled with sharks and undercurrents. We eat lunch and hang here for most of the afternoon as the tide is high and we can't be driving until 4pm. When the tide is up there is no longer a beach to drive on, gone poof

We head out to Indian Head at 4pm and climb up to the top for a beautiful view of the beach, the ocean and the sand dunes on the island intermixed with the forests, it is so beautiful. The sun is setting and the light is glorious,there is a 360 degree view that takes your breath away....Beautiful Australia!

Fraser Island 3/15/08

Day 3
Still alive!!! Nice campsite last night and yummy pasta dinner. Today we head out to Lake Wabby. We have a hike to get there, starts out thru the rain forest and opens up to a huge sand dune. The massive sand blow of hot soft sand requires bare feet. When I turn around I see a line of others trekking over the dune up and over the hill, all just sand as far as you can see. And just when I get really hot and sweaty and curse the sun and sand-there it is, like a hallucination out of nowhere; an emerald green lake against a backdrop of lush eucalyptus forest. We slide down the dune, chuck our clothes and dive in the fresh water!!! Others are sand boarding down the steep dune right into the water...fun times...This is a dune lake, one of 40 on the island and half of all that exist in the world. We swim into the center of the lake and gaze at all the sand dunes and forest surrounding us.

After an afternoon of swimming we have to head back over the dunes and thru the forest to the truck, as we get close to the end a huge brown snake comes out of the bush onto the path before me, of course it is the venomous Brown snake and it is huge!! get me off this island!!

may 7 Paris

Another day exploring everywhere...Champs Elysees from Place de la Concorde to L'arc de Triomphe, Hotel de Ville, Pompidou Centre, Trocadero, Opera Granier, Les Invalides.etc..etc.. Mom and I took the bus tour around the city after lunch.

Another cool thing in Paris are the Velib which are the bikes for rent all over the city. They have rows of bikes parked and you can "borrow" them and then take them wherever and return them to another stand when you are all done..how great is that!!

Tonight Mom, Dad and I went to Isabelle's home! Isabelle was our exchange student back in high school and the next year I stayed in Paris with her family! It didn't feel as though we hadn't seen each other in 23 years !!! We went to her home and met her husband Patrick and the beautiful Clarisse who is 2! They have a lovely home in Paris where Isabelle served up a great meal, we were there until 11pm and Clarisse was a doll every minute, she had gone over to the couch and fallen asleep at the end of the evening.....so sweet!!! A fabulous way to end our time in Paris!

May 6 Paris

Another day in Paris!!! I had forgotten how cool this city is! Another amazing spring day! Took the Bateau Mouche down the river Seine, hopped off at the Eiffel Tower and took a ride to the top for some great views of the city!!! Another nice lunch outside and more French wine...and back on the boat for more pretty sites on the Seine, the Louvre, Pont Neuf, etc..it goes on and on so many sites here everywhere you look, left and right famous shit!!

This evening we head out on the metro..subway over to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. We get off the metro and see people running to catch the elevator?? no big deal we will take the steps...think spiral staircase u the empire state building....I was so dizzy at the top I could barely stand..and then we come out, walk a block and are at the bottom of a bazillion more steps to the top where the Sacre Coeur sits!!! Oh my freakin something! So we start walkin, almost to the top we hear singing, laughing and clapping..the stairs below the church are filled with people, it looks like a stadium, and a guy is at the bottom with a guitar leading the sing along to the Beatles Imagine..really cool scene....

And we reach the top as the sun starts to set over the city...this is one of the most magnificent views I think...and the Sacre Coeur shines as the last sun hits it...we sat on the steps and just enjoyed it all....

Wandering through the narrow streets of Montmartre with all the cafes and artists it all comes back to me being there 23 years ago...and the portrait I had done in the same square where people are sitting for portraits today...the same portrait still on the wall in Mom and Dad's house. We find a cute cafe and take a seat along the cobblestone road and eat french wine and cheese for hours...

May 5 Paris France

Today we fly from Istanbul to Paris and arrive early afternoon to a lovely spring day!! Spring is definitely the best time to come, everything is in bloom smells wonderful! Our hotel is in the Latin Quarter down the street from the Sorbonne and the Notre Dame, perfect for getting out and walking and exploring!

We head over to a lovely Brasserie for some lunch, french onion soup and a caprese salad..and of course some french wine......yumm....we sat outside overlooking a little square. After lunch we took a stroll down to the Seine and over to the Notre Dame, lots of people watching and fabulous warm sun.

Took a nap after hanging out on the balcony for a while, didn't wake up until midnight...but it's Paris so deb and I headed out!!! Found a hopping area full of people, clubs, pubs, brasserie's and fun, we got an outdoor table and joined in the fun at a little piano bar, eating dinner at 12:45!!
Bonsoir!!