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...
No comments:
Post a Comment