Sailing the Whitsunday Islands, Australia Part 2

If you missed Part 1, find it here.

In the beautiful resort town of Airlie Beach, we checked into our sailing trip and boarded the lovely 43' ketch Kiana for three days and two nights of navigating the Whitsunday Islands. We were assigned a "big" cabin under the deck with a double bed and a bunk above. The double was missing a corner. I slept in the upper bunk because it was hot both nights. There were twelve other passengers and four crew aboard. Two from DC, four from Hungary, two from Germany, a French family of four, and our Aussie crew. We sailed (motored) out of the harbor, through Hook Passage to Whitehaven Beach which may be the most beautiful place in existence.


We hiked up to a few overlooks of swirling turquoise waters and white sand. Then walked down for a little beach time. Like in Cairns, we were required to wear stinger suits to get in the water. So, we had a beautiful beach to enjoy dressed like ninjas. Hmmmm… We walked the whole beach and waded into the water to find stingrays that wander right up into the shallows. There were also these pretty little lemon sharks in a lagoon and the shallows. It was amazing!


Afterward, we sailed around Whitsnday Island and camped in a cove in the wind for the night. The Whitsundays have these delightful creatures called March flies. When I say delightful, I mean hell spawn. They are the size of quarters and can bite through a 1mm wetsuit. The youngest of the French boys was contracted as our fly killer. He was very successful. I enjoyed a lovely sunset on the way to the cove. We had a steamed dinner that was amazing: lamb, pumpkin, and root veggies. Then everyone crashed out almost immediately.

The second day we moved to a little reef for some diving. Mike and I went with the two Germans in the first group. We saw a bunch of nudibranchs (sea slugs) of different varieties. They were a lot bigger and more beautiful than any I'd seen before. I know, sea slugs sound gross, but you're thinking sea cucumbers, which are freaky. I also saw a bumphead wrasse which is different from the parrotfish at the first stop. Unfortunately, the vis was terrible and we had a newbie diver with us. So, 35 mins later we were on the surface. This was annoying to me after three days of independent 50-60 minute dives. Oh well. The sailboat's dingy picked us up with a rope and handles tied to the back and dragged us back to the boat. We were facedown, kicking for stability, with our regulators in, so it was basically speed diving as I watched the reef zip by beneath me. I thought it was super fun. Under the boat, some huge gray angel fish were hanging out. Afterward, Emmy the divemaster and overall leader of the trip took two other groups of people scuba diving. The four of us from the first lot hung out in the sun on the front of the boat.

In the afternoon, everyone jumped into the water for some snorkeling. We saw some fishies, some clams, and just enjoyed being in the sunshine in our dorky wetsuits. We weren't allowed to dive more than a few feet due to risk of nitrogen in the blood after scuba diving. But I always love to be in the water.

We motored over to another cove for the night. It seemed to be the spot to be. We were surrounded by other catamarans and monohulls. Some of these are bareboat charters, others were tour boats. Our boat's personal amusement came from watching a boat called "Spank Me" sail past with a whole load of bros and maybe three or four girls. In the harbor we had a pasta dinner followed by crepes. Everyone started to make their way to bed. I heard splashing next to the boat and went to investigate. Like on the dive boat, the light was attracting plankton. This time, however, the plankton brought in squid. A giant trevally was feeding on the squid. If you know nothing about giant trevally, watch this video. Once the lights were out, the big fish disappeared and we watched bioluminescent squid inking their way all throughout the bay. The wind was blowing which meant pockets of bright, numerous stars opened above us. Occasionally a shooting star crossed the sky. This was one of those perfect moments I will remember forever.

The last day, two of the try divers went out for another dive. Mike and I swam from the boat to a little reef and did some free diving. We swam out with weight belts while the rest of the group was dropped off from the zodiac with pool noodles. Who lives in the water? *raises hand* The vis was again terrible, maybe 8 feet at best. I would lose sight of Mike almost immediately when he dove. We saw a sting ray, a really big silver fish, another bumphead wrasse, and a ton of gorgeous blue, green, and purple clams. The clams might have been my favorite thing. I know. It sounds lame, but they're like disco pretty.

We stopped at a pretty little island with a big sandbar and "hiked" up to an overlook. It was a pretty stop and nice to get off the boat for a minute.


From there, we packed up our cabin and sailed, yes, actually sailed, back to the harbor. I love sailing! I need to get better at it so that I can do a trip like this on my own schedule. The trip back in was lovely! Captain Greg who's been doing this for the past 30-something years gave us all the gossip on who owned which boat or mansion, how much they paid for it, etc. He's sailed almost every boat in that harbor. He was awesome!

We spent the night in Airlie and met up with all of the folks from the trip for drinks, dinner, and live music at a bar. It was really fun until they jacked the music up for the second live performance. After an hour of yelling at each other while the table worked through three pitchers of free beer, we left with our ears reverberating.

Part Three