Island Breeze

We are back in Airlie Beach after a 2 night/3 day sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands! We got up bright and early on Sunday morning to meet our boat, the Matador, at the pier. Just to get you up to speed: At 24.9 meters in length Matador is the largest International Offshore Racing Maxi ever built. Matador was designed, developed and constructed at a cost of over US$20 million in 1991. The boat holds about 30 people, but we got lucky because only 18 were booked to sail. It takes a lot of people to get this thing up and running. We had to help with raising and taking down the sails every day. Ash and I preferred to hide and leave this job to the guys as often as possible, but we helped out (well, TRIED to help out) a couple of times. It took FOUR girls to raise one of the sails, and trust me, we were using all our might. Often when the boat is sailing it tips reaaaally far to one side, and everyone is required to sit along the raised edge of the boat and hold on for dear life. This boat clearly wasn't designed for a relaxing sail along the ocean, but it was super fun.

The first day was pretty cold and windy, so we skipped out on jumping in the water at all as we thought we'd never get our body temperature back up to normal. Monday and Tuesday, however, were great. It is cold when the boat is moving, so I was super glad I brought some warm clothes (my trip around the great barrier reef taught me exactly how one should pack for a boat trip). When the boat anchored and the sun was shining, the weather was great.

The islands were beautiful...so lush and full of plants. We headed to Whithaven beach super early on Monday to get there before it was packed with other tourists. I've never, ever, seen anything like it. Even though it was early and still a bit chilly, we couldn't resist taking a dive in the crystal clear water. The sand was amazing...it looked and felt like flour. Later that day, we went snorkeling, ate some delicious food (best food we've had in a while!) had a few drinks, and went to bed.

Tuesday morning was another early one (it's impossible to sleep in on a boat, especially when the Skipper starts the engine at 6:30am to intentionally wake everyone up with a LOUD "buzzzzz" sound). We literally shoved some breakfast down, threw our stinger suits on, and jumped in the water. We swam at Blue Pearl bay where a local fish named Elvis lives. He is a massive Maori wrasse fish who is quite accustomed to having people around. We brought bread bombs into the water and sure enough along came Elvis (he got his name because of the big bump on his forehead...looks like Elvis hair). He is super tame and lets you pet him. He actually came up to Ashley's leg and rubbed up against it like a cat!

The rest of the day was spent laying in the sun, eating more delicious food, and sailing a 4 hour sail back to Airlie Beach.

Later that night we met up at a place called Beaches in Airlie beach for a few beers with the crew and our fellow sailors. It was a great time!

We're taking the 11:50pm bus from Airlie beach tonight to head to Hervey Bay. It'll take about 12 hours, but at least we'll save a night's accommodation by sleeping on the Greyhound.

Cheers, Mate!

-H