After checking into our sailing trip as well as our hostel for the night, I finally did a little load of laundry. Travellers like us don't really do laundry often so it was a nice thing to do. I have done my undies though many times...don't worry...but other clothes just get sandy and salty and sweaty anyway...so why bother right..especially when it isn't so easy or you don't saty in one place long enough? (hehe)
We headed to pick up some things for sailing like sea sick pills in case we got sick, plastic zip lock bags for our cameras and an underwater camera to take pictures of the coral and fish. We went to bed and got up the next day, ate breakfast, wandered around and made our way to the harbour to catch our boat. We were on the sailboat "Condor" which was a maxi sailboat that had won some races and what not. It wasn't a huge boat like a pirate ship, instead it was a small smooth one that tips a great deal when sailing. We had a group of 27 people and a crew of 3. We shuffled into the cabin down below and set up our sleeping areas. These are tiny and the quarters were very cramped. Most of the beds are like bunks with a hanging cot above them...but only about 12 inches above someone else's head. Phil was beside me on a double bunk and Catherine (a friend) was above us...or rather me. It felt like I was in a little coffin...good thing I am not claustrophobic!
We set off and people helped put the sails up and we all had to sit on the "high side" so that we didn't get swept into the water on the low side. Our first stop was to snorkel. Since it is stinger season still (jelly fish) and they can be deadly, we all wore lovely tight stinger suits which made us feel like superhero's. I had an underwater camera and just took random pictures...many of them didn't turn out so I plan to rent a good one for diving! I saw a bunch of cool fish and coral...but still nothing compared to what I knew was out there on the Great Barrier Reef. We came back to the boat, found a cove to spend the night and ate dinner. We spent time just talking to people and having fun...occasionally hearing large splashes from fish...or something from the water. Seeing the stars from here too was amazing! We all managed to make our way to bed and no one seemed to have a great sleep that night. I kept hearing the waves break against the boat...and a door kept banging as we swayed in the water.
The next morning we were up at 6:30am and ate breakfast and drank some tea. We headed straight to White Haven Beach. We made a trek up on the other side to the look out and what we saw was amazing. So far...I think my favourite thing of the whole trip. The sand is silica sand and the finest sand in the world. It is so white and it goes through a canal through the island. When the tide is out...the water pools in places and doesn't in others leaving beautiful whites, blues and greens in all different shapes. It really is beautiful. We then made our way down the path to the actual beach and spent some time just sitting and relaxing. Then it was off again...lunch and then on our way to another area to snorkel.
This time I saw a little sting ray...so that was cool. Since it was more windy that day I was feeling a little queasy...but i managed fine. We ate dinner and found another spot to stay for the night and did the same thing as the night before...just talked to people and hung out. The next morning we woke up early, ate breakfast and took a quick early morning snorkel. This was cool because I had bread and was feeding the fish...especially these big bat fish that are really beautiful. After this we headed back and returned to Airlie beach for some showers and rest. We met up with the group later that night and then we were ready to leave to Townsville/Magnetic Island the next day...
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