Whitsundays, QLD

Our next stop was Airlie Beach, which is really just a gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. They are a stunning group of islands off the east coast of Australia. The weather was stunning with the sun shining, not a cloud in the sky and since we were heading further north it was getting warmer. After having lunch at a park at the beach we went looking for deals to sail the Whitsundays. We were going to book ahead but decided against it since it wasn’t the high season and we thought we could get some last minute deals.

We walked around from travel shop to travel shop and finally found one that had employees who knew what they were talking about. We booked a 3 day/2 night cruise aboard the Kiana sailboat for the following day. We were able to get a great price for it because it was so last minute, and after talking with Anne she booked with them too. She would meet us at Airlie Beach later on that night. Included in the price was 2 nights at a hostel. Since parking was scarce we decided to stay at the hostel that night (so we had somewhere to park the car) and then again when we got back from the trip. Andrew negotiated a great price for us and even received a further $10 off because, as the guy told him, just because you asked. So there you go folks, proof that if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

We bought some burgers and beer at the grocery store and headed to a park to use one of their free BBQ’s. We had a great time watching the sun set while grilling the burgers and drinking some beer and wine. After dinner we checked into the hostel and Anne met us there shortly. The 3 of us had an 8 person dorm room to ourselves and we went to sleep early as we had to be up early to meet the boat the next day at 8am.

We arrived at the marina and boarded the boat. Our captain introduced himself and explained the rules of the boat and everyone introduced themselves. The weather was stunning and we were excited to get going. We were a little behind schedule but soon enough we were on our way. Earlier in the morning it had a been a little chilly but the sun was higher up now and everyone was slowly taking off their sweatshirts and sitting at the front of the boat in their t-shirts soaking up the sun. We learned the weather would be changing, not for the better, for our return trip. As I’m sure everyone is aware by now, I’m not a fan of boats so I was not happy to hear this news. The captain said we would have a “fun” trip back, with a mischievous grin. That was all it took for me to start worrying. I approached the captain and kept asking him if we would be okay on the trip back and he dismissed me with an “of course”. Andrew kept telling me not to worry but again I felt like I was being dismissed. Since it was a few days before I really had to worry I put it out of my mind. We were on the open water now and on our way to Whitehaven beach. We had lunch while anchored in between two islands to block out the wind. After lunch we made our way over to the famous Whitehaven beach. It was stunning!

The colour of the water was amazing and the pure white silica sand was almost unreal. We took a small tender boat and were dropped off at the beach. Ben, who was our dive master as well as our tour guide for the trip, took us on a walk to the lookout over Whitehaven beach. The view was stunning and seeing the rivers spilling into the ocean, combined with the silica sand was almost unreal. We took turns taking photos getting a couple of group shots. Then we headed back down to the beach where we would spend the next few hours.

Back on the beach everyone laid out their stuff and of course wanted to go in the water. Before we could go in the water however, we would have to put on the “stinger suits”. They were needed because that area has a lot of deadly jelly fish during a particular season, but they can really be there at any time. These stinger suits are full bodied thin wet suits and cover everything, including your head, except for your hands and feet.

Andrew and I took a walk on the beach and were amazed at how fine the sand was. Ben had told us there had only been 3 times in history when permission had been granted to take the sand off the island. Since the Whitsundays are a protected national marine park, you cannot take anything off the islands, including sand. It is an offence and if caught you could be fined up to $10,000. Permission had been given to a couple from Hawaii to take a vile of sand, then a resort on one of the nearby islands was given permission to take the sand for their beach. The last, and most interesting, time permission was granted to take the sand was for Nasa to use for the Hubble Telescope. The mirror is actually made of the silica sand from the Whitsundays! After our walk we met up with the group and found out those that had gone swimming had seen some stingrays (not to be confused with the stinger jelly fish). Andrew and I quickly changed into the stinger suits (we looked like ninja’s) and went in the water. I had a great time floating around in the water. While floating around I actually got to see some stingrays. There were only 2 but it was still great to see them from shore. I had seen a lot of stingrays while diving, but the novelty was that now I was in waist deep water. Of course I couldn’t get too close as they would swim away.

Once on the beach we all hung out as a group and we were all chatting about what everyone does back at home. I was so excited to meet Luca from Italy because he is a chef in a 3 Michelin star restaurant in Italy. Anyone who knows me knows I love to cook and Italian food is my favourite. I knew I was going to have a great time with Luca picking his brain over the next few days. It also didn’t hurt he was cute J (Sorry Andrew!).

We headed back to the boat and while still docked we saw a large turtle swim by. We headed off to a bay where we would be spending the night. While sitting at the front of the boat and watching the sun set, the captain came out and we started chatting. I, of course, started asking him about the weather for our return trip. He was trying to blow me off again but I didn’t let him. Finally he said the swells might get high but the boat could handle it. He summed it up pretty well when he asked me what I was afraid of and my reply was “The boat tipping over”. His response shut me up – “Why would we get on a boat that would tip over?”.

We had dinner that night and again we were all chatting together when I asked Julian, one of the guys, where he was from in Canada. He said Mississauga. After chatting for a bit it turned out we went to the same high school at the same time. It was so weird to be on the other side of the world talking to a guy I went to high school with, even if we didn’t remember each other. We knew a lot of the same people but not each other.

The next morning we were going diving. There was a free dive included in the price of the trip and if you wanted to participate you had to dive this particular site and not the Great Barrier Reef which we would have an opportunity to dive later. The dive was first thing in the morning and I’m not usually feeling the best when I wake up so I wanted to do the free dive later on but Ben said it had to be this site or I could miss it and just pay for the remainder of the dives. I was puzzled why this was so but didn’t argue further. The next morning I woke up, put on all the dive gear and went diving. Very quickly I understood why this was the free dive. The visibility was crap as we were near an island and the tides caused the sediment to stir up and cause the poor visibility. I was a little annoyed because at this point we had completed a lot dives during out trip and I was very disappointed with this particular dive as I couldn’t enjoy myself because I kept having to make sure I could see the dive master at the front.

Once we were back on the boat, I was freezing. Although the weather was fairly warm it was by no means hot. It was warmer in the water than out of the water. We hung around the bay for a few more hours as Ben took all the people who had never been diving before but wanted to try it. Anne was one of those people and she was ecstatic when we came back on the boat. From the bay we had a 3 hour sail to the Great Barrier Reef where we would be completing more dives for those who wanted to participate and we were also spending the night there. I was excited to see the reef but I was a little nervous about the 3 hour open ocean sail. It turned out the sail out wasn’t too bad, although there was some swell, but some people started to get sea sick regardless. I’m lucky in that I don’t get sea sick, but no one can understand my fear of boats. A couple of hours into the ride I started to feel queasy from watching others get sick so I decided to go under to our cabin. Since we had gotten up early that day I was feeling tired and cold from the wind so when I lay down I fell asleep quite quickly. When we arrived at the reef I was still cold and sleeping so when they started asking who was going for the next dive I opted out. I woke up just as they were coming back from their dive, and knowing how cold Andrew was I made him a cup of tea to have as soon as he was back on board.

We had lunch and relaxed for a bit and when it was time for the afternoon dive I decided to take part. I was still cold, since we were out in the open ocean but I didn’t want to miss out diving the Great Barrier Reef. One of the main differences between diving in the open ocean (far away from land) and diving in bays or near islands is the current you can experience. Usually you can swim across it and no problem, and you can also plan your dives so you drift down with the current and meet back up with boat so you never had to swim against it. On the Kiana there was a small tender boat that would drop us off away from the boat and then at the end of the dive, if the dive master knew where he was going and if we all lasted with our air, we would emerge right by the boat. We went under water did experience some current but nothing too strong. The visibility was much better than that morning, but since the sun was low on the horizon, it wasn’t as light as I would have liked. In Australia, they are very safe (some would say paranoid) in their diving techniques, and the rule was no one was allowed to be underwater for more than 43minutes. This is unusual because we usually stay under until someone reaches a certain point in their air and then we all surface, no matter how long we had been under. Andrew and I can usually stay under for approx 55 – 60 min. Because of this rule, I knew exactly how much time we had left under on this dive, and that’s why I was expecting to keep swimming around and exploring, but we started heading back. And this was completely against current. The only way for me to describe the 5 minute or so swim against current is as the hardest run you have ever had to do, but you’re unable to stop and catch your breath because the current will just sweep you right back, and because you’re in the open water you don’t see the progress you’re making so you feel as if you’re standing in one place. In addition, I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath and felt like my regulator wasn’t providing enough air. Near the end I was panting underwater as if I had just ran a mile. Luckily we had made it back to our boat and we were holding on to anchor line to complete our safety stop. I really don’t know if I would have had the energy to complete the safety stop without the assistance of the rope. When we finally surfaced I was glad to see everyone was out of breath. I still don’t know why we had to swim against the current like that but I was very annoyed.

That night after dinner our captain gave us a small lesson is looking at stars. I don’t remember much from that lesson, but I do remember the stars you’re used to seeing in N. America are either not there or in completely different places. Everyone went to bed early that night as we were all tired from diving and swimming that day, but Julian, Luca, Anne, Andrew and I stayed up for a bit chatting and drinking beer.

The next day there was time for one more dive but Andrew and I didn’t go mainly because we didn’t feel like getting up at 6am and for financial reasons. Then we started heading back to Airlie Beach. We had about 3.5 – 4 hours to sail back. I remember this was the day where the weather was going to deteriorate and the winds were expected to be at 25 – 30 knots. Our captain warned us to expect swells but that overall it was going to be a fun ride back. Since he knew I was worried, he told me to sit at the very back of the boat on the starboard side. I didn’t know why that was the place he chose for me because as soon as we got out to open water, the boat was at a 45 degree angle and I could almost touch the water with my hand! This is exactly what I had been worried about! The boat tipping over! After an hour of this I began to calm down when I slowly allowed myself to believe the boat would not tip over. It was around the same time when people started getting sea sick. I was so worried about the boat tipping over that I didn’t even think about motion of the boat or the swells, which were around 3 meters. Since quite a few people got sick on the boat the captain kept asking me if I’m okay and if I need a bag and I just couldn’t get him to understand that I wasn’t sea sick but that I was scared! There is a difference. About an hour or so later, Sebastian, another Canadian who was with us on the boat (and it turns out had worked as a rep in Montreal for my work…again small world), who was sitting up at the front and getting soaked spotted dolphins near our boat. I attempted to go see the dolphins but we were at such an angle that I didn’t trust myself to go up to the front, however Andrew got a few good photos as well as a video of the dolphins. When I was ready to return to my seat someone else had taken it and I had to sit on the opposite side. This is when I understood why that was such a good spot for me. Even though the boat was at a strong angle, the barrier was holding me up and I didn’t need to fight gravity to remain up right. Whereas on the other side, where I had to remain for the remainder of the trip, I was constant fighting gravity and was struggling to remain seated. Also, on this side the water was constantly splashing. The captain was wise.

We returned to Airlie beach in the afternoon, thanked the crew for taking care of us and headed back to our hostel. The boat company had reserved a seat for us at a bar for that night to all catch up. We went down to dinner and met up with everyone there. We were all exchanging photos and video and the alcohol was flowing. We didn’t stay up too late that night since we had all woken up quite early that morning, but the next morning I knew I had had too much to drink. I had a headache. We said goodbye to Anne and were thinking we might meet up in Cairns, which was the next stop on the itinerary, but Anne was looking for work so she wasn’t sure when she would make it up north. After stopping to pick up some groceries, we were off to Cairns.