King's Quest: Sailing the WhitSundays

AMAZING! that's all I can say AMAZING!!!! Best time of Oz so far!!!!! But it went by sooo quickly. I went on a 3day/3night sailing trip on a Americas Cup style MaxiSail boat called Spank Me (hehehe) around the WhitSunday islands and out to a different part of the Great Barrier Reef. Arrived at the marina with daypack over one shoulder and a 24 pack of Crown beer under the other. We get assigned wetsuits for scuba-diving and then it's off to board the boat. This thing is HUGE. The skipper and crew take our beer and put it in a huge storage bin built into the boat, probably originally meant for sails but this is a much better use for it in my opinion. I get assigned a bottom bunk that's smaller than a coffin. At some point every night I would wake up and lift my head up to see what time it was or whether the sun was up and would SMASH my head on the fiberglass bunk above me... that was usually followed by a "Son of a...!!!" or "FUCK ME!!!!" cursing from my lips. We sailed out to the closest island to dock for the night and for me being back on a boat under sail power was the coolest thing ever. For those who don't know I used to race little sailboats until I was about 18. And yes Dad, I am now regretting cancelling my Royal Van membership before I left. Oh well... It was pretty funny cuz as soon as we started sailing and the boat tilted one girl yelled out "Is it always going to be like this?!?!? Don't we ever sail flat?!?!?" I was too busy smiling my HUGE smile to reply! Once we got to the pass where we were going to stay for the night we dropped anchor and had dinner. After dinner, the drinking started.. and the music. On my boat were a Swedish band (of 3) and about 10 of their groupies. It was straight out of woodstock! The band brought their guitars, harmonicas, AMPS (!!?!??! on a boat where EVERYTHING gets wet?!?!?!), everything! Including the biggest supply of VB beer known to man! We had a concert right there on the boat! including their "hit" single Coco Pops, yes, about the cereal. Pretty damn fun night!

Our boat!

Beautiful sunset!

The band and everyone under the wind tarp!

Woke up to the sounds of the engine roaring to life @ around 7am... went up top and watched the sun, which was already up. As I did everytime we had to put the sails up, I was one of the 8 people on the grinders helping raise the sails. We sailed to the famous Whitehaven Beach. Easily the most beautiful beach I've EVER seen or set foot on. The sand is so fine and it's part of the WhitSunday marine park so you can't take any back with you. The sediments in the sand turn the water into this BEAUTIFUL turquise color. That being said... it's easily the most foulest tasting water I've ever swallowed! We were there for about two hours, most of which I spent wading in the waters taking pics of/chasing stringrays and sand sharks. Don't worry, they wouldn't let you get closer than like 4 feet from them before them scurried away. I got some cool pics of the rays. After that we sailed to one of the islands and had our 20 minute free scuba dive. Some nice coral and fish but not as nice as at the reef and nowhere near as deep, maybe 5 metres only. After that we sailed to the bay near an exclusive Island resort (minimun $1500 a night!!) and anchored for the night. more drinking and partying ensued.

Me on Whitehaven beach! Before I got tanned!

Whitehaven Beach!

Stingray!

Next morning I woke up @ 5am to help raise the sails to get to the Great Barrier Reef, some 30-40 kms past the islands. It was supposed to be 4am but the skipper (who was younger than me!) slept in. Honestly, being up that early and seeing the sun rise was really cool! We sailed to the reef and started more diving ($50 a time) On the first dive I went down with the certified divers... because I'm awesome and good enough that the dive instructor thought I didn't need to be with the other intros, who struggled. I mean, I was still paired with the instrustor but it was cool to feel like I was holding my own. I, honestly, love diving. I feel right at home in the water. I wouldn't follow in my sister's footsteps and maybe make it a career but it's a lot of fun. The reefs we went to were columns right next to each other and we would swim in the passages between. Very creepy and dark but very cool!!! unfortunately my mask kept fogging up (I hadn't used enough spit, I guess) so I found that having a little water in the mask helped. The second dive after lunch was at a site and only 3 of us went down. It was the better dive of the two sites! I saw a shark and a turtle. The turtle was awesome!!!! I was following the guide around and then he points and it's right there beside me, maybe 5 feet away! we watched/followed it for a minute or two before it swam away. Very cool. Then we sailed back in some of the roughest water I've ever been on. Even though we were getting drench I loved every minute of it! sitting on the ledge, hanging me feet over the side. I got very drunk that night and partied till 1am (the last one up) I know that sounds early but when you're the first one up @ 5am, it's pretty impressive!

Dive Guide Lindsay - cool kid! Though I think all the nitrogen went to his head after the 7 dives he did that day!

Turtle! SOOO COOL!!!

On the boat!

On the last day we went snorkling in Echo Bay and had a jumping competition off the side of the boat. Good thing I had my wetsuit on as I underrotated one of my backflips and landed flat on my back in the water. We set sail from home and I decided it was a good time to put on my music from the Pirates of the Carribean soundtrack. Everyone was loving it! then about 3 minutes into the first track, as the tempo was coming to climax... the halyard (rope) on the mainsail snapped! SOOOOO not my fault!!!!! haha we sailed all the way back with just the jib (foresail) and the motor. and as we all waited for the bus to take us to town the skipper climbed the 35 meter mast and fixed the line cuz the boat was doing another tour that afternoon.