The Whitsundays - Day 1

Today was the first day of my 3 day 2 night sailing trip to the Whitsundays. I stored my big backpack at the hostel and managed to squeeze in everything I needed to a small daypack. I then went to check-in at the Prosail office and get my Stinger suit for when I went snorkelling. It is at the end of the stinger season now but I didnt want to take any chances, plus someone had been stung the week before. I then went to wait for the bus down to Shute Harbour where we were departing. I met up with Alan and Lucas again who were both co-incidently on the same boat as me, these were two guys that I had done Fraser Island with.

When we got down to the harbour we gathered our stuff and went to board the boat. I got a waterproof camera at the last minute so I could take some underwater shots when I went snorkelling. The boat definately looked bigger in the photos as It was a lot smaller then I was expecting, though once I was on It felt big enough. There were quite a lot of Germans on the boat along with a couple of Canadians and the rest were English. This was going to be the only day that we had the opportunity to do a dive and I was really looking forward to it!!

There was a dive instructor on board who went through what we would be doing etc.. then we were each given a form to fill out which had lots of questions on about health and stuff. There was one question asking if you had ever had any chest surgery so I asked if having a chest drain in counted. This was when I was told "yes" and that I wouldnt be able to do the dive :( nooooooo!!!!!

Apparently I needed a medical certificate to show that I was able to dive due to the fact that scar tissue is weaker and there is a possibilty that my lung could explode or something even though Im pretty sure I would be fine so that really sucked!! At leastI saved myself $75 and could at least go snorkelling.

I put on my stinger suit and then equipped myself with some flippers and a snorkel mask. The Great Barrier Reef comes down as far as The Whitsundays so there was coral and loads of fish to look at. When you had your ears submerged in the water you could hear the fish making crunching sounds as they fed off the coral which was quite kool. There were loads of different fish around it was awesome, and my favourite moment was when I swam in a huge shoal of those small silver fish (like the ones on finding nemo). I was just completelty surrounded in these fish and thats all I could see in every direction, they were just so fast that any movement I made they got out of the way and didnt touch me once. When I was right in the middle of them It took me a while to be able to swim out of them and find clear water.

Everyone then got back on the boat ready for some high speed sailing. Everyone took it in turns to help put up the sails by turning these winches. When we got going the boat was at a 45 degree + angle so everyone had to sit up on the igh side or else they would get soaked. We also did a few taks which Is when we needed to change direction and move the sail onto the other side of the boat. This meant everyone had to dash to the other side of the boat as this now became the high side and vice versa.

When we got to our destination Whitehaven Beach It was pitch black so we dropped the anchor for the night and had some dinner.