The Whitsunday Islands

Around 1770, or sometime thereabouts, Captain Cook came upon some islands off the eastern coast of northern Australia. They were cool, so he stuck around for a bit. It was Whit Sunday. In a flash of creative brilliance, the captain named the islands the Whitsunday Islands. They are still cool today. I boarded the Siska with 17 strangers of similar age and circumstance. Though I was the only American, there were several other backpacking travelers joining me on a sail around the Whitsundays. My fears of being stuck with a bunch of posh, boring yachtsmen were unfounded. By the way...P.O.S.H. Port away, starboard home. Used by rich fancy sailing Englishmen, hence the word posh. Learned that from the English lads. I also learned from Jizza the deckhand: S.H.I.T. Is what they would write on bags of manure being transported on sailing vessels. These bags needed to be kept high to prevent getting wet and to save from harmful and stinky methane release. SHIT stands for Store High In Transit. If nothing else this trip was educational! Anyways, about the trip. It was pretty awesome. The Siska used to be a racing yacht that of course was really fast and won lots of races, but was retrofitted into a passenger vessel in 1994. And for two days I got to be a passenger! We went to Whitehaven beach on the main Whitsunday Island which had the most perfect, beautiful white sand I have ever seen. It was so white it wasn't even hot. And it's 95% silicone. The only time sand was allowed to be taken away from the beach though is when NASA needed it to make the lense for the Hubble Telescope. I tried as hard as I could to catch a stingray in the shallow inlet to avenge the Crocodile Hunter but they swim much faster than I can run in knee deep water. Sorry Steve, RIP. We sailed past a tiny island where Jono the skipper starting whistling like a crazy person and suddenly a bunch of sea eagles came swooping in and we got to toss up rolled up balls of hamburger to the hungry fowls. That was pretty cool. Jono is the eagle whisperer. Too bad Frodo and Sam didn't have Jono around to call some eagles earlier for them! We snorkeled a bunch. On lots of different islands. Fish wise it wasn't a whole lot different than Hawaii, but the coral was very different. This was actually the first time I've seen soft coral. I met a fish as big as me named Elvis, and I chased some sharks around to re-confirm the order of the food chain. They were only three feet long but they'll tell their larger buddies not to mess! You're welcome. Snorkeling here is a dress up occasion. Thought it's plenty warm, we were required to wear stinger suits. As a chaser of sharks, I felt it a bit below me to be worrying about a fish named after my favorite sandwich topping, but I wore the suit anyway because it made my thighs look really ripped! My fellow sailors concocted some goon punch and proceeded to drink their memories away. I retired to my quarters a bit earlier than everyone else. The lifeguard, boat crew, bartender in me didn't want anything to do with copious amounts of liquor on small sailboat at night. The morning revealed that all I missed though was a whale. It was sober. I actually slept much better on the boat that I have been in the van, I credit this to not having an Andy next to me. Though I did hit my head pretty hard in the morning. The only part of the whole trip that I didn't like, was Andy picking me up two hours late. Jerk. So, the Whitsunday Islands. Check em some time. Beautiful, and totally worth it!

Learning how to not drown.

It was really rough this trip...

I'm on (another) boat!

Walking from the bay we anchored in to Hill Inlet and Whitehaven Beach.

Lookout over Hill Inlet.

Hill Inlet. 

Hill Inlet.  The dark speck in the middle of the white sand is a person. There was a lot of sand!

Lookout over Hill Inlet.

Lookout over Whitehaven Beach.

Our group.  There were about 15 cameras.  So I just took my own before everyone was ready.

Silicone sands

These guys were all over the shallow areas.

Whitehaven Beach.  Pretty dang awesome.

These really rude people were blocking my view!

Lighthouse near one of our snorkel spots.

The sexy stinger suit!

Soft coral.

Not so soft coral

Big ugly fish!

That's the boat.  Siska

This is Elvis.  He was very large.

My bunk.

Another island we stopped at.

This was our route.