I’m sailing away

I’m sailing away

Whitsunday Islands, Australia, Australia

I woke up this morning to torrential rain like I’ve never heard before pouring down on Airlie Beach. It figures that it would do this today because I am boarding the Pacific Sunrise boat for the next three days and nights, so why wouldn’t a monsoon come through??

I checked out of the YHA at 10am and dropped my bag off at the Whitsunday Sailing Adventures office for them to hold while I was gone. I wasn’t boarding the boat until 3pm so I had the whole day to waste, and there is not much to do in Airlie Beach when it’s raining. I decided to do a little bit of shopping so I went to the pharmacy and got some shampoo and an underwater camera, and then went to the local dive shop and got a log book. I figure if I’m going to do some more diving in the next year I might as well log them so I remember where I’ve been and what I’ve seen.

After all that, it was about 11am and I was still looking for something to do. I went down to the lagoon again to see if anyone was crazy enough to be swimming, and there were a few crazies in there. There wasn’t much shelter from the rain there so I went up the street to Mangrove Jack’s where I had dinner the other night. I figured there I could at least get a drink and use their free wifi. That wasted a few hours for me until it was time to get on the boat.

Lisa and I headed down to the marina and waited for the crew to show up. We met most of the people that were going to be on our boat before being taken aboard. We got on the ship to meet our whole crew, Chey (Skipper), Luke (First Mate), Sheree (Chef) and Amy (Hostess). The eleven of us guests all became acquainted and tried to get comfortable for life on a boat for the next few days. The room that Lisa and I were booked in for had a leak in the roof and with the torrential rains, the top bunk was soaked. We had to move to another room across the hall that has one double bed and two bunks. Lisa had asked to get the double bed so I am currently sitting in my little bunk made for a midget or a child, I’m not sure which. Regardless, it’s not meant for a guy my size. It seems that everything on a boat is made just a little bit smaller than normal.

Dinner was served at around 7pm and the meal was delicious. Grilled haloumi to start, chicken and veggies for the main meal, and peach tart with ice cream to finish it off. We then all went outside onto the deck and watched Chey feed the fish. He was throwing chicken out into the water and about six giant travellies came shooting over to grab it. There were also loads of garfish skimming across the top of the water trying not to be eaten by the travellies. The weather cleared up much faster than expected, so I spent the rest of the night on the top deck looking at the stars and got my first glimpse of the Southern Cross. This is the arrangement of stars on the Australian flag, which can only be seen from the southern hemisphere. I was happy to see it, but unfortunately couldn’t get a picture of it.

So I’m now back in the cabin and praying that I can get some sleep on this boat. I’ve never tried to sleep on a boat this size before, so we’ll see how it goes. About half the people on the boat have already been sick today, but I was one of the lucky ones who avoided that. Let’s hope I can make it through the night with a clean record!

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