Hi All,
We have just got back onto dry land from a 3 day (2 night) sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands - and what a fantastic trip it was too. We arrived in Airlie Beach on Thursday afternoon (I think???) and booked in with the sailing company - hired our stinger suits and were told if we wanted to get some beer for the journey to purchase it today as we would not be able to get any on Good Friday!!! Next move was to the bottle shop where we purchased 90 cans of lager - we thought this would probably be about enough. We checked into our accomodation had some tea and a few beers before retiring to bed. Got up early on Friday morning and set sail on our ship 'Siska' along with about 20 other people which included some more english guys, some scots, italians, spanish, american, canadian and some germans - a real good mix and we all had a really good laugh. We were quickly shown where our beds were for the next 2 nights - very cosy a tiny cabin for three - double on the bottom & single on the top - I grabbed the single and left Ed & Mel to share the double!!! We then went up on deck to soak up both the sunshine and the fabulous views. We sailed around some of the various islands for a while before anchoring up and going for a snorkel to view some of the coral which was pretty spectacular. We sailed a bit more before anchoring up again for the night in a sheltered bay. We had tea and then spent the evening drinking and listening to music on deck until the early hours. We had a visitor late on when a lone guy in a dinghy showed up rather worse for wear - he told us he had just got married and was on his honeymoon - he then went onto say that he had taken some viagra but unfortunately for him his new wife had fallen asleep and so he had decided to go out in the boat for a bit!!! We gave him a beer and he went on his way drifting off into the darkness after falling over in his boat - pretty funny really. Ed chose to sleep on deck this night which gave Mel a bit more room in bed! The second day we sailed a bit more before being dropped off on Whitehaven Beach - white sand and clear blue water - very spectacular. We sailed some more and did some more snorkelling and again spent the evening watching the sun set, drinking and listening to music - generally enjoying life! Sunday our last day was spent snorkelling again and we saw turtles and dolphins which was pretty amazing. The day culminated in a race between us and two other yachts - of course we won - Go Siska. We landed back on dry land and were told to go to 'Beaches' (a local bar) for 7:30. We got showered and went for some tea which was really really slow - so slow we didn't get the the pub until about 9!!! No bloody good!!! From that point we were playing catch up - funnily enough it wasn't long before we did and I think we even overtook!!! It was a pretty messy night and we didn't get in until 3:30 or so I'm told!!! Today we have caught the Greyhound back to Rocky. Tomorrow we fly back to Brisbane and catch a train out to Surfers Paradise which should be good. We have 2 nights there and are going to a show called the 'Outback Spectacular' which looks really good plus all food and drink was included in the ticket price as well. Back to Brisbane again on Thursday before we fly back on Friday - boo. That's all for now if you're still awake!!! Will try and write again before we leave. LOL A, E & M xxx
