Whitsunday's - 007
Trip Start
Nov 04, 2005
1
37
79
Trip End
May 23, 2006
Whitsunday Islands,
Australia
Friday, February 10, 2006
Max had told us on the Monday that we would learn more in the second session of three days than we would in the first, and he was not wrong. The four of us worked well together as a group with Claire's guidance. Sara and I worked hard often under pressure from Max as we consolidated our knowledge. Sara did so much rope work that she lost patches of skin off her fingers, ultimately having to borrow Claire's gloves for future protection. Most of our evenings were spent learning the theory over a BBQ and a beer with Max impressed with our obvious enthusiasm. On a couple of the afternoon's we were playing chicken whilst doing tacking drills around another of the academy's boats (Eureaka II) which was exciting and helped to hone our sailing skills. There were moments when I found it hard but Sara was supremely confident and naturally more talented at sailing than I!!
007
!The Whitsunday's are a fantastic area to sail around with plenty of nice beaches, and nice reefs for snorkeling and we felt we had chosen a good boat to learn on. We passed our competent crew course with flying colours and although Sara's enthusiasm is greater than mine (I prefer diving) we do intend to do more sailing on our travels and we have already made a promise to meet up with Claire when we return to the UK.
Got back to shore at 4pm, then headed back to Bush Village to collect our luggage from storage and waited to catch the overnight bus to Bundaberg at 11.50pm.
As for Airlie Beach, it is a functional gateway to the Whitsunday's with little substance and not a place that either of us wished to spend much time at, although the night life looked interesting and there was a pleasant lagoon
