Aireley Beach and the Whitsundays

Trip Start Sep 01, 2005

Trip End May 11, 2006

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Flag of Australia Airley Beach, Australia
Monday, February 20, 2006

If you want to sail in Australia you go to the Whitsundays. Whitsundays being a group of islands taking it's name from the largest island which is also home to the famous Whitehaven beach. Due to time limitations and the type of boat I wanted to travel on I could only do a 2 day 1 night rather than the 3 day 2 night cruise. Because I'd already been on a tall ship in New Zealand I wanted to go on something a bit faster. I found the perfect boat, Siska, an 80 foot long Maxi ex-racing yaht. It sleeps 22 and 3 crew and has raced in and won numerous competitions. It is estimated that the boat has sailed 140,000 miles before arriving at the Whitsundays in 1992.

Monday, the day we were due to sail, was as still (and hot) as anything when I got up. I thought it might be the start to a bad trip but by the time we had been given a safety briefing and left the harbour the wind had really picked up

01-Whitehaven beach

. There's only 2 sailing crew on the boat and it takes 4 people alone to get the mainsail up. Tacking takes 1 person to release the foresail, 4 people on the grinders-the handles you wind to tighten the sail-and one person to steer. The mast is 106 foot tall and the mainsail is huge. Two sails set and the boat was picking up speed; there were quite a few unexpected soakings-me included-when one side of the boat submerged when a gust filled the sails and tipped us up.

A number of the Whitsunday Islands are surrounded by coral reef. Before lunch we donned our stinger suits-due to deadly Box jellyfish you can't swim without them-and swam over to one of the islands for a snorkel. I saw some beautiful tropical fish and corals. It was one such coral that was to cause me some discomfort the following day. I was diving down into a gully in the sea bed to check out what was underneath one of the overhangs and when I came back up I kicked my foot full force into a piece of coral. They're sharp, really sharp. My foot burst open and when I got back to the support boat it bled all over the place. The skipper of the boat patched me up and fixed the wound together with butterfly clips but it didn't stop bleeding for the whole day. I've been to the doctor but he's unable to stitch it as he said it will go really bad due to the infection. Because coral is alive if it cuts you you immediately get infected causing the wounded area to swell up

02-Me sporting what could possiby be a tan

. I now have it bandaged and am taking antibiotics to fight the infection and take down the swelling. I wont be able to swim for a while though. It's right on a part of my foot that causes it to split open when I walk-lovely.

After a really nice dinner-there's only one cook and a tiny kitchen to boot-we sat on deck and drunk beers. Some went to bed early, some of us stayed up on deck and chatted, and when the sun went down watched the stars-millions of them. With not one artificial light to be seen and the sky as clear as anything it was quite a spectacle to behold. I've never seen so many stars. And shooting stars-we probably saw about 30 between us. That night some slept down below but due to the heat quite a few slept up on deck..

Apart from cutting my foot open I loved the whole trip. I'm telling you it's the life. I'm going to become a yacht captain on my return.