Summertime

Airlie Beach was way smaller than Cairns and looked to be in existence solely as a launch off point for tourists to get to the reef. A friend in Sydney told me about a trip they took a few months before from Airlie. They stayed on a sailboat for a few days and had a great time. I planned this whole trip around doing something similar. I found a website that displays all of the boats, trip lengths and prices.

Note the start of a beard coming on

Brian and I stayed at a hostel called Magnum’s, the most popular hostel in Airlie Beach. It cost $20 and was set up differently than other hostels. There was a central restaurant with the bar, pool tables and travel offices clustered together. Our room was in a two story building with 2 rooms on each floor. There were 5 bunk beds per room, but plenty of room. We didn't really try to hang out with anyone in the room since we had to be up early the next morning.

When I started picking which boat we would take, I found that each had a specific reputation. Some are party boats for young people, others are for couples. Some are more focused around diving, others do the bare minimum. In general, cheaper trip lead to backpackers and young travelers joining you on the boat. I definitely wanted to do some diving and spend two days or more on the trip, so that narrowed down my options. I ended up choosing a boat called Summertime – it had snorkeling, diving and kayaking over 3 days.  It cost $515 per person and included a free dive (special offer at that time).

We got to the boat early on Thursday morning with 11 other people... an Australian couple and their Aussie and British friends, two other British couples, a Canadian couple and a solo guy from Poland. I was hoping for some young and single types, but it’s really the luck of the draw I guess. Everyone was really friendly and we got to know each other when the boat took off. Summertime was manned with three crew – Flo (short for Florian, the German dive master), Trish (Irish cook/second dive master), and Cap’n Pete (Kiwi boat captain).

View from a lookout just above Whitehaven Beach - amazing.

Our first stop was to Whitsunday Island and Whitehaven Beach, a place that is always on top 10 lists of the best beaches in the world. The sand is 98% silica and is so pure that NASA used it to make the lens for the Hubble Telescope. When I walked along the water’s edge, my feet sunk in almost like mud. The weather was a little overcast for the first few hours, but Brian and I made the most of it by slinging some Frisbee and kicking a soccer ball.

We put on stinger suits and got in the water to find a few sting rays swimming in the water. They swam away pretty quickly unless you went really slowly (and we made sure to stay out of the way of the stinger). We took a hike to the highest point in the island that overlooked the beach. It was one of the most picturesque places I have ever seen. Small islands dotted the blue water and the tide created swirls of white sand. The currents and tides made every day’s beach look different.

That afternoon we did some more sailing (although there was almost no wind which means we used the motor). A storm rolled in that evening which made it rough once we anchored. I had been popping sea sickness tablets since the day before, so I luckily didn’t get sick. The crew warned that they could make you dehydrated and drowsy, but it was worth the risk.  My bunk was near the bathrooms and it sounded like one of the other passengers wasn’t so lucky. I did wake up a few times during the night from the boat rocking back and forth.

See Days II and III for the other parts of the sailing trip.