Day 10 – Whitsunday Islands

The day started early as Mel and I had to be at the front gates of the caravan park at 6:55 to be picked up by the tour company shuttle bus. The bus was on time and we were at the marina ready to cruise by 7:15….unfortunately the boat was not set to sail until around 8 am. So, we walked around the marina and checked out some of the amazing boats. Very impressive stuff…exactly what you would expect to see in a marina in one of the worlds best boating locations. A quick look at the adds posted in the windows of the marina’s boat dealer ended my dreams of owning my own yacht. Prices ranges from 500,000 for a 25 foot cruiser to well over 2,000,000 for a 50 foot cruiser.

My dreams crushed, we got in line to board the catamaran and found some good seats. Yes, the boat is purple…I talked to the skipper who has been captaining the boat since it was new and he explained that it is purely for marketing purposes and that it works quite well. If people like it and want to tell their friends about it all they have to do is remember it was purple as it is the only purple catamaran in the world. He admitted the colour made him sick when he first saw it, but now doesn’t mind it so much.

Pier at daydream island

Anyway, we headed out for our first stop at Daydream island to pick up some more passengers…I never counted all the people on board but there must have been about 60 or so. The boat is 85 feet long so there was lots of room. It was a nice sunny day with no clouds and sadly no wind either. They put up the mail sail on the way out but the motor was doing all the work.

Snorkelling location

After stoping at Daydream island we headed off to a smaller island off to the left of Whitsunday Island. I forget it’s name…anyway, once there they provided us with wetsuits and snorkel gear and we got to snorkel on a small reef for almost an hour. The reef was amazing, much better than anything I’ve seen in the Caribbean. The fish were more plentiful and the coral was much more colourful . We didn’t see anything big, but what we did see was great. We were even treated to another tour operator feeding the fish while we were there…You are swimming and completely surrounded by colourful fish in a feeding frenzy…very surreal !

After the snorkel we were given morning tea and then headed to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsundsy Island…considered by man y to be one of the best beaches anywhere in the world. The sand in 98% silica and is so pure that is exceeds standards for polishing jewelry or optical lenses. The beach is about 15 km long and there are no resorts on it. Very isolated and private. We spent about an hour there before being herded back onto the boat for lunch.

Lunch was a BBQ and then we were back underway to finish circumnavigating Whitsunday island. At one point Mel spotted a whale off the side of the boat and everyone was treated to watching it come up for air while swimming for a few minutes before it swam out of sight. She has the eyes of an eagle ! We stopped again at Daydream island to let people off and then headed for home. There was a bit more wind heading back so they put up the spinnaker as well and we did about 12 knots under sail power only. They claim they can do 30 knots but obviously it was far too calm.

View of Airlie Beach as we returned

The skipper must be able to speak about 10 languages. I head him speak English, French, German, Dutch, and Italian. He also claimed to speak Japanese and Chinese but there was no one there to call him out on that.

Skipper is on the right behind the wheel

It would have been nice to do some actual sailing but obviously that was out of anyone’s control. In hind sight a power boat tour would have allowed us to see a lot more or spend more time where we stopped. But the allure of sailing in this environment is powerful.