There is no way to say it without sounding annoying, but…when you have grown up in paradise on the Virgin Islands, it is hard to be impressed when visiting another tropical paradise. Not that these other places are bad. They are great, but nothing I have not seen before. This was a problem when I visited Hawaii, and now as I travel up Australia’s east coast, from beach to beach, I find nothing special. The sand isn’t white enough, and it is too coarse; the water isn’t clear enough, and it is too rough, but waves are not good enough to surf - except in the most remote places. And if I wanted to really be annoying, I could go on and on.
But this was to change with a visit to the WhitSunday Islands. Yes, for an ungodly amount, $400, you can live aboard a yacht for 2 days and 2 nights, sailing in the pristine tropical waters around the unspoiled WhitSunday Islands. There was a choice of several different boats of different sizes to chose from. From the 12 person Silent Night fun cruiser to the 25 person Wings catamaran. I chose the 16 person Eureka II
cruiser/racer.
This trip was part of a package, which I unwisely purchased, that also included a 3 days 2 night trip to Fraser Island and an Oz Experience hop on/hop off bus pass from Melbourne to Cairns. After 2 days, it because obvious that OzEx was not worth the money. It should have just traveled by Greyhound. It would have been cheaper. But I decided to make the best of it.
As described in the brochure, the Fraser Island trip is a “self-guided 4WD trip with a group of 8-11 people. You will be given a suggested itinerary and a list of instructions before you head off. Explore the island at your own pace. Camping out at night setting up your own tents and preparing your own meals.” We got up early in the morning, put our things in storage and had our pre-trip briefing. This is where you learn of the dangers of driving a top heavy 4WD vehicle on sand…and how you will lose your $1000 insurance if your vehicle flips over - something that happens a little too often. Just a week or so before, there was a group never made it to the island. So there we were ready to go when suddenly we were informed that there was a cyclone forming off the coast, and the Fraser Island trip was cancelled. The island was being evacuated. It would be more than a week before they could resume. This was too bad, because I think we had a good group of mature responsible people - no crazy 19 year old kids. I was refunded a mere $80, while they reminded me that they were being nice in giving me anything back because my package is non-refundable.
So it was up to WhitSundays to salvage this package. But thanks to OzEx odd bus schedule and my error in reading it, I scheduled my sailing one day too early, so I had to purchase a $90 Premier Bus ticket to take me from Harvey Bay to Airley Beach in time to go sailing. And in doing so, I missed out on one of the highlights of OzEx, a visit to a goat ranch and a chance to ride a mechanical bull. But then I had heard from some girls that it was really lame.
On the night before, there was a guy, from New York, in my room. He had just come back from sailing on the 25 person boat, Spank Me. He had the best time of his life. It was just amazing. Lots of snorkeling and diving. A new year’s eve party with lots of booze, and just awesome people. But then I had also heard from some people who had been sailing on another boat on new year’s eve, that everyone was sad because there wasn’t anything to do.
Determine to make this trip great, I made a point of getting to know everyone as we waited for our pre-trip briefing. As with anywhere in Australia, most of the people you meet will be German. Out of 16 of us, 10 were German, 3 Italian, 2 Danish & me. As we waited, the skipper for Silent Night came out and got his people all fired up and ready to go. Then our skipper came and spoke with as much enthusiasm as a turtle. The Italian guys and I looked at each other. This was not good. But we were here to enjoy the natural beauty of the water and the islands - not the skipper.
So we were off. Well, not really. Unlike stormy Fraser Island, there was no wind here. So trying to sail was an exercise in futility. We abandoned that effort and used the motor to get to our first snorkeling location. I must admit that in terms of beauty, this area rivals the Caribbean. In one way, it is better. These uninhabited islands are truly unspoiled Looking out across the tranquil water you just want to jump in and be a part of it. It is truly amazing.
But this beauty has a little deadly flaw. In these waters, a very small, but very deadly jellyfish lives. You will die within a few hours of being stung. And you won’t know you’ve been stung for about ½ hour when your back starts to ache. The water is beautiful and inviting, but you can’t swim in it. At least not without donning a stinger suit
that covers you from head to toe. In our case, it was from neck to ankles. It was a little scary having my head exposed, because I figured that while snorkeling, it would be my head to make first contact with the jellyfish.
So I put on the suit and went snorkeling. I hate to admit it, but the snorkeling here is better than at Buck Island. Unfortunately, the coral at Buck Island was dead. Here the coral is alive and colorful. I had some difficulty with a leaky mask, but that because of my mustache. A few times I tried diving down to see the coral closer, but then had trouble blowing the water out of the snorkel.
Soon, we anchored for the night in a quiet bay. Our skipper cooked a very good chicken dinner. And by 9:00, everyone was in bed. What?! So much for the stereotype of partying Germans. This lot forgot to bring beer, and for the most part, they were content to sit in a group speaking German, while complaining that there are too many Germans in Australia! I stayed up a while longer and could hear people having fun on the other boats.
The next morning, we went to the main island with a beach that everyone spoke so highly of. It has the finest sand in the world. So fine you can polish your jewelry with it. Yes, it was beautiful, but again, you can’t swim in the water without your stinger suit. But by this point lots of people got tired of the suit and took it off while in the water. I kept mine on, aware that my unprotected feet was most vulnerable. This is a strange beach. At high tide, you can walk for several hundred feet in shallow water, no deeper than your waist. Then it gets really shallow, then suddenly deep. No one went into the deep water. There must have been some hidden danger. It turns out that there were visible dangers in the shallow parts. There were sharks swimming around us! They were small, just a few feet long, and maybe they don’t bite, but they were sharks non-the-less.
After leaving that beach, we went to our second snorkeling spot. But unfortunately for me, all the stinger suits were gone by the time I went to get one. Someone who didn’t snorkel the day before, and probably didn’t pay for a suit, was now snorkeling. When everyone came back, they said this location was much better than the previous location. The captain told me not to worry, I would have another opportunity to snorkel later that day.
Silent Night challenged us to a race to our next snorkeling location. There was enough wind today to actually sail. We raised the sails and in no time, Silent Night was ahead. We never caught up with them, and it took 4 hours to get there. During this very slow race, I had time to think about and discuss sailing with the captain & skipper. It would be awesome if I had my own yacht. Not that I could afford the $1 million plus price tag. But where would I prefer to sail? The WhitSundays or the Caribbean? I concluded that I would prefer the safe waters of the Caribbean. It was too late to go snorkeling. But no need to worry, the captain said we’ll go snorkeling in the morning and would get to see some fish.
For most people, our morning snorkel was a big disappointment. It was high tide, so the picturesque coral was far out and deep. They didn’t see anything and returned to the boat quickly. I, however, did see lots of fish. There were a few isolated areas where they were lots of fish of all sizes and colors. I could almost reach out and touch them. But they swam away when I stretched out my hand. It was great, but all too soon, it was time to leave.
As we headed back to Airley Beach, I had to admit that this was not the time-of-my-life trip that other people had. Back on land, I asked the Italian guys what they thought. Carefully choosing their words, they said it was beautiful. Later, they blamed the Germans. For me, it was probably just fine, as I am not a party guy. I just wanted to enjoy the beauty of the place. But I would prefer to sail the waters of the Caribbean - even if just to be able to jump into the water naked - and live.
But this was to change with a visit to the WhitSunday Islands. Yes, for an ungodly amount, $400, you can live aboard a yacht for 2 days and 2 nights, sailing in the pristine tropical waters around the unspoiled WhitSunday Islands. There was a choice of several different boats of different sizes to chose from. From the 12 person Silent Night fun cruiser to the 25 person Wings catamaran. I chose the 16 person Eureka II
cruiser/racer.This trip was part of a package, which I unwisely purchased, that also included a 3 days 2 night trip to Fraser Island and an Oz Experience hop on/hop off bus pass from Melbourne to Cairns. After 2 days, it because obvious that OzEx was not worth the money. It should have just traveled by Greyhound. It would have been cheaper. But I decided to make the best of it.
As described in the brochure, the Fraser Island trip is a “self-guided 4WD trip with a group of 8-11 people. You will be given a suggested itinerary and a list of instructions before you head off. Explore the island at your own pace. Camping out at night setting up your own tents and preparing your own meals.” We got up early in the morning, put our things in storage and had our pre-trip briefing. This is where you learn of the dangers of driving a top heavy 4WD vehicle on sand…and how you will lose your $1000 insurance if your vehicle flips over - something that happens a little too often. Just a week or so before, there was a group never made it to the island. So there we were ready to go when suddenly we were informed that there was a cyclone forming off the coast, and the Fraser Island trip was cancelled. The island was being evacuated. It would be more than a week before they could resume. This was too bad, because I think we had a good group of mature responsible people - no crazy 19 year old kids. I was refunded a mere $80, while they reminded me that they were being nice in giving me anything back because my package is non-refundable.
So it was up to WhitSundays to salvage this package. But thanks to OzEx odd bus schedule and my error in reading it, I scheduled my sailing one day too early, so I had to purchase a $90 Premier Bus ticket to take me from Harvey Bay to Airley Beach in time to go sailing. And in doing so, I missed out on one of the highlights of OzEx, a visit to a goat ranch and a chance to ride a mechanical bull. But then I had heard from some girls that it was really lame.
On the night before, there was a guy, from New York, in my room. He had just come back from sailing on the 25 person boat, Spank Me. He had the best time of his life. It was just amazing. Lots of snorkeling and diving. A new year’s eve party with lots of booze, and just awesome people. But then I had also heard from some people who had been sailing on another boat on new year’s eve, that everyone was sad because there wasn’t anything to do.
Determine to make this trip great, I made a point of getting to know everyone as we waited for our pre-trip briefing. As with anywhere in Australia, most of the people you meet will be German. Out of 16 of us, 10 were German, 3 Italian, 2 Danish & me. As we waited, the skipper for Silent Night came out and got his people all fired up and ready to go. Then our skipper came and spoke with as much enthusiasm as a turtle. The Italian guys and I looked at each other. This was not good. But we were here to enjoy the natural beauty of the water and the islands - not the skipper.
So we were off. Well, not really. Unlike stormy Fraser Island, there was no wind here. So trying to sail was an exercise in futility. We abandoned that effort and used the motor to get to our first snorkeling location. I must admit that in terms of beauty, this area rivals the Caribbean. In one way, it is better. These uninhabited islands are truly unspoiled Looking out across the tranquil water you just want to jump in and be a part of it. It is truly amazing.
But this beauty has a little deadly flaw. In these waters, a very small, but very deadly jellyfish lives. You will die within a few hours of being stung. And you won’t know you’ve been stung for about ½ hour when your back starts to ache. The water is beautiful and inviting, but you can’t swim in it. At least not without donning a stinger suit
that covers you from head to toe. In our case, it was from neck to ankles. It was a little scary having my head exposed, because I figured that while snorkeling, it would be my head to make first contact with the jellyfish.So I put on the suit and went snorkeling. I hate to admit it, but the snorkeling here is better than at Buck Island. Unfortunately, the coral at Buck Island was dead. Here the coral is alive and colorful. I had some difficulty with a leaky mask, but that because of my mustache. A few times I tried diving down to see the coral closer, but then had trouble blowing the water out of the snorkel.
Soon, we anchored for the night in a quiet bay. Our skipper cooked a very good chicken dinner. And by 9:00, everyone was in bed. What?! So much for the stereotype of partying Germans. This lot forgot to bring beer, and for the most part, they were content to sit in a group speaking German, while complaining that there are too many Germans in Australia! I stayed up a while longer and could hear people having fun on the other boats.
The next morning, we went to the main island with a beach that everyone spoke so highly of. It has the finest sand in the world. So fine you can polish your jewelry with it. Yes, it was beautiful, but again, you can’t swim in the water without your stinger suit. But by this point lots of people got tired of the suit and took it off while in the water. I kept mine on, aware that my unprotected feet was most vulnerable. This is a strange beach. At high tide, you can walk for several hundred feet in shallow water, no deeper than your waist. Then it gets really shallow, then suddenly deep. No one went into the deep water. There must have been some hidden danger. It turns out that there were visible dangers in the shallow parts. There were sharks swimming around us! They were small, just a few feet long, and maybe they don’t bite, but they were sharks non-the-less.
After leaving that beach, we went to our second snorkeling spot. But unfortunately for me, all the stinger suits were gone by the time I went to get one. Someone who didn’t snorkel the day before, and probably didn’t pay for a suit, was now snorkeling. When everyone came back, they said this location was much better than the previous location. The captain told me not to worry, I would have another opportunity to snorkel later that day.
Silent Night challenged us to a race to our next snorkeling location. There was enough wind today to actually sail. We raised the sails and in no time, Silent Night was ahead. We never caught up with them, and it took 4 hours to get there. During this very slow race, I had time to think about and discuss sailing with the captain & skipper. It would be awesome if I had my own yacht. Not that I could afford the $1 million plus price tag. But where would I prefer to sail? The WhitSundays or the Caribbean? I concluded that I would prefer the safe waters of the Caribbean. It was too late to go snorkeling. But no need to worry, the captain said we’ll go snorkeling in the morning and would get to see some fish.
For most people, our morning snorkel was a big disappointment. It was high tide, so the picturesque coral was far out and deep. They didn’t see anything and returned to the boat quickly. I, however, did see lots of fish. There were a few isolated areas where they were lots of fish of all sizes and colors. I could almost reach out and touch them. But they swam away when I stretched out my hand. It was great, but all too soon, it was time to leave.
As we headed back to Airley Beach, I had to admit that this was not the time-of-my-life trip that other people had. Back on land, I asked the Italian guys what they thought. Carefully choosing their words, they said it was beautiful. Later, they blamed the Germans. For me, it was probably just fine, as I am not a party guy. I just wanted to enjoy the beauty of the place. But I would prefer to sail the waters of the Caribbean - even if just to be able to jump into the water naked - and live.
1 comment:
hey i will work on the $1M yacth for the Caribbean voyage, even if i just have to rent one.
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