Eleven hours on a bus, not one of my favorite things. After a very long day I managed to get to Airlie Beach. A small town at the sea which is the gateway to Whitsunday islands. On thursday we got to meet the Condor. Which is a sailing ship with a history. Apparently it has won every big sailing competition at least twice. Now it’s retired and only does trips to the Whitsunday Islands.
So, you hand in your shoes once you get on board. There were only 16 guests on board, it can hold 29 guests. And there were 4 crew members. Then you throw your bag downstairs and start off with a safety briefing and more boring stuff. First half hour we used the motor to get out of the harbor, then we set sail. I’ve never been sailing before, so that was quite an adventure.
I didn’t really put that much thought into it, I only heard from people it was an amazing trip. So to actually get sailing, the sail has to be hoisted. That wasn’t just the crew’s job, we were to participate in this event. Which involved tugging a rope with three guys at the same time. Thank god there was a strong Canadian guy involved, so I could just act like I was helping out.
The boat got to a nice angle and we had to sit on the safe side. The high side is the safe side, the low side is the suicide. So, legs out, receiving an occasional refreshing bit of sea water. The weather wasn’t the best at the harbor once we left, but it’s still a good 30 degrees. Just some clouds.
After a good amount of sailing we lowered the anchor. A nice dinner was cooked for us and we enjoyed it on the deck. It was now time for a party, and there was plenty of booze on board. It get’s dark quite early here, like 7:30 I think, made it a cozy scenery. After a few beers and cheap wine everyone was enjoying themselves. We had a nice mixture of nationalities. From Canada to Denmark and Turkish to Finnish. I was the only flying dutch man on board. But to be fair, I think I’ve met about two dutch guys so far during my trip.
A good amount of alcohol helped to get us to sleep in the cozy lower deck. It was quite warm and not as comfy, but I didn’t have that much trouble falling a sleep. Just to be rudely awoken at 6:30 cause the crew was preparing breakfast. I’m not a morning person, so I didn’t enjoy that. But once you’ve made your way upstairs and see the beautiful islands around you, the insane blue water and blue sky, then not even I can complain.
Spent a good hour hanging on the deck, then we got in the dingy. (that’s the small rubber boat). We got dropped off at the beach and made our way to a lookout post overviewing the Whitehaven beach. It was high tide, but still very impressive. We made our way down to the beach and got into our sexy stinger suits. Went for a swim, bit of sun bathing on the beach. The sand is amazing, really fine sand. We got warned a couple of times about our electronic devices, drop it in the sand and it will be destroyed. The sand is so fine, it will get everywhere. So I decided not to drop my camera.
We got back onto the Condor and had some nice lunch on the deck and set sail to our snorkeling spot. Now when we arrived, the front sail had to come down, so again volunteers were required. I didn’t mind helping out. While getting the sail down there was a lot of wind and I got pulled forward about half a meter and managed to hit my toe on a roof. The deck of the boat is filled with stuff you can hurt yourself on. Didn’t hurt as bad at the start, but after 20 mins I couldn’t walk anymore. As some of you remember, I went frisbeeing at the park last summer. I didn’t wear any shoes and managed to badly bruise a toe. This time I bruised the toe on my left foot, next to my big toe.
So we got some ice on it. The skipper told me not to and just walk. Good thing there were two nurses on board who took care of me. It turned purple pretty quickly. I still went snorkeling, which was beautiful. Saw a lot of fish, way more fish around than at the reef. But the coral was more impressive at the Great Barrier Reef. And I didn’t see any turtles, I did see some jellyfish which I stayed away from.
After a good snorkel we got back on the boat, me limping around. We made our way to our next overnight spot. I didn’t have to volunteer anymore, since I got injured on duty. As soon as one of the nurses did a diagnose on me, that it wasn’t broken, the sympathy stopped from the nurses. They weren’t impressed by my war injury. Good thing the rest of the girls made up for that and kept asking me if I was alright.
Another dinner on the deck, and it was time for a party again. Music on, alcohol was flowing. Which definitely helped my toe out a lot. After hearing the same playlist of (bad) music for the third time, I decided to stumble downstairs and find my phone to take over the deejay booth. A lot of appreciation was given once we got some classics like the Who and the Kinks blasting through the speakers of this great sailing boat.
The next morning I was awoken again by the preparation of breakfast. After breakfast we headed to a second snorkeling spot. The tide was high, and I just showered. I didn’t want to put on the stinger suit again and get in, but I did join the crew on the dingy. I even got to drive it. Which was a lot of fun.
Back in the harbor we got our flip flops, or as the locals say ‘thongs’, back on. Mario, my new German friend, was nice enough to drop me off at my hostel. Really enjoying the amount of space I got again. Weird experience, being stuck on a boat with 20 people. But it was very good, met a lot of cool people on the boat. At night we went to a bar on the strip. The whole crew was there, and almost all of the guests as well. We abused happy hour and got clubbing. Crowded, bad music, overpriced alcohol but a lot of fun regardless.
Today I’m recovering. My toe is already much better, I can walk in flip flops with it, so that’s all good. Just have to give it a few more days. Big thanks to my two private nurses on the boat, Nicola and Ruth, who put up with my whining and complaining. Today I’m going to figure out what my next stop is going to be. I have to be in Hervey Bay at the 27th of january for my camping trip to Fraser Island.
