Thursday 14 August 2014

Day 80 - Whitsunday Sailing

Checked out at 6.30am, a little early but was wide awake. A slow walk in the rain upto the marina, waited by the what I thought was the Barcelona Cafe to meet the group. It wasn't until I read the sign fully that it said Barcelona Cafe in 500m, so ran up and was still waiting 15 minutes as the crew wasn't ready.

The rain was really pouring now and so we boarded, the boat can take 22 passengers, luckily there were only 11 of us so it should be nice and comfortable. We set off, all out on deck in our lovely rain coats. Once we got out to see we (me and Josh) hoisted the main sail, which was really quite difficult.

Our first destination was to Whitehaven Beach, and on the way the wind was really rough and the boat was crashing over the waves, which was amazing to experience. The two French guys at the front of the boat dancing away in the rain hanging on for dear life will be one thing I'll never forget.

Arrived just as the rain stayed to ease off and all piled into the dingy to head over to the land. Had a walk through the forest to some lookouts for some photos and then down onto the beach, where unfortunately it started raining again, that didn't stop some going for a swim though, figured we were so wet anyway that it didn't matter. The beach was amazing, so big and that was with the tide in, can't imagine how big it would be with the tide out.

Back on the boat we had lunch and Oyster (not his real name) had prepared some amazing and massive food for us, we were definitely going to be fed well.

From there we set sail again in the rain to head for our overnight spot in a bay so it would be nice and sheltered, from the wind at least.

Settled down and that's when the drinking games started and unfortunately white wine or goon add they call it here was all that was on offer, so to say it got a bit messy would be an understatement. I ended up staying up until 1.30am with James, a 17 year old lad who hadn't really drank beige and was feeling a bit worse for wear. He was Ok in the end though.

Despite the weather it was a great day and I think we had an authentic sailing experience.

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