Ryan’s Journal: Days 73 – 75

Day 73

Distance travelled: 7km (by car)

Our little boat is the black one - that somehow accommodated 13 of us!

Our cruise left at 2 so we had a relaxed pack up. We parked the car and went to the shops and had a look around, getting some lunch and a haircut before we walked to a wharf where Silent Night, our boat, was. We were taken onto the small yacht by our captain Sam and deckhand Mike (or Taylor).  At about 2 we motored out onto the calm waters of the Whitsundays. Here was no wind so we couldn’t sail, instead we went out to part of the reef and snorkelled, where the reef was really colourful and there were a few fish. We anchored in between two islands and tried to sleep on the rocking boat.

Day 74

A view of Whitehaven Beach from the lookout

Today the wind was up, so we woke up and after breakfast, went for a sail. We went to Whitehaven beach where we swam, played soccer on the flour-like sand and went up to the lookout and looked out over the Whitsundays. It was amazing! We saw lots of stingrays in the water from the beach as well as a few baby sharks.

We went back to the boat and sailed to another snorkelling spot, the best we’ve been to. There were thousands of fish surrounding everyone in the water. There were some that were colourful, some that were huge and some were just weird. We spent a while snorkelling and feeding the fish, then anchoring in a bay where we spent our last night on the boat, Silent Night.

Day 75

Distance travelled: 148km (by car)

We woke up, after another long night and ate breakfast for the last time on Silent Night. Sadly we had to go back to shore and continue our trip. We set sail again, and we all had a steer of the boat before we made it back to shore. On our way back, Sam, the captain, had a ‘play’ with our boat and another, the Boomerang. Sailing parallel and ‘360ing’! But when we saw whales it all stopped and we watched two whales, mother and calf swim past the boat. It was an amazing ending to the trip.

When we were back on land, we went straight to the car and hit the road again; we got back to the car at about 11 and got our standard lunch from Woollies, 12 cheese and bacon rolls. We drove out to Cape Hillsborough, near Mackay, where we set up camp for the night.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and playing cricket.