Our Little Slice of Heaven!
Nov 24-26
After our adventures on the Great Barrier Reef, we continued south toward Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands with a pitstop in Townsville. Simon had been so spoiled by the playground and pools in Cairns that he actually cried when he saw the tiny pool and pathetic playground at the caravan park in Townsville. We decided to check out The Strand, Townsville waterfront, and discovered that, like most of the towns on Queensland’s coast, they had a swimming lagoon and a free waterpark for kids. This one was the best yet! The best part was the enormous bucket that was continuously filling with water and then dumping its contents on the revelers below.
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| From Queensland, A… |
It was so awesome that I actually had a great time splashing around with the kids for a good half hour. Next, it was on to Airlie Beach and our Whitsunday sailing experience which was to be the highlight of our trip thus far.
When we started planning this trip we had each made a wish list of things we wanted to do or accomplish and sailing in the Whitsunday’s was high on both our lists. Not that either of us are accomplished sailors – far from it! Claude achieved his White sail 3 certificate on dinghies fifteen years ago and my experience was limited to that of a passenger who didn’t know a jib from a jibe. I had taken an introductory sailing course in Belleville before we left so that I would be at least competent to help sail the boat. Our dream was to charter our own sailboat and “bareboat” for a week, but we were doubtful that anyone would trust us with a $100,000 yacht – would you? When we arrived in Airlie Beach we had resigned ourselves to sailing as passengers on one of the many charter boats in the area. However, when we tried to find space for the four of us, we found there was no space on any of the boats leaving in the next four days except on a luxury vessel where we would have to pay over $500 per person for a 3 day 2 night cruise. Not wanting to spend four days cooling our heels, we appealed to the lady at the tour booking office to help us. We told her that we would rather spend more money and sail ourselves than be pampered passengers on a luxury vessel. She winked and told us to give her half an hour. True to her word, within twenty minutes our cell phone rang and she had a 36 foot Bavaria yacht for us that we could take for the next six days starting the next morning. We were stunned! I can still remember the two of us sitting there quivering with excitement and fear at the same time. What had we gotten ourselves into? Neither of us had ever skippered a yacht for a day, let alone six days and five nights at sea. Did they know we were a couple of frauds? Then I just looked at Claude and said, “Let’s just do it! I’ve never wanted to do anything more!”
When we went in to sign the contract, we reminded them that we were total rookies and they reassured us that they would spend the entire morning with us and wouldn’t send us out until both we and they were confident we could handle the boat. If necessary, they would send a sail guide with us for as long as we needed. They took us down to see our boat, Amadeus, and it was a thing of beauty.
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| From Whitsundays |
Claude and I looked at each other and raised our eyebrows in silent agreement (Wow!). We spent the rest of the day scrambling to pack and provision the boat and then stayed up most of the night reading charts and instruction manuals. I’ve never seen Claude so stressed out! The more he read the more convinced he became that we knew nothing about sailing. I don’t think he slept a wink that night and looked haggard and wild-eyed in the morning. However, once we got to the marina and Tanya, our sail guide, began our briefing, we both calmed down a bit and began to believe in ourselves. After an hour and a half briefing, we hit the water and spent the next hour or so sailing around the harbour. Thanks to my sailing course, I was able to understand Tanya’s instructions and didn’t look like a complete fool. I fell into the role of first mate while Claude skippered the boat. Since he’s a born windsurfer, he has a natural understanding of wind and had no trouble keeping us on track. The next thing we knew, Tanya had declared us competent and was hopping in her dinghy to head back to the marina.
“Just remember, if you get into trouble, drop your sails and use the motor and don’t forget to check in twice a day on the radio!” she hollered as she sped away. We looked at each other in disbelief. This was it – we were alone on the open ocean on our very own yacht! There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the water was a brilliant blue and the Whitsunday Islands were peeking over the horizon. It was all very surreal. As I hugged Claude and the kids, I thought to myself, “This is what it’s all about! This is living!”
To see more of our photos go to our web album:
Tags: Airlie Beach, Australia, Townsville, Travel, Whitsundays
tambour
VERY cool!!!