Sailing (a bit) the Whitsundays

A quickish update from Brisbane - no more photos until I find wireless, which may not be until Sydney.

Spent the last couple of days on a yacht cruising the Whitsundays, which was fun enough with a nice bunch of people but didn't quite live up to my (possibly too high?) expectations. I maybe should have booked earlier to ensure the right boat, but didn't. The boat I was on is indeed a fast racing yacht, what I wanted, but the company's just split off from another company and clearly maintenance (or lack of) could be a reason. The yacht was a little run down, and right at the start our skipper couldn't get her in forward gear - kind of essential for leaving the harbour. They fiddled with the engine until they'd mended it, but that meant we were late leaving, and we only motorsailed the first afternoon under a gennaker despite all the other boats around sailing properly. Partly we were late, but also, we discovered when we asked, the mainsail had a tear in it. Actually I don't think the skipper was terribly impressed with a ripped mainsail either, it was his first trip with the company (see how I keep getting first-trip guides?) and he wanted to sail too. Additionally another yacht out at the same time had too many passengers on board for beds, and we had spare beds, so we had to meet up with her at night. That meant a decidedly more "party" atmosphere than I'd been looking for and I think the same went for most of the others on board - though not the four Swedish girls travelling as a group! Not that the socialising wasn't fun, but it meant less sleep than I'd been hoping for. Still a bit short.

Day two started with a trip ashore to see Whitehaven Beach and go for a swim, all togged up in stinger suits to guard against jellyfish. Lovely beach, absolutely white, turquoise sea, the works, so that set us off to a good start. Then we motored to a snorkelling/diving site, which was okay though not up to the standards of the reef further north. Visibility was a bit cloudy, but there was a lot of fish. I did see a fair bit of coral damage however, mostly algae of some description. :( After that we motored to a different mooring, had dinner, and then linked up with the other boat again. The party went on well past my bedtime and was noisy past the time I was trying to get to sleep. Grrr.

Today we started out with a morning snorkel - a quick one, as pretty shortly after getting in we started seeing jellyfish. We all made a fairly sharp exit from the water, despite the stinger suits! Then, thank heavens, we set both sails (the skipper had, I think, realised there were grumpy passengers on board) and had a good sail back to Airlie Beach. Wasn't long enough though and there wasn't a huge amount of audience participation. I helped a bit with the main halyard and that was it. However, a nice end to the trip.

Back in Airlie, a quick swim and a shower helped to freshen up. I'd planned to catch the local bus to the airport but on arrival at the bus stop realised I'd misjudged that one. Hadn't booked a shuttle. Had to get a taxi. Some $78 later, regretted the taxi and my uncharacteristic mismanagement. It's not like I'm skint yet, but the fact remains I didn't want to spend that on a taxi fare! Add to tiredness and by the time I finally got to the backpackers tonight I was thoroughly miserable. However, I decided trying to save a few more dollars would be silly while being miserable, and discovered a really excellent pizza, a glass of red wine and an icecream (lots of favourite food) have cheered me up a lot.

Tomorrow I plan to try and go for a morning run to get some decent exercise, and then I'm just going to wander around Brisbane for the day. I've contemplated going to Australia Zoo but then I wouldn't see anything of the city, and it's a long way and expensive. So I'm not going to bother. In the evening I'm meeting a former colleague for dinner, which I'm very much looking forward to.