Two Beers and a Pretzel

On the 16th Aaron and I took the overnight Greyhound bus from 1770 to Arile Beach so we could catch a sailboat to the Whitsunday Island chain for the 18th – 20th on Apollo – an 80′ Maxi racing yacht.

I actually ran into Lisa, the really cute Swede I met in New Zealand and a couple people from the Surf camp.  Aside from that, Aaron and I already knew 1/2 the people on our boat…  Damien, Belinda, and the 4 Isralies from the Canoe Trip, Marc, Janine and Franzi from Fraser Island, Rachel and Emma (who did the Canoeing with Marc).  The others we met were all cool – including Chris, who looks like a young Paul Newman (after Ant looking like Steve McQueen, I’m now waiting to find a guy who looks like a young Robert Redford or Clint Eastwood).

On the morning of the 18th we walked across town to the marina and met the crew, reviewed the rules and itinerary, and started sailing with some lucky wind (rare for this time of year).  Here’s the crew…  Heidi (skipper), Molly (chef), Ryan (mate), and Jonno (divemaster).

After a great sail, we arrived at Whitehaven beach – where the silica sand is so fine you can clean jewelry.  There was no coral here, but we had to wear “stinger” suits incase we bumped into any jellyfish.  We all just goofed around for a few hours.

We sailed during sunset to a cove in the Cook Strait where we tied up to a mooring buoy.

That night we partied pretty well.  A young Brit, Leo, was celebrating his 21st birthday and the crew rigged a beer bong for our entertainment.  There was a lot of goon, beer, and I had made 7&7′s.

The next day we motored over to Luncheon Bay where there was a very nice reef and reasonably clear water.  Jonno was giving everyone a free resort dive.  I again tried to dive and again started freaking while breathing underwater.  0 for 2 with SCUBA, so I stuck with snorkeling and free diving and loved it.  We were officially in the Great Barrier Reef National Marine Park.  I got the underwater camera and proceeded to break it in 2 minutes.  Luckily, it was just water in the USB socket shorting out the LCD, so after it dried out later that night it worked fine again and I’m being extra careful of sand in the seals.  The result of that problem is a lack of pictures of the best snorkeling day we had.

We all stayed there for a pretty good sunset from the beach with the boat in the picture.  I took another time lapse video (if I can ever upload it).

One more night of partying and we motored to the sandbar at Langford Island where we snorkelled for a few hours.  The Olympus was working again, so I got plenty of pics and videos…

It was a neat reef, with a nice mix of Large Poly Stonies, Small Polyp Stonies, and Soft coral… and a ton of fish.

This cluster of Yellow and Pink leathers was about 1 meter in diameter.

This red acro colony was easily 2 meters in diameter

This blue tipped stag colony was over 1 meter wide at it’s narrowest point.

A Hawk Nosed Sea Turtle

It was really fun seeing fish and corals in the wild that I used to keep in my aquarium.  Especially considering that my corals were considered large at 2 ft across – and some of these corals were larger than my entire 400 gallon aquarium.  Honestly, I don’t want a reef tank again.  It’s cheaper, more beautiful, and less hassle to fly to Australia and go snorkelling.

After lunch, we rigged up for sailing and raced another Maxi yacht back to Airile Harbor.  We killed them.  The wind was pretty light and we were barely making 15 knots, so the crew let me man the wheel for a while…  Cool as anything – I raced an 80′ sailing yacht!!!

This was my view of the boat.

Otherwise we all just tanned on deck and took the obligatory “last day” pics and exchanged facebook ID’s.

Here’s a pic of me with a few Israeli friends who Canoed in Noosa with me and were also on the boat.  Hey dad, the dark guy is named “Yoni” (inside joke).

Later that night a number of us met at a local bar for some final rowdy dancing and drinking.  I had to catch a bus to Mission Beach the next morning, so I left the party around 2 am.