Sailing the Whitsundays

On the advice of others we talked to, the Whitsunday coast of Australia's Queensland state was a must see as well. So we decided to jump on a boat and take a 3 day cruise that would include sailing, diving, and seeing one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Whitehaven beach.

Here is our cute little catamaran - the Pacific Star - which we called home from April 18 - 21. (Cute is read - nice sundeck, not so nice accommodations)!

Not so great accommodations aside, we made the best of it- we met some amazing people, and saw some of the most amazing things we were yet to have seen.

This is a pic of the four of us traveling together our first morning waking up on the boat - yes, that is indeed Stevie G seated next to me, of our wonderful new friends Stephen and Erin - residents of Melbourne, but world travellers. We were lucky in that Stephen had not seen the Whitsundays yet and decided to jump on board with us!

First stop on April 19 - Whitehaven Beach. This was literally the most beautiful beach I have EVER seen. White sands, cross currents, the ability to walk out on a sand bank (that you needed to cross knee length water to get to) - it was like no other beach I have ever seen.

Later that day, Stephen, Jay and I took a intro diving lesson and went Scuba diving for the first time - not at the great barrier reef, at a beach on Whitsunday Island, but an awesome experience!

The next day we headed towards the Great Barrier Reef - this was an extremely special day for me because when Sunil passed a year ago I made a promise to dive the Great Barrier Reef, as we had promised we'd do together. I got even more comfort in the fact that the boys were celebrating Josh's birthday back at home the same day I was set to dive the Reef.

We woke up that morning - to find that the rocky travels we had been through all night did indeed get us to the Reef, and that there was no land anywhere in sight. This is a shot of the color of the water near the Great Barrier Reef:

And here we are getting suited up for our 2nd dive at the Reef!

I wish I could say my dive story had a happy ending, but it didn't. Unfortunately, we made the fatal error of thinking that the training dive that the boat cruise would provide us would be enough to be comfortable to dive both days - but for me the 2nd day, unfortunately the day we were at the reef, it was not. Although I made it underwater and waited for our instructor to get all the trainees underwater and ready to head over to the reef, I began to panic, and thanks to very little review and instruction from the dive instructors, I had a pretty scary experience.

I returned to the boat to find El waiting for me, and he assured me that despite my promise to Sunil he wouldn't have wanted me to hurt myself - and that we would come back some day after I had been properly trained. Any wonder I love this man?

So, I got to the reef, I did dive, but not a great combo of those two things. Next time Sunil - with better preparation I promise. Doh!

Here's a few more pics of our sailing trip - chatting with our new friends, and sleeping up on the deck!