We Are Sailing

For the next three days and two nights, me and 23 other passengers will be living on a boat, the SV Whitehaven. Sailing is the standard thing to do while in the Whitsundays, but although others will describe sailing through paradise during the day and sleeping under the stars during the night... Well you can guess the rest.

We left at 1pm as scheduled. After sailing to the Whitsundays themselves, we dropped anchor off Hook Island at around 4pm to do a spot of snorkeling. Now, I've only ever been snorkeling once before (Bali, 2003) and back then it was a nightmare. The amount of water I swallowed was matched only by the amount I puked back up and it was obvious that I wasn't any good at it.

I had a much better time today. Although I swallowed water this time too, it wasn't enough to feel anything more than a bit queasy, and I actually managed to see some fish and coral too. Still the 45 minutes that we were in for was enough for me; even the on-board shower afterwards felt like heaven.

Staying on the boat itself is awesome. It's the small things like not wearing shoes while on board or playing cards on the deck that add something special to the whole thing, and unlike as would be expected there's not one single prat on board; in fact these guys seem like a pretty good bunch.

It's going to be a good two days, I think.