Everybody look at me 'cause I'm sailing on a boat!

Song: "I'm On A Boat" by Incredibad (The Lonely Island) feat. T. Pain

April 20th

Woke up on a boat. Crazy talk. I couldn't really sleep when I woke up from the hull of the boat, so I listened to my iPod for a bit.

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

The other boat from our boat:

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

We had breakfast and then got off the boat to go look out over Whitehaven Beach, the number three beach in the world.

It was gorgeous. The sand was so white and everything was picturesque.

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

Anyway, gorgeous. We left the lookout and played on the island itself and it's 99.6% pure silica (quartz) sand due to a volcano nearby. We learned we could use the sand to brush our teeth, which was an interesting experiment. We had to swim in the water with our stinger suits on so we wouldn't get stung by any terrible Australian wildlife.

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

Unfortunately, we had to leave the beach and get back on the boat. I was content with staying much longer. Our next destination was a spot for snorkeling. I was terrified of this after my kayak snorkeling experience, but I tried again and it was much better this time. I also got cool photos with my underwater camera (I think, I need to develop them). The reefs we looked at here were just amazing. The fish were just as bright and exotic as you would expect. Even the reef, which I knew wasn't going to be as bright as the fake stuff in the Baltimore Aquarium, was still impressive. I was so worried that I might accidentally kick something the first half of the snorkel that I didn't enjoy myself, but toward the end I got a lot better. It was probably my favorite water related part of the trip.

After snorkeling, we went to a sand bar near where we were going to spend the night on the boat. The sand bar disappeared at high tide and we were about two hours away from it disappearing, so I ran to one side of it to take pictures.

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

I got a funny one of the other girls on the other side when the water was coming up.

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

Bernie stole my camera for this one:

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

Ahhhhawfawjefnkwffbaweflkwfet. I love sunsets.

I chose this evening to sleep on the deck of the boat. Greatest idea ever. It was so much less stuffy, and I got to fall asleep with the stars and wake up with the sunrise.
Correction: Ahhhhawfawjefnkwffbaweflkwfet. I love everything about the sky.

The damn thing gone wild (bam ba lam)

Song: "Black Betty" covered by Spiderbait

April 19th

This morning, breakfast happened somehow, and I went with Bernie on a quest to find an underwater camera. I felt like we drove back and forth down Airlie Beach's only highway and main drag at least three times. Actually, that's not much of an exaggeration. We did end up at Target, where I got a funny picture of Bernie attempting to sleep on the display bed.

From Airlie Beach

Good stuff. We also took a photo shoot with the disgusting front of the car, which was completely covered in bugs.

From Airlie Beach

From Airlie Beach

Anyway, we didn't have much luck with the camera. We picked up Vilde and Becca and prepared for our sailing trip. We got on the boat, met some of our companions for the next few days and sailed off into what eventually was the night.

It was bring your own alcohol, and the boat's system for refrigerating was so funny I have to write about it. There were two large coolers with giant bags of ice and one was for beer and one was for wine (goon - in the bag) and everything else. After the alcohol was chilled, we were allowed to put water bottles in. Australians are great. They have priorities.

Our crew was hysterical. Ange and Tones were our deck hands (and master chefs) and Wombat was our skipper. Whenever I referred to him as our "skipper" everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Apparently no one ever watched Gilligan's Island. Geez.

Anyway, we were supposed to be helpful on deck for sailing, but the wind wasn't strong enough or something, so we only raised the sails once. I was supposed to help with the "grinders" but I wasn't even needed for that. "Grinders." haha.

We got to the cove where we were going to be sleeping, ate dinner, drank with some new friends, and then I went to sleep in the hull of the boat. It actually wasn't that bad, except for being a little stuffy.

The boat:

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

From Whitsundays Sailing Trip

More pictures from the trip soon. Today's were a little weak.