2 Tickets 2 Paradise

On Friday 15 December Marce and I joined our friends, Ramsis & Ceclia Adam and Andrew & Carole Owen, on a 4 day sailing trip to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. This group of 74 islands along the central Queensland Coast was discovered by Captain Cook in 1770 on Whit Sunday and forms a haven for sailing inside the Great Barrier Reef. We traveled non-stop by air to Hamilton Island, 90 minutes from Brisbane. Once on the island we transferred to the Sunsail office, where we met our captain and "hostie", Marc and Stephanie. They treated us to a fantastic adventure combined with Stephanie's excellent cooking. At 2PM we boarded our 46 foot Bahai catamaran named "Melissa Py" and began our voyage. We sailed out and along the west side of Whitsunday Island, the largest of the islands. At approximately 5PM we moored on the north end of Hook Island, overlooking the Hayman Island resort about 1 km away, which happens to be the resort where Marce and I celebrated our 20th anniversary a year and a half ago. The moonless night came alive with stars, which included Orion and its flickering shoulder red-giant star Betelgeuse, and the Andromeda galaxy, which could be seen with the naked eye. Stepanie cooked us up a wonderful Spanish paella which we ate outdoors in the cockpit in 75 degree temperatures. On Saturday the wind and weather were favorable which allowed us to sail to Bait Reef, one of the many reefs that form the outer portion of the Great Barrier Reef. Upon arriving we were met by "Boris", a giant bue Wrasse fish about 2 feet long and 1 foot tall. He frequents this boat as he knows he will be fed. Once moored we all jumped in the water and had a great time snorkeling around the Stepping Stones, one of the world's premiere snorkeling locations. Sunsail has one of 15 permits allowing them to anchor at the outer reef, and we were blessed to be able to spend the night out on the reef, some 60 miles offshore. On Sunday morning, we woke early and traveled to Whitehaven Beach, located along the east side of Whitsunday Island. There we enjoyed the 7 km beach with some of the world's purest silica sand. The sand on Whitehaven Beach is so pure that it's actually used to form the glass mirrors on the Hubble Space telescope. At 12:30PM our pre-arranged Air Whitsunday seaplane touched down and met us in Melissa's zodiak boat, where we boarded the 13 seat Cessna 208 Caravan. This airplane was one of the nicest I have seen, with a four-bladed propeller and gas turbine engine, and a GPS-enabled glass cockpit inside. I was able to sit up front and watch while our pilot, Mick, took us on a memorable aerial adventure back out to Bait Reef, Hook Reef, and finally to Hardy reef where we flew over the famous Heart Reef. Air Whitsunday is the only company in all of Australia licensed to land inside a reef, and this we did in Hardy Reef. There we boarded a small glass bottom boat and cruised over the coral before coming to an idyllic location where we all donned stinger suits and snorkeling gear and dove into the water to experience some of the best snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef has to offer. After an hour of snorkeling, we enjoyed cheese, crackers and champagne on the boat before returning to the Cessna 208, which was waiting for us at its mooring buoy. We then returned to Whitehaven Beach, speechless from the beauty we had just seen. After meeting captain Marc and transferring back to the Melissa Py, we enjoyed a wonderful snack meal prepared by Stephanie. No, we did not lose any weight on this trip, that is for sure. We then spent the next 2 hours playing Bocce Ball on a deserted Whitehaven Beach. Marce and I were able to take a stroll along the beach by ourselves where we saw sting rays in the water and thousands of soldier crabs, which were small and formed what looked like blue-gray clouds that moved along the beach. Once the sun had set, we enjoyed our last dinner, a fantastic BBQ steak and prawn meal. On Monday morning the wind had come up, and we had a good sail back to Hamilton Island with 25 knot winds pushing us along. As we said our good-byes to Marc & Stephanie, and boarded the plane for Brisbane, we all agreed it was one of our best vacations ever!

Marc

P.S. Check out this website below to view more of our pics at the online Kodak Gallery:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=rb4s789.1k0ceiat&Uy=-7rdamw&Ux=0