We headed out to the Marina at 12:30PM to check in for our sail. The boat was returning a little late and needed some prep time. I took this time to remember that I had forgotten my toothbrush. Luckily, the marina cafe had one for the awesome price of $5. "I bet that's the last time you forget your toothbrush!" said the clerk.
Waiting for the boat
Matador is 85ft in length and is the largest IOR Maxi ever built. Matador was designed, developed and constructed at a cost of over US$20 million in 1991. The yacht is constructed from carbon fibre, titanium and aluminium. Matador competed in 52 races, 8 regattas and 2 maxi world champions and was undefeated!
http://www.sailing-whitsundays.com/WhitsundaySailing.php?id=1015
Final systems check: Go. We start motoring out of the harbour.
Airlie Beach as we departed.
The sail down
The sail going up
And the massive effort needed to raise the sail after the reduction gearing broke.
While sailing, the boat sits at quite a fantastic angle. Here's the Defender, another boat that left the Harbour with us.
Here's what the deck looks like while sailing. Stay on the high side!
Here's about where we dropped anchor for the night after an afternoon of sailing.
The scenery was stupid beautiful. The ocean shifted between dark blue and gorgeous green, there were island in any direction, it seemed, if you looked hard enough. It's hard to believe some people sail for a living and live on the ocean.
The inside of the boat...the galley and some of the bunks.
I saw this, kinda did a double take, then sauntered over and took a picture. I didn't laugh really hard until I saw the picture a week later.
Some nifty shots of the sunset that night.
Before it got dark, after we were anchored, the crew took down some of the railing and some of jumped off the boat and swam for a bit. There was a bit of a competition, as there always is when boys are jumping into water. I was doing alright until someone sprinted past the line and did a flip over the railing into the water. Unexpected!
I don't know if I've ever seen a larger pot of spaghetti, and everyone was incredibly hungry, it hit the spot in fantastic fashion.
The boat was over-booked. I think there was originally supposed to be two boats for us, but we all ended up on one. There was not enough room for everyone to sleep, so 10 people hopped on the dinghy with camping equipment and headed to shore. I chose to stay on board and I'm glad I did. The gentle rocking of the ocean put me to sleep in no time.
Day 10 - Swimming with the Fishes
We were up at DAWN. The boat started and everyone got up and started having a brekky feed. I did not agree with this and stayed in my cot as long as possible.
We motored to a different location and set anchor for scuba diving. Adam and I were the only two certified divers on board, but we needed a group of four, so two other divers who had gone before were chosen.
I was a little concerned, as I haven't been in a BCD since my certification dive in Summer of 2005, so I sat through the training course, but it all came back to me, just like riding a bicycle.
This actually was the smoothest dive I've ever had, I think.
There's a lot of stuff on the ocean floor! The five of us jumped in and I floated on my back as taught in training, to listen for bubbles. I heard a leak and alerted my instructor, who told me it was just a pin leak from the regulator and would be fine for the dive. We went down and explored for a bit.
You know when you see a bunch of seagulls on the beach and some idiot sprints towards them and scatters the crowd? I'm that idiot. This state of mind also seems to apply under the ocean, as I caught myself swimming quickly to scatter schools of fish on numerous occasions. I ran out of air first and gave the signal that I was low and heading to the surface. The dinghy came and picked me up. I was at 50bar when everyone else was around 75-100bar. I assumed this was just a result of the leak, as I used to be very good with air.
While we were diving, everyone else was snorkeling. Upon return to the boat, I traded in my gear, keeping the flippers and mask. I was really amazed how buoyant you actually are in a full wetsuit without the weight belt that scuba divers wear. There was no effort required to float. I spent quite a bit of time relaxing face down and watching the ocean floor beneath me.
There were three other groups of four divers each. The first group was all intro divers, and they were all girls. Two of them panicked when they got under water. When you panic, you breathe fast and shallow, and when you breathe fast and shallow, the air doesn't have time to get through your regulator and into your lungs. I suppose this is an advantage of learning in a swimming pool, like I did, as opposed to being tossed into the ocean.
On the itinerary for the day was docking at Whitehaven beach, the purest beach in the world. Apparently, the beach is pure silica and it's like walking in flour. Tourists are not allowed to take the sand, as NASA uses it in the construction of super pure space glass or some such technobabble. We were apparently running behind and the grumpy old skipper informed us that we couldn't go. The girls did quite a bit of complaining and he eventually said we could go. This meant that the last group of scuba divers missed their dive. Also, he failed to mention that we wouldn't actually go to the beach, just go past it. Thanks for that.
Here's as close as I got to Whitehaven beach. It looks cool, I guess!
We often encountered fields of this floaty brown stuff. When asked, a member of the crew convinced a group of girls that it was whale crap. Hahaha. It's actually a perfectly natural reef byproduct, and that's all I know about that.
We sailed back to the beach we camped at the first night. The skipper went below deck and one of the crew members I had spent quite a bit of time talking to about navigation and sailing was left in charge of the wheel. After explaining to me where the sandbar was that we had to go around, he gave me the wheel and left to do other things on the boat. Very cool!
We set anchor and enjoyed a roast beef and potato dinner. It reminded me of home! Everyone had a few drinks and then they climbed into the dinghy for transport to the camping site. One problem: The dinghy wouldn't start! After a half hour of trying, it was declared dead and now we had 12 extra people to sleep on this already cramped boat! The two crew members slept on the floor of the captain's cabin. The remaining 10 people doubled and tripled up beds or slept on the deck. As I got up to use the toilet, I noticed one of my friends sleeping on top of a chest freezer, with everything below his knees hanging off the end. Hahaha.
Apparently one of the crew members came up to the deck and pulled out the sail cover and everyone on the deck slept under it to stay dry. The boat was really hot, the skipper was snoring very loud, and it was raining a decent amount. The boat was doing more than gentle rocking and I wondered if I was ever going to get to sleep. However, just like every other night I've wondered that, I was somehow asleep shortly after.
Day 11 - Whitsundays/Airlie Beach
Up at dawn again, despite the rough night. Everyone was tired, it seemed. After some more diving and jumping off the side of the boat, anchor was raised and we motored back to Airlie Beach.
It was at this point that I happened to glance down and notice I was actually pretty tan. I was pretty confused.
We got back in without issue. The cool members of the crew begged us to skip our bus ride that night and go out on the town with them that night. We met them at 5PM at a local restaurant for a few drinks, but then it was time for one last bus ride at 7:30PM.
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