Sailing around the Whitsunday Islands

19.06 - 21.06

A dream come true, 2 days and 2 nights at sea. Sailing in the Pacific, in the dream waters around the Whitsunday Islands. Swimming at (at least) the 3 most beautiful beach in the world, and swimming with 100,000 fish. Wonderful. The anticipation was great!

On Wednesday afternoon at 1 pm, we finally boarded the 'Spank me'. 'Spank me' is a quite famous sailing yacht that has not only participated in famous regattas like the Sydney to Hobart, but has also sailed half the world. After a short safety briefing, it was time to depart. 'Ready to cast off' and off we go!!

After leaving the port area, we finally set sail and the 'Spank me' took a comfortable tilt. After several assurances from the skipper that this was normal, the nerves of all non-sailors slowly calmed down and the sunbathing positions were taken up. My position was next to the Skipper😉 Just to make my dear sailing instructors happy, hehe.

We spent 2 and a half hours like this, until we finally reached the first destination of the day, a snorkeling spot. Beautiful fish and beautiful reef awaited us. Even Dory and Nemo were spotted occasionally (unfortunately not by me :( ). Half an hour later, back on board, we were greeted with hot tea and a small snack. After finishing it, we were almost in the small bay where we wanted to anchor for the night, and of course have dinner. Which, by the way, was extraordinarily delicious. That's why we thought it was necessary to share our luck with the baby sharks that supposedly inhabited this bay. Once it was dark, the leftovers fell overboard, and the (small) sharks suddenly gathered around our boat.

After a few sips of Goon, we slept well, so we woke up the next morning at 6am (more or less refreshed). A fantastic feeling to wake up with the sun over the sea! Absolutely indescribable. After a refreshing breakfast, we anchored at Whithaven Beach at 7.30am. Since we arrived at such an early hour, there was only one other boat there besides us, so we had the beach and the lookout points practically to ourselves. Nothing better than that!! However, the early hour also had a major disadvantage, the sun was not yet very high and therefore the water had turquoise colors, but not as intense as expected. Almost a bit disappointed by the view from above, we made our way to the beach to see manta rays (2 of them) and swim in the incredibly soft water. Of course, Timo also had his freshly charged GoPro with him to film something, yes, unfortunately, the freshly charged GoPro gave up after one minute, to the great frustration of everyone, as the charging cable stayed on land, of course. Therefore, no videos or photos of snorkeling. However, the annoyance did not last long, as we realized that the water became bluer from minute to minute and we still had more than an hour here. With the plan to walk to the lookout point shortly before we were picked up, the smiling faces returned and we spontaneously organized a race on the beach (just to mention it friends, as the only girl, I was not the slowest 😏). Going to the lookout point turned out to be the best decision because when we arrived at the top, it almost took our breath away. The colors and swirls were supernaturally intense and strong. Almost impossible to tear ourselves away from this unique view.

Back on the 'Spank Me', we continued to the first snorkeling spot of the day, where we saw countless fish, I even felt like there were too many around me. But still great. The GoPro problem had been solved in the meantime, as a Frenchman on our boat happened to have a suitable cable with him. So there will definitely be some cool pictures that I will add here as soon as I have them on my laptop or phone. The second snorkeling spot today had fewer fish, but very beautiful reef with glowing colors and giant clams.

In the evening, we anchored in such a way that we had a sunset over the sea, the most beautiful one I have ever seen. Without clouds, with the most radiant colors, and even 1 hour after the sun had set, with a sky in the softest colors. Just magical!

After such a long and exciting day, which ended with a relaxing drink of one or two cups of Goon on deck, everyone slept wonderfully. On the last day of sailing, we woke up again with the sun, and at 7am, we all jumped into the water for the last snorkeling session. If you're wondering, yes, it was cold. But yes, it was absolutely worth it. I saw a manta ray, it was swimming right under me, it was as big as my entire arm span. Absolutely stunning.

Back on board, we had a hot cup of tea and breakfast before we sadly sailed back. With a heavy heart, we finally said goodbye to the ship and crew at 12PM and went ashore.

Goodbye Whitsunday Islands, and see you tonight to the crew.

PS. Yeah, the after-party was crowded, very crowded😉

Love to you XO