Jeremy in Australia: Sailing the Whitsundays

Our boat, the "Habibi"

This past weekend I went on another trip I was looking forward to-sailing the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsundays are known for some of the best sailing in the world, so I headed down with a group of 7 other people for a three day weekend. We were aboard the "Habibi", one of the cheaper boats in the region but it was perfect for us. On Friday afternoon we took off and spent the afternoon sailing out to our first location. We spent the afternoon and night on the boat, then woke up to spend the morning at Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven is known as one of the top 3 beaches in the world because it has the highest silica percentage (98%) of any beach in the world. It is basically a perfect white beach. The sand is so pure that they used it to make the lenses for the Hubble Telescope.

Whitehaven Beach, the purest sand in the world

It feels like you are walking on powdered sugar it is so soft

Wobbegong shark!

After hanging out on the beach and snorkeling a bit (I found a Wobbegong shark!), we sailed some more until we got to a bay with a reef for snorkeling. The snorkeling was really good, they only drawback was having to wear stinger suits because there is a big jellyfish problem in the area. It is beginning to be the start of the box jelly season, and there are also the irukandji which are in the area year round. Luckily we had no problems because either species has the capability to kill you. I really enjoyed the snorkeling and saw some cool stuff, the highlight being a turtle which I followed around for about ten minutes.

Giant Clam

After snorkeling we sailed some more for more snorkeling at "Manta Ray Bay". I was hoping the name meant we would see a Manta Ray, but no luck. The snorkeling was still awesome though, as soon as we got off the boat a huge Maori Wrasse bigger than me was all over us. Most of the boats feed them (not to keen on that) so they are really friendly towards people in the water and come right up to you. Also saw a whitetip reef shark while snorkeling. Did some more sailing to our mooring for the night, then woke up in the morning for our last bit of snorkeling. Saw a ray, some nudibranchs, trumpetfish, and a tiny boxfish among other things this time.

This guy was bigger than me and was just as curious about me as I was of him

Nudibranch!

Giant Trevally scoping us out

After Sunday morning snorkeling we took off at about 9 am Sunday to head home, but we were intercepted by an energetic humpback whale. We spent about 30 minutes just watching him next to the boat. He did 3 full breaches (never thought I would get to see that in my life) and spent about 20 minutes laying on his side on the surface and whacking his fin on the water. It was amazing to watch and a great way to end the weekend. The trip was definitely what I was hoping it would be like, and made me wish I had my own boat and knew how to sail. It was also great to meet and hang out with some new people, and I had a real good time.