Whitsunday Islands

Sailing the Whitsundays was an awesome experience. I went out in the tall ship 'Romance', and the people were pretty fun. We started our first day slow and relaxed, heading out to anchor near Whitsunday Island. We saw a bunch of sea turtles on the surface, coming up for air.

When we woke up in the morning, our first stop was Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. We did a short hike to the top of a lookout to see the swirling silica sands. Super!

Then we were all hot and sweaty and just wanted to go in the water. We went down to the beach and the sand was so fine that it made a squeaky noise when you walked across it. Unfortunately there are deadly jellyfish in the water here, so before we went in we had to wear stinger suits (a full-body wetsuit, but lighter weight), hoods, and gloves. It was like we were ninjas on a secret mission in the ocean. The water was incredibly warm and beautiful, and it was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.

After the beach, it was time for our first dive! This is our ship from afar, the Romance. Its flag was a smiley face. Awww. Those nets at the front were my favourite place; I hung out there a LOT at night and when the boat was anchored.

Our first dive was pretty cool, but I didn't take my camera so unfortunately I have no pictures :( We saw a turtle eating a big jellyfish known as a 'Snotty' because they are squishy-looking and gross. Their sting is only mildly painful, as opposed to deadly, which kind of sucks because they are actually big enough to see and avoid, whereas the ones that will kill you dead in twenty minutes are the size of your pinky nail.

Anyway, the turtle was just floating there, taking lazy bites from the jellyfish, and occasionally lifting up a flipper to spin it around to a less-eaten area. It was really cool to see.

After our dives and snorkels we headed out again to where we were anchoring for the night. We all donned our ninja outfits and did some jumps off the mast, which was terrifying but a lot of fun. It was after this that I went on a night dive! It was awesome, especially because we saw big grouper (fish the size of me) hunting smaller fish, and when it ate them you could hear its jaws clamp shut. We also saw lots of crabs and prawns, and various big-eyed spiky night time fishies. We also sat on the sand, turned off our lights, and waved our hands in the black water. This agitated the phosphorescent plankton, who briefly lit up bright green. We were spelling things in the water with them, like sparklers.

The best thing about the night dive, though, was surfacing and seeing the sky completely full of stars.

Then, a party happened.

Later that night, we heard a big scuffle in the water and ran over to see a bunch of sharks swimming around in the moonlight. That morning we found lots of squid on our boat; they had jumped out of the water to try and escape and had landed on the deck by mistake. There was also squid ink all on the sides of the boat, as well.

This morning we went on our last dive, which I think was our best. The corals were really amazing and we went through what is called 'the maze', a passageway of channels and caves that housed amazing corals and awesome fish. I took some pictures this time! Sorry for the quality and size; the actual pictures look much better (especially the colours) and I accidentally resized them too small.

First of all, I can't post without showing you that I found some Nemos.

One of the channels we swam through (that's my buddy ahead of me, not wearing a hood and potentially being STUNG ON THE FACE by an irukandji).

Can you find the Nemo in this picture? He was a very dark, almost blood-red colour.

A Maori wrasse. This fish is as big as me!

Fish attack!

Empty giant clam shell.

Living (but small) giant clam! All of them were different colours, from this electric blue to deep, almost black purple.

Flat corals.

Batfish!
Parrot fish!
Well, that's it! I'm in Airlie Beach now for the evening, and tomorrow I am headed to Surfers Paradise, where I'm meeting up with a good friend and we will have many fun adventures, I hope. The end!