i just spent 3 days sailing through and around the whitsunday islands! there were 12 of us (plus a skipper and a crewmate) on the boat from the USA, poland, australia, mexico, france, norway, england, and sweden.
the catamaran and the water was beautiful... the weather was not. pouring rain, grey skies, freezing cold, 30-40 knot wind, and enormous swell. most of the time for the majority of the passengers was spent huddled inside. those of us who got violently seasick (moi) spent most of the trip hanging onto the back of the boat, puking in the pouring rain and trying not to get thrown overboard.
that being said, we got to see the iconic whitehaven beach and i had 2 awesome scuba dives. i was diving with our divemaster and 2 new divers, so it was very relaxed, good vis, great coral and lots of fishies! my favorite part of the entire trip was our first dive. we descended about 5-6 meters for the newbies to work on a couple skills. i just kneeled on the bottom of the ocean and proceeded to get absolutely swarmed by fish. there were so many that i could hardly even see the other divers! after they finished their skill set, we took off. after a couple minutes of swimming, i looked over and there was a GIANT fish less than a meter away from me!! it was a ~3 foot long napoleon wrasse (also called the humphead or maori wrasse). his name was george and he used to be a girl!! apparently, there can only be one dominant male in each school or group of the wrasse. once the male dies, a female turns into a dude to take the deceased's place. how cool is that!? anyway, he followed me the ENTIRE dive. i kept looking over and there he'd be. he was gentle and close enough that i could have reached over to pet him. but, beware folks: touching fish can give them skin cancer because of the foreign oils in our skin. so don't touch anything underwater!
even as we ascended, george followed me. he came all the way up to the side of the boat with me. it was amazing. it definitely made me wish i was still studying marine biology... and made me realize that i should probably get my divemaster and just spend my life teaching people how to scuba dive and seeing sweet fish. if i could live underwater, i would.
most of the group
a grey and stormy whitehaven beach
swarmed by fishies
george, my personal stalker
i found nemo! (see bottom left)
back on land in airlie beach. of course the sun came out about 2 minutes before we pulled into the marina...
