We made it to Airlie Beach in good time and, after returning Sam & Nathan's food bag (they had left it in the fridge at the Yongala Dive Centre!) we made our way to our campsite for the next few days. We had to meet our crew & shipmates at 8am the next morning so we decided on an early night.

Our alarms went off and we were up and out! It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the meeting point but we needn't have worried about being late as the crew didn't turn up until nearer to 9am! Eventually, we were greeted by Chase who, aged 20, was our youngest crew member . He was also the dive leader so he explained all the diving & snorkelling information to us and asked us to fill in some disclaimer forms. Matt had been suffering with an ear ache ever since his shipwreck dive so had decided it probably wasn't a good idea to do a dive but Gareth was going to! We were also given our stinger suits as there are quite a few dangerous jellyfish in the waters we would be visiting.

Once all the paperwork was complete, we were led down to the boat where we had to put our shoes into a bag before boarding. I couldn't work out how we were all going to fit on the boat, let alone sleep on it but it was like the tardis once you got inside! We were then introduced to the rest of our crew. Josh, our deckie, who is 25 & Ben, our captain, who is 31. We were also given the safety talk and a bit of background about our boat, Apollo. She had been a champion racing boat in her day seeing off the opposition, most of whom broke and didn't complete the race, in one of the most difficult races weather wise in sailing history! Not only in this bad weather was it one of only a few that finished but it actually finished in a record breaking time . Impressive huh?! She had been retired from racing for a long time & her new owners had adapted her for passengers and set up these tours.

Once we were all sorted and had found the beds we had been assigned, we made our way up to the deck to see the views as we sailed and to meet some of the other people onboard. It took about 2 hours to sail to Luncheon bay, during which time we got chatting to Claire & Luke: a couple from Leicester who were a teacher and an electrician. As we approached the Bay, Gareth went off to get himself ready for his dive while Matt & I collected our snorkelling equipment. We were taxied to the Bay on a little motorised dinghy type boat?! And quickly got ourselves set up and in the water for a snorkel. The snorkelling was amazing, with so many different types of coral and fish. Once satisfied we had seen enough we spent the rest of the time sunbathing and chatting to more of the people on the trip: Nina, an A&E nurse originally from England but now living in Brisbane, her friend Mary who was born in Hong Kong but has travelled all over the world it seems & Gemma, from Wolverhampton who builds the wax work models at Madame Tussaud's .

Once our time at the Bay was up, Josh came back to collect us and we headed back to the boat for nachos and then dinner! During this time, Ben sailed us for about 3 hours to Whitehaven Beach where we were going to drop the anchor for the night ready to visit the island in the morning. We got chatting to more people: this included 2 lads from Holland, Nadja & Patricia from Austria, lots of Germans and 4 Swedish girls. Josh is a keen fisherman so cast a line out and to our amazement he caught a huge barracuda within a few minutes! He also tried to feed an eagle by whistling and then throwing the meat up in the air but the eagle wasn't being very well coordinated and kept missing!

We finally moored up at about 7pm and the beer and goon soon starting flowing! To the unsuspecting eye, goon looks like your average bag in a box wine that you get at home, however, one sip tells you that it is in fact a very strong concoction that causes black outs and terrible goonovers (like a hangover but worse!) . It is incredibly cheap though (about $11 for 4 litres) so for aborigines, backpackers and general cheapskates it is ideal! We had brought beer but Claire & Luke were happy to share their goon, being our first experience of it & knowing we were on a boat we decided to go easy on it! That was until drinking games were announced!! Matt & I were sleeping on a shelf in the kitchen area (I kid you not, the cooking ingredients were on the next shelf, where our feet were!) and the games were being played on the table in the centre so we couldn't avoid them even if we wanted to! The first was a horse racing card game where the Ace of each suit was a horse and there were 10 cards up the side as fences to jump. Each person chooses which horse to back & how many fingers of their drink they bet! You use the rest of pile as the deck and as you turn each card over, you move the 'horse' of that suit forward 1 fence! The first to cross the finishing line wins and whoever backed that horse gets to dish out amounts to drink to the losers up to the amount they bet in the first place, which gets doubled, trebled, quadrupled ... depending on which round of the game you are on! Confused? So were we! It was really good fun though with everyone cheering on their horses and getting into the game! Especially as most of the time the horses had rude names. It was quite easy to stitch people up and as a result Luke & Chase ended up getting very drunk very quickly! After a short cigarette break, the next game began: Ring of Fire! This was hilarious as one of the cards meant people had to swap clothes so one of the Dutch lads & Ben ended up in women's clothing! We also had to pass a playing card round the circle from mouth to mouth which led to some incriminating photos!!! Matt ended up having to drink the drink in the centre of the ring which contained goon, beer, ketchup, BBQ sauce amongst other disgusting things! It was 1am by the time we all climbed onto our shelves for bedtime after a really fun evening!

We were woken at about 6am by Josh who was on breakfast duty and, having gone to bed early the night before, enjoyed banging the pots & pans about! Once we had all eaten, we were taxied over to Whitehaven Beach, which is approx . 7km long and has the most beautiful white sand, so it's no surprise it is the 2nd most photographed beach in the world! It has such fine grains of sand that it is used to polish glass and silver all over the world. We stayed there until about 11:30am and enjoyed snorkelling in the beautiful blue water & sunbathing on the beach. Some of the more adventurous members of our group, including Matt & Gareth, went to explore the trail in the centre of the island where they saw quite a few big goanna lizards!

Once back on the boat we enjoyed lunch before sailing to the next island: Blue Pearl Bay - apparently the area used to contain blue pearls which were very expensive but it is now illegal to remove anything found or the fish as its such a protected area; it even has its own rangers who patrol the area!

It took about 2 hours to sail to Blue Pearl Bay, during which time we were entertained by the crew who tried to feed an eagle in flight again, with more success this time and cast a fishing line out, to our surprise Chase caught a really big fish this time . Also we got to all lay out in the sun and relax taking in the beautiful views whilst listening to the crew's music. We were taxied over to the land where we discovered to our horror that the water was really shallow and the coral was really high! This made it extremely difficult to snorkel without standing on anything or scraping any body parts! This was such a shame as there was actually an awful lot of fish & colourful coral to see (in fact Josh had said this was his favourite snorkelling spot of all the islands!) but you just couldn't relax and enjoy it at all! It was also really difficult to walk on the beach as it was made entirely of dead coral but it was funny watching everyone try!

A bit later on we were collected and brought back to the boat for dinner. The crew had decided we would spend the night moored there as 1 person had booked onto a night dive and that was a pretty good spot! We all thought he was very brave going diving at night, especially having seen just how much was out there during the day! Nevertheless in the pitch black of night him and Chase went in armed with a torch and a few glow sticks . It was really beautiful watching the sunset, especially as we spotted a group of dolphins out in the distance jumping out of the water! We also had good fun feeding some huge fish our leftovers, it would appear they love steak! It didn't take long for the beer and goon to start flowing again, however this time we decided to stay away from the games and enjoy some quiet time up in the deck instead, which was a lovely opportunity to really get to know some of our new group of friends. Our calm evening was interrupted however when Claire went down to fetch something and discovered Ben (yes our captain!) throwing up in the galley (right next to our beds!). Unfortunately for Chase, that meant he had to come away from the group of Swedish girls he was in the process of charming & clean it all up! It got worse for Ben though as apparently he also wet the bed that evening! :s Somehow it ended up being 1am before we made it to bed yet again!

Matt got up at about 6am and was surprised to discover we had already set sail, with a rather hungover looking Ben laid on the bench at the side of the wheel attempting to sail us to Langford Reef, using just one outstretched arm & not looking out to sea?! It took about an hour to get there and somehow Ben managed to get us there without any dramas, despite still looking worse for wear! I woke up to discover my lips had swollen up overnight! I looked as though I'd had fillers injected in the style of Leslie Ash but had in fact simply burnt my lips whilst out in the sun! Thankfully the crew carry sunblock, in a range of colours, so I opted for pink and the swelling soon went down!

The part of Langford Reef that we went to is simply a giant sand bank with absolutely nothing on it, not even a tree! At certain times of day, the sea level drops and exposes a walkway to a larger, greener island but this wasn't the case while we were there! It is also a turtle breeding area so most people went snorkelling to try & spot some! There wasn't as many as we'd hoped for but we saw a couple and a big ray . Just as we were all laying on the beach, Matt spotted a group of dolphins not far off the shore, it was amazing that they were swimming right past us only a short way out, so we all enjoyed watching them frolicking about! Some people dashed into the water to try to swim with them but they had no luck. A bit later on we enjoyed taking lots of group photos: human pyramids, cartwheels & in our snorkelling gear!

We got back to the boat for dinner at about 11:30 and enjoyed lunch until about 1pm before starting to sail back to Airlie beach. During the journey back, the crew enjoyed demonstrating their sailing skills with the boat tipped right over on one side for most of the journey! Everyone had to scramble from that side of the boat to the other & it was quite scary sitting up so high knowing if you slipped you'd be straight off the other side! It was very exciting though & certainly a new experience!

We arrived back on dry land at about 4pm & were reunited with our shoes! We then made the 20 minute walk back to our campsite and headed straight for a long overdue shower! It was such a good feeling after 3 days without showering and all feeling very sunkissed . Matt & I popped to the medical centre to make an appointment for him to see a doctor about his ear before meeting up with Gareth and getting a taxi into the town centre.

Apollo run an after party at the Phoenix bar from 7pm for all the people who have just come off their sailing trip. This was a really lovely way to end the trip and was really funny seeing everyone in going out clothes instead of swimmers and with their hair & make up done! They also offer free pizza which is always a winner with backpackers! We had a brilliant time dancing (Gemma & I made up a new dance called 'The Flowerpot' because the floor was so sticky you couldn't move your feet!) and partying with all our new friends and it was really nice that the crew came along too to say farewell!

At about midnight we all went our separate ways, feeling a little sad that we weren't going to see them again for a while but happy knowing we would definitely catch up again at some point!

The next morning, we packed up & checked out of our campsite . Matt went to the doctors to discover he has had an ear infection and possibly a perferated ear drum for the last week, this then cost him $100 with fees and medicines. Also the doctor told him to stay out of water for a month, no swimming, no snorkelling and definitely no scuba diving. This wasn't good news as most of the next month involves lovely beaches and surfing! We decided to go and have a look around Airlie beach and pick up a few souvenirs before starting our journey down the coast! The lagoon looked beautiful and we were really pleased to spot Gemma on her way there to sunbathe so we got to do a bit more flowerpot dancing before starting our next drive to Mackay.

Sailing the Whitsunday islands was a brilliant experience made even better by a crazy crew and a group of wonderful people who we now consider friends! Looking forward to seeing you all again very soon!