Jake's Travel Blog: Sailing the Whitsundays

Despite the cyclone, my sailing trip departed Airlie Beach, as scheduled, on March 22. I knew very little about the boat I was going on, just that it was a sailboat that sleeps 30 people & its journey includes a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. I was very pleased to discover that the sailboat, named "Spank Me" is actually a 21-year-old race boat that has sailed all over the world. At 82 feet long and a mast over 100 feet long, Spank Me is quite the impressive vessel. I learned a good amount about sailing on this trip through both observation and questions. I've always been quite intimidated by all the ropes on a boat this size but managed to further my understanding of what they all do.

The main purpose of the trip was to sail the Whitsunday islands and scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately the weather did not co-operate so well and gave us lots of rain and fog during the trip. On top of that, the skipper didn't think it was worth going to the Great Barrier Reef because the cyclone stirred up the water so much. There's no denying that this brought much disappointment, but I did my best to be happy with what we were getting and when I approached it with that attitude it was not hard to have a fantastic time! When the sun did come out, it brough gorgeous sights that I made sure to soak in. I also went for a scuba dive, as planned, in what is apparantly still the Great Barrier Reef; just not the outer reef. Despite poor visibility, this was still a cool experience because it was my first open water dive and there was some wildlife in the waters with us.

Another way I made the most of the trip was by getting involved in the sailing as much as possible. On the second last day of the trip there was a strong wind. After our group finished some snorkeling, I metioned to the skipper that the wind would be perfect for a sail. He seemed more interested in chilling out and didn't have much of a response to my comment. A little while later, he ask the group if they wanted to go swimming at a beach. No one said yes right away, there was just some small talk and some people starting to say things like "I guess we could do that..." At which point I stood up and shouted "Lets go sailing!" Others responded positively and the skipper had little choice but to take us out into the open ocean. We got a good clip going and I was having a grand old time. I asked the skipper if I could take control and he quickly said no. I kept at him until he gave me the task of controlling the ropes for the boom swing during a jibe. After sucessfully completing this task, the skipper finally let me take the wheel. This lasted about 10 minutes and what a fantastic 10 minutes it was! I believe this is the largest vessel I've ever been in control of, and it felt great! I loved the fact that we were just moving with nature's power; no mechanical sounds, no emisions, just the wind blowing us through the ocean.

All in all it was a really enjoyable trip. Didn't get to scuba dive the real great barrier reef but that'll just have to wait for some other time. In the mean time, I'd like to seek out an opportunity to sail a boat like this again in the near future.