After leaving Byron, I flew from Brisbane to Prosperpine, and shuttled out to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Island, 74 (mostly) protected islands just off the coast.

Airlie Beach is basically a one-street strip, pretty noisy with lots of bars. Since most people visiting Oz sail the Whitsundays, people tend to come, stay for a night or two, sail for a day or three, then stay another night in town, then leave. As a result, the vibe is quite transient, and full of "sailors" on their shoreleave. I checked into the Beaches, and got a second floor room looking directly over the huge bar/patio. It was so loud that when on my balcony, I had to shout to my Dutch room mate to be heard. As it turned out, she was a bit of a crackhead and kinda talking without listening, so I didn't have to strain my lovely voice for too long. Crashed early, since I had to catch my boat and head to sea at 6:45 the next morning.

Despite my fears about trusting my wake-up to my new shoddy alarm clock, things worked out, and I was aboard the boat, the Ragamuffin II, by about 8am. We had a small group which consisted of Eric (Melbourne)& Kara (Can), Warren (Can), Erik and Karl (Sweden), Marcus, Nadine and Rike (Germany) and Peter and Petra (Czech). It had been an early start, so people weren't that talkative at the start. Instead, we relaxed, waited for our crew, Captain Ian and Mate Ado, to finish the preparations, and checked out some of the wicked boats in the harbour. Apparently Donald Trump has a huge yacht he keeps here, and sails five days a year.....