On the morning of Day2 of the voyage, we were dropped off at a little rocky cove at about 7:30 in the morning. A half hour hike up and over a ridge brought us to Whitehaven beach, apparently the 4th most photographed spot in Australia. (#1 is the Opera House, and after intense brainstorming, we figured #2 and 3 would be Uluru and the 12 Apostles...but I dunno). The place was gorgeous, a meeting of powdery white sand and glowing blue water rimmed by mountain. We'd come so early in order to beat the crowds. It was quite sunny and hot by 8am, and though a few folks had arrived before us, we had a huge area of beach to ourselves. Chilled out, tossed a frisbee, took a wander and saw small sharks and stingrays right by the shore. It's really shallow here, and a large sandbar is (currently) shaped like a curly-cue, forming a little lagoon for fish to gather. The stark whites and blues, punctuated by beating sun and swaths of clouds, was surreal and exotic, like some remote fantasy spot....well now, I suppose it is. Ran into a group of musicians based out of Sydney, a full horn section in fact. I have the trumpet belt buckle, a passerby called me on it, and ended up chatting for a half hour. I'm glad we arrived when we did, as the beach really started to "fill up" by about 9:30. Later, participated in the worst group picture I've ever taken... too much slouch!! Ouch. At 11:30, reluctantly, we reluctantly trudged back through the sand to our rendezvous, zoned from the sun and breathtaking surroundings.

Once aboard the Ragamuffin, we were assigned bunks, little tubes built into the side of the cabin that reminded me of a torpedo bay. It was cloudy and fairly windy, about 20 knots, once we left the safety of Abel Point Marina. Although it made sitting on the deck a bit chilly, it also made for great sailing. Much of our first cruise was spent keeling at a 45 degree angle, water sloshing over rails and up the deck, making the trip to the beer fridge a little precipitous. Aside from that, the sailing was pretty mellow, just enough wind to make it interesting. Everyone got a token try at raising the sail at some point, but aside from that, our involvement in the sailing of the craft was minimal.
Aside from the first voyage, the weather was great, sunny and warm. Our time was spent chilling out on the deck, snorkelling in little sheltered bays (a different vibe than the mid-ocean stuff - presence of plants here means different visibility and different fish), and being ferried from place to place (notably Whitehaven Beach an South Molle Island.) Nights were spent playing cards and attempting pretty crude astonomy (it was a cloudless New Moon, so everything stood out. There's a whole new set of stars on this side of the planet, and the moon (when it is out) waxes and wanes to the opposite side than I'm used to.

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.....