Whitsundays - Day 1

As we arrived in Airlie Beach, our 2-day sailing trip to the Whitsundays started at 8 o‘clock in the morning. Just after we got to know the crew members the SV Whitehaven set sails onto the ocean. It appears that dangling my legs off the sides off the boat would become one of my favorite things to do. About half an hour after we started the trip, we played a little name game to get to know everyone. We met people of different nationalities. Two girls from Spain, one guy from Belgium, a few from England and Germany and even one girl from South Africa. On the first day we went snorkeling at two different spots in the Great Barrier Reef. At the first spot we had the opportunity to go kayaking so that’s what Linisa and I did at first. After we got tired of it we wanted to try and go snorkeling. But just as we entered the water and the crew member had gone back, Linisa got a panic attack and wanted to get out of the water. I tried it about 10 minutes longer but I had to get out of the water too because I felt like I couldn‘t breathe. So we spent the rest of the time on the motorboat of the crewmember which was much more fun than floating around the cold ocean with a swim noodle, not being able to breathe normally. 😤😂
After dinner and watching the most beautiful sunset ever, the captain came to the front of the boat and told us which of the stars above are the planets Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. It felt like being back in school but with much more interest and a much better teacher. He taught us why and when we can see which planets in the night sky. It all has to do with the quickness of the planets moving on their orbitals and the positions they have proportional to the earth and sun.
After that the crew member that wasn‘t responsible for making food and being weird, Will, taught us something about fish. He told us about some different species of fish that live in the Whitsundays such as one species that changes their sex when the one, ruling male fish dies. The female fish start eating more and more and the female fish that eats the most and gets the fattest changes their sex and becomes the new ruling male. The things both of them told us have been really fascinating and I think this definitely was one highlight of this sailing trip even though it‘s something that simple.
Will told us that he would be taking pictures for the two days so we didn‘t take that many but unfortunately his photos are really bad so bare with me. 😢Read more