Our last stop in Australia was Airlie Beach by way of Hamilton Island. We had booked a 3 day cruise with the Pacific Sunrise, a big wooden sailboat that sleeps about 30. The cruise boarded at 4 pm and we had gotten in the night before so we did laundry and picked up some lunch around town. We went to a chemist (Australian for pharmacy) for sunscreen and Megan got SUPER worried when we were there because we heard the people next to us talking about how they got bed bugs on their wooden boat. They advised us to pick up insect repellent and to sleep with it just in case. Luckily it turned out to not be an issue.
There were 6 other couples on the cruise with us and they pulled us all together and gave us a tour of the boat before showing us our cabin. They had some light food and champagne out for us and we generally bummed around the boat and ate dinner before they got everyone up top to see the sunset. You couldn't BYO alcohol but they let you buy a bottle of wine from them for the whole cruise and keep it behind the bar for you so you can have a glass at a time.
The next day, what would be our alarm clock the rest of the cruise, the anchor, woke us up at 5:30. We went back to sleep easily and woke up a few hours later to an awesome breakfast before we dropped anchor again at our first dive spot. We had only one dive instructor and 12 people who wanted to go, so we split into 3 groups. Megan and I were in the 2nd group and we spent the first hour snorkeling in the area. We got to see tons of awesome fish, but we called it quits after 30 minutes so that we'd have some time to rest before our dive. We hopped in the tender (small boat) and hung out until the dive group got back. No one in the first group had their certification so they didn't go very low and as soon as they swapped out tanks, it was our turn.
We were down for a few minutes before I realized that something was up with my pressure gauge. When I would take a breath, it would read 0 and then flare back up. I showed it to Megan and then surfaced. The dive instructor then took a look and noticed that my tank wasn't fully turned on. We fixed it and then went back under the water. On this dive we swam past an ENORMOUS fish which they get to see from time to time and have named Elvis. It was about 5-6 feet long and weighed more than I did when I was obese. Even though it terrorizes the fish in the area, it doesn't seem to mind divers and didn't bother us at all. The rest of the dive was awesome and when our tanks went low we headed up and were back at the boat. We warmed up and snacked some while the 3rd group was in the water and then the boat took off for the next dive spot.
This time we got in the water with no issues and my tank was all on and good to go. Unfortunately it had rained a little and that stirred up the bottom a bunch which meant we didn't have great visibility. We still got to see a sea cucumber and the nemo fish as well as a lot of other fish and really cool coral. Once we surfaced we took the tender back to the boat over really rough seas. I really started to feel seasick at this point and for the next couple hours I wasn't in great shape. Finally I went to the back of the boat and went to sleep hoping I would feel better when I woke up. Luckily for me, a combination of sleeping and the boat moving to a more protected area fixed my stomach issues and I was ready for dinner. Since we knew we weren't diving early the next morning, we finished up the last 2 glasses of wine and Megan discovered her new favorite drink, a midori spice (midori + malibu coconut rum + coconut cream + pineapple juice)
The next day the weather was finally cooperating and we headed over to the beautiful Whitehaven Beach. Apparently it was voted the best beach in some magazine for whatever thats worth. I didn't hold my breath, but when we got there it was pretty awesome. There were a bunch of small sharks and a ton of sting rays in the marshes and shallow water near the beach. After spending a few hours at the beach, we climbed up to the lookout for some photos before heading back to the boat.
Luckily, with the good weather we decided to hit another dive spot. In this one there was some really good coral. We were having a really good dive along a cliff wall. The dive master had been taking us through a bunch of rock outcroppings that we had to swim under which was exciting. Unfortunately, we turned a corner under water and got right into the current. As soon as we did that, we noticed the visibility had gone to shit and the next 10 minutes of the dive weren't very good. One of the other guys sucked through his air so we ended up surfacing even though Megan and I both had a fair amount of air remaining.
After our 3rd dive, we had all built up quite an appetite and we were treated to the best dinner by far of the cruise. Ross, the chef, had outdone himself every night and the last night he cooked an amazing salmon dish and a bread putting dessert that everyone onboard finished even though we were all stuffed silly from the salmon. Since we were just sailing back in the morning, we had a bunch of midori splices and hung out on the top deck. Finally, we passed out and woke up the next day to another delicious breakfast before getting all our gear off the boat and heading back into town.
We were really happy with all of the crew and all of the people with which we shared the boat.
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