Sailing the Whitsunday Islands: A Photo Diary

The Whitsunday Islands has to be the most incredibly beautiful place I have ever visited in my life. With the gorgeous islands, picturesque beaches, bright blue waters and colourful marine life you will literally think you have died and gone to heaven. 74 stunning tropical islands make up the Whitsundays, located in the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Some of the most well known islands include Hamilton Island, Daydream Island and of course Whitsunday Island which is home to the absolutely breath-taking Whitehaven Beach.

My two day sailing trip around the islands started bright and early in the morning. I made my way to the marina at Airlie Beach and climbed aboard my home for the next two days - a retired racing yacht called Siska. We dumped our bags below deck and chose which little bed (ie tiny hole in the wall) we'd be sleeping in. And then after a quick briefing we were on our way, sunbathing on the deck while we sailed through the pristine waters.

Our little sleeping holes!

The route we took around the islands.

After sailing for a while we reached our first snorkel destination, the colours of the reef and the fish were stunning. Unfortunately I didn't have an underwater camera to get any pictures but one of my favourite sea creatures I saw was one of these guys:

(source)

The Maori Wrasse is a huge and gorgeous type of fish that lives in the Great Barrier Reef, they're super friendly and inquisitive and love to come say hello to divers and snorkellers.

After our snorkel we got back onto the boat to dry off and have some food while we sailed toward the highlight of the trip - Whitsunday Island. We got off the boat at Tongue Bay and then walked through the bush to Hill Inlet Lookout where I was met by the most insanely beautiful view of Whitehaven Beach. I'd seen pictures of the beach before but they still did not prepare for how gorgeous it was in real life! We then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the pure white sand and swimming in the crystal clear waters.

In the evening we watched the sunset from the boat, and suddenly dolphins began to dive out of the water around us.

You can just see a dolphins fin coming out of the water!

I slept surprisingly well in my cozy little bunk on the boat, with the water gently rocking me to sleep. I then woke up early on the second morning to go snorkelling on Langford Island where I spotted some gorgeous turtles swimming by. And then we headed off for our last snorkel at Blue Pearl Bay.

After a magical two days in the heavenly Whitsunday Islands we did some more relaxing and sunbathing while we headed back to the marina at Airlie Beach.