The Whitsunday Isles (Part1)

 

Back on the planet after a small week on a Yaminda, a 1160 Seawind Catamaran.

The Whitsundays are a group of seventy four islands of the coast of Cental  Queensland.
They are a jewel when it comes to white beaches and turquoise seas and are know as Yacht heaven.
We arrived in the late afternoon to board Yaminda for a first sleepover before setting sail the next morning. Peter our skipper arrived around seven and after a coffee and a short talk we set off to Whitehaven.
I've never really experienced anything else but waterskiing and Channel crossing from Belgium to England so this was all new to me.

The kids where psyched and not long after we left Matthew was holding the wheel and fiddling with the cats GPS, as far as Julian is concerned he waited his turn and asked to hold the wheel, which he did proudly.
Three rooms a lounge and a deck is where we were to spend the next few days.
The weather was half and half and the sea breeze was a welcoming change to the humidity and heat, not that we are complaining on the contrary.

A three hour trip to Whitehaven gave Peter and I a chance to get to talk to each other and a few of his answers surprised me pleasantly. Out of respect I will not go into specifics but as it turned out over the days spent on the cat Val and I have found we had met a man with an approach to life that was inspiring.
We arrived to Whitehaven and my first judgment was one of, just another beach, nothing special.
The sky was greyish but as soon as the sun pierced through you could see how bright the sand reflected it. As we set foot on the isles, Peter had taken us over with a dingy after anchoring, we picked us some sand. The sand here is like powder, it is sticky when wet and light as powder when dry.
There is something about Whitehaven Beach that is very difficult to describe, but it 'feels' different then any other beach I've been to.
The kids where trotting along on this five kilometer stretch of silica the clouds were providing us with dramatic designs in the sky and the crabs had left arty sand sculptures on the sand. This whole topped by a dark turquoise sea to make memorable pictures on camera and in our minds.




An evening BBQ on the boat and a good night rest rocked by the gentle waves.