This days adventure took us aboard the “Southern Cross”. This boat truly is a racing legend, being built for the America’s Cup as Australia’s 4th Challenger.

We started from Arlie Beach and sailed along the shore passing between Hook and Whitsunday Island. We were lucky with respect to the number of passengers on board as only four other people traveled with us on this lovely cruise.

Starting off with an overcast sky in the morning the sun came through eventually making the sailing a wonderful experience.

We anchored at Whitehaven Beach and hiked up to the Hill Inlet Lookout from where we had an awesome view of Whitehaven Beach. Unfortunately due to problems with the fuel pumps we had left Arlie Beach later than intended. As the tide was turning and the water level was getting lower already as we approached the island we did not have much time on Whitehaven Beach. Plus, in the hurry to get us ashore we forgot our flip flops on the sailing boot. As the rubber boat that took us to the shore did not have time to return to get the shoes we decided to walk up to the lookout and the beach on the other side of the island barefooted. Ouch!

But the view and later on the beach was abolutely worth getting hurting feet.

What looks like white sand is actually almost pure silicone. Better not let your electronics touch the “sand” as the silicone kreeps into the devices and destroys them!

But for our sore feet the cool and incredible soft beach was a bliss. We even brushed our teeth with the silicone as its supposed to whiten your teeth. Of course we had to try…

Returning from Whitehaven Beach we sailed a bit further to a snorkelling stop on one of the fringing reefs. With shallow waters we saw the most beautiful corals and lots of colorful fish. We were all really glad to have another opportunity to see reef life this close up again.

The sailing back was a bit rough as the winds had picked up and the boat was lying in the water tilted to one side. The kids were absolutely excited and enjoyed every minute of it while I had to really concentrate on not feeding the fish. I guess I’m just not made for boats… But as soon as we had entered the habour again things were back to normal and I would not have wanted to miss this experience for anything!

As we were quite sticky from the salt water and still freezing from snorkeling and the wind we all enjoyed long hot showers once back in the hotel. When I went out to the balcony with a good glass of rwd wine I had some company that really made my day complete: