the Whitsundays

WOW WOW WOW... sailing for 3 days, relaxing and spending the days snorkeling and swimming, it was a good relaxing time with some great people.
The Whitsundays were named by Captain Cook (though he was only a lieutenant then) because he arrived 7 weeks after Easter and so that is Whitsunday or something. The Islands are Islands that are still connected to the continent of Australia but because of the moving tectonic places and volcanic activity the 74 Islands appear separate and apart from the mainland.
They stick out like green rolling mountains and have beautiful soft silica (?) sand. And of course there are coral reefs surrounding them. Loggerhead and green turtles swimming around, magnificent.
The Derwent Hunter is a Tall Ship, so we got to sail about the ocean rather than motoring around, which was so nice, just to hear the waves on the boat without the roar of the motor (though that was rather quiet when it was used).
We went snorkeling (wearing lovely stinger suits, to avoid stingray bites) at Cateran bay on Border Island, swam and snorkeled at Whitehaven beach, did a 15 minute walk up Tongue Island and saw the most spectacular view of Whitehaven Beach and the "swirly"sands as the guide told us... and then more snorkeling on Black Island (the clearest water I snorkeled in yet). The fish and coral were amazing there.
We had a great crew (young but talented). Rick was the Skipper, Logan the deckhand and Will the cook. We ate very well all day long. The weather was fantastic, though it got windy on the second night but stopped very quickly. The sun shone throughout the day in beautiful fashion.
Being in the middle of no where is indescribable what the sky looked like... literally billions of stars, the Milky Way (not the chocolate bar), the Southern Cross, Orion on his side, and sooooo much more. I have bought a book about the stars down here.. phenomenal really!

I don't know what can top this last week, but tomorrow I head up towards cairns, with a couple of stops.. don't worry I'll keep you updated!

Love y'all