Whitsunday's H(e)aven

The boat to the Whitsunday Islands leaves from Airlie beach, on two-thirds of the way from Brisbane to Cairns. Our ship was called the New Horizon, and it wasn't as big as I expected, but the cabin downstairs was huge. We all slept in one big room, in really comfortable bunk beds and double beds. Our crew was made up of three guys, the captain, the cook, and someone else, but I remember our captain best. Crossy was this blonde Chris Hemsworth look-alike, who really had this beach-like surfer-dude vibe over him. I was so seasick that the crew kept handing me bottles of water, asking if I was okay, and at one point I got to sit in the wheelhouse with Crossy, talking about his moms birthday and wearing his captains hat. The sea was amazing and the islands were breathtaking, but it didn't help my seasickness. It got better as I was on the boat for longer, so I was really happy with that. The first night we docked at Hook Island, we got to snorkel there for a while and the Island looked amazing, very nice to see a piece of land that uninhabited.

The next morning we sailed for another while, on to Whitehaven beach. Whitehaven beach is the most insanely looking place I've ever been, so truly magical and tropical, it's unreal. The sand was white, like the sand on Fraser Island, and the water was even clearer than the water at Fraser, but very shallow too. You could see the stingrays swimming around, there were almost no fish but a couple of sharks. The sight from up the Island was incredible, the scene always looks different because the sand always gets replaced by the current. We were all wearing wetsuits because you never know what’ll hit you and if you’ll swim into jellyfish or other weird stingy creatures. After swimming in Whitehaven beach for a while we took the boat back to a sand-dune at sea for the sunset that evening. We had brought chips and drinks (no plastic of course) and when I found out a perfect setting for a photo I did a photoshoot with the people closest to me on the boat. The photos turned out amazing, if I do say so myself, and the sunset was so beautiful, definitely in my top 5 sunsets ever, together with the one at Magnetic Island and then some.

That night we had a party on the Atlantic Clipper. Both of our boats had docked in the same bay and with boats they shipped us over to the Clipper. We didn't know they had planned this whole evening for us, with activities, loud music and even a change of clothes. We dressed Chris in a dress and we laughed our asses off, then we danced for a while and eventually we sat down in front of the wheelhouse. There was a clear difference between the Clipper-people and the Horizon-people. They had clearly chosen the party-boat to drink and party, we had chosen the boat that was both party and relaxation, to save us from ourselves. We met Harrows again, of course, in pink panther tights and a colourful tank-top that was definitely meant for women. As every handsome British man is probably used to, he was surrounded by girls and loving all the attention, which unintentionally made me dislike him some more. We decided to go back early with the five of us, Anneke, Chris, Samir, Nick and I, to lay on the deck and watch the stars and talk about everything that came to our minds.

The last day on the boat we had a couple of activities we were allowed to do: there'd be a banana boat, a 360 boat, and there'd be paddle boards and a giant waterslide from the boat down to the water. I wanted to get off the boat for a while, experience everything and have an adrenalin-rush or two, so I signed up for every possible activity. The 360 boat was cool, gave us a ride alone the coast and taught us how it would feel to get slammed away with a force so great that your head can't even comprehend. I'm pretty sure the banana-boat could've killed me, with the heavy guys that fell on top of my head and my arms as they got pulled off the boat. It was amazing fun though. At last I got to paddle the boards, and I was amazed to hear the people on the boat tell us there were pretty big sharks swimming around. I didn't get to see them, but I wish I had. We sailed back and that was our True Blue Dream.