Sailing on the Boomerang

We arrived in Airlie Beach ready to board our ship around 4pm or so. After getting sized up with stinger suits (they were just wetsuits) we carried our small bags over to our ship, the Boomerang. (Read about the Boomerang) This ship was a world cup champion back in the 1970’s, though it sailed under a different name, but had been recently converted into a passenger vessel for sailing around the Whitsundays. It was pretty neat.

After meeting the crew (the skipper Kane, deckie Lacky, and host Marie), we sailed out of the harbour at Airlie Beach around 5pm or so, and on the way out to our mooring for the night we got to see a pretty great sunset. We used the head sail as we motored out, but didn’t get to see the boat with all it’s sails up that night. We did, however, get a taste of sailing as 6 of us including Matt helped raise the head sail. We all got comfortable on deck and ate some snacks and dinner.

After mooring off of Black Island we split up the group and some of us went over to the Ragamuffin to sleep. Kristen and Matt stayed on the Boomerang where we tried to get some rest in our small bunk below deck. It was interesting sleeping with the swaying motion of the boat - but we loved it.

The next morning we got our first chance to do some snorkeling near Black Island. Lacky gave us our intro to the area and got us all off the ship and into the water. The water was pretty warm - after you were in it for a bit - and we got our first taste of the reefs which was really cool.

After snorkeling for a couple hours we sailed over to Luncheon Bay - which is right off of Hook Island where we got to snorkel again and...go figure...eat lunch. The snorkeling here was the best. We brought along some food to feed the fish as we snorkeled which made them all flock around us. This part of the Whitsundays is home to over 250 species of fish (which we got to see a lot of) and calamari.

After lunch we got ready for a proper bit of sailing. Kane and Lacky were busy rigging the ship and they kept a bunch of us busy raising sails and doing the grunt work :-), but it was neat to learn about sailing as we went. The group all moved to the “high” side of the ship as we were ready to start sailing. Once we caught the wind and started moving the ship rolled almost 30-40 degrees (one side dipped in the water and the other rose up high) which made Kristen a bit nervous. The group served as the counterweight as we all hung off the high side. Kane let Kristen behind the wheel while we sailed along which made her even more nervous (as this made her see the low side dipping in the water, as sea snakes swam by). Kane told us that the Boomerang was built to handle a 110 degree tilt - which would put the mast in the water and still allow the ship to right itself. He also told us that it could handle 30 meter waves - which was about the height of the mast. This made our sailing look like childs play he said, but also allowed most of us to relax a bit as we headed towards Tongue Bay.

Tongue Bay was close to Whitsunday Island - which we got to see once we dropped anchor. Lacky brought us over to a beach on the island via Zodiac where we did a little bush walk up to the top of the island. At the top we got the famous view of Whitehaven Beach which was absolutely amazing. Blue waters, white sand beaches, tropical islands, we wish we were back there right now. After pictures we hiked down to the beach itself which we got to enjoy and relax on for a while. The sand is almost pure silica (like Lake Mackenzie on Fraser Island but purer). In fact, the mirror or lens in the Hubble Space Telescope were made from the sand here. There you go, fact for the day.

We headed back to the beach and Lacky picked us up to head back to the Boomerang where we sailed once more to our mooring for the second night. As the Zodiac took us back to the ship we got to see a bunch of sea turtles up close too. Back on the Boomerang we sailed over to the Nara Inlet off of Hook Island. On the way we saw a couple of humpback whales - including one that kept breaching (jumping out of the water) right off our bow. It was really impressive - one breach brought almost the whole whale’s body out of the water. After that we saw another whale who was most likely about to give birth Kane told us. He knew that because it was hovering on the top of the water upside down.

Nara Inlet was a nicely protected inlet which made for calm seas and only a bit of rocking for the night. We split up again for the night and a group of us hung around topside for some games, Boons (sp? Aussies mean boxed wine) and stargazing. The skies were once again ridiculously amazing.

Our second morning we all woke up to a great breakfast and one more sail back to Airlie Beach. Once again we got to help raise the sails and set the rigging. It was relaxing as we sailed back in to the harbour, but I think we all wished we had more time out sailing - we all had a blast.

After docking we said goodbye to Kane, Lacky, and Marie and met up again with our tour guide Adam and bus driver Hewen (and of course Eliza our bus). We were quite excited about getting to a hotel (and more importantly, a shower) that night. Adam told us we all smelled special and he was quite excited for us all to shower as well.