The Whitsundays were always a place in Australia that I have wanted to go. I had looked it up ages ago and dreamed about its picturesque scenery and paradise atmosphere. Two days ago I got to actually experience paradise in every sense of the word. We left Townsville a bit later than expected because we really didn’t want to say goodbye to Makenna’s friends but we finally left around 7:30pm knowing we had about a four hour drive to Airlie Beach. We had a minor dilemma finding a camping spot since we left so late and we really didn't feel like paying for a spot to sleep. So, being us, we drove to a town about 20 minutes outside of town and looked for the “rest area” which we couldn't find. Then, the public park we found specifically said no camping or parking so we ended up giving in and literally parking outside someones house on a residential street by a golf course. We went to bed by 11 and were up and out of there well before anyone left their house at a bright and early 6am as check in for our trip was at 8:30- hopefully they didn’t notice the toothpaste in the grass.
We got to Airlie Beach with plenty of time and checked in to Oz Sail. The man at the check in was quite rude... apparently he was this way to everyone and later everyone on the boat had a chat about it. It was such a downer because it was the first impression and all of us were so excited and he kinda just was like a big turd that brought everyones down. Anyways, turns out that even though check in was at 830, we had until 11 am before boarding. This was actually a relief because it gave us time to get organized, walk around town, and buy some beer for the trip. Makenna had this bright idea that we should combine our stuff into one bag for the trip. This was a good idea. Initially. What we realized very quickly was that we had WAY too much stuff between the two of us. We should have just brought our small backpacks each and we would have been fine. We plan to take this knowledge with us for our next trip to Fraser Island.
So the boat was called the Avatar and it was a catamaran (trimaran), where there were two outer sides and the middle was where we all slept. It was a really awesome boat for a couple reasons, one being that since it’s so light, it sits with very little of the boat in the water so we can go a lot faster then other boats. The second cool thing was that on either side there were giant nets where everyone could lay around, tan and hangout. Truly we were blessed with the most incredible weather ever. It was the best conditions they have had in weeks. Best visibility, clear skies, sunshine, and calm waters. The crew kept asking what we had all done to deserve such perfect conditions. We thought that Makenna having such shit jobs for the last couple months must have been part of it. The crew also insisted that we were the best group they had had all season. Best weather, best group, more fun and easy to deal with. There were only three crew members and 26 of us.
We started off going to our first spot (I will get the name when I remember it) which was our first chance to snorkel. Our Skipper John said that this was only a 5 out of 10 as far as exciting and beautiful snorkel spots but it was still amazing. It really was one of my first times snorkeling and even as a kid I never really played with them before, so there was a small learning curve. We all got stinger suits to wear even though the main jellyfish season is over they have you wear it all year for the other types that you can’t see. After getting the first snorkel under our belts we got back on the boat, had lunch (which was provided) and sailed for a good couple hours in the sunshine. 
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