Since I now had my boat license, I thought we should make some use of it by renting a boat. So we did. Richard's cousin was in town that weekend, and a friend in the same boat class with me (who also had his license) joined us. Perfect! There's four of us and we'll hop into a boat with some rods and go visit some islands for the day.
Not. SO. Fast. Did you really think it was going to be that easy? Meet Jerry.
He was the very particular guy we were renting our boat from. He had a small fleet and we were renting the largest. I was a bit intimidated about renting such a large boat (but of course, we would be thankful at the end of the trip for it's largeness).
As soon as we stepped foot on the dock, we are met by a very abrupt, "I told you it was not a nice day. I told you! Tomorrow better!". I look up and see that it's slightly breezy, maybe drizzly. But it would clear. "But you know, what I can say? Nothing. You do as you like". Um, how about a "hello", or a "nice to meet you" or a "welcome" first? Great start to the day.
He examines the four of us up and down and asks, "OK, who is skipper? Who knows how to drive boat?".
I said that I had my license and that I would definitely be driving. I also assured him that Richard had lots of experience driving a boat.
And as if I didn't exist, "Ok Richard. And you", he points to Simon. "You two come with me". Ok, whatever. That's cool. I'll just relax then.
First thing he asks Richard is, "How do you stop a boat?" I could see the frustration welling up behind his eyes. LOL. Jerry goes on to ask more insulting questions and explains the rules of his boat, the responsibilities of everyone on board etc. He told us where to go and where (exactly) not to go, how fast to go. Basically, he scared the crap out of us for two hours. I was so worried that we would even scratch the boat. You should have seen his face when we brought the box of beer on board. Priceless.
After being reduced to feeling completely incapable of driving a boat, we were off. And, of course, the harbour is serene. But as we moved a little further out, the waters became choppy.
"If the wind goes above 20 knots, you cannot cross channel". How exactly were we supposed to know how fast the wind was blowing? We reached the channel between the Molle islands and the mainland. The swell was so large that the peaks were breaking. Tremendous, I thought. This is happening again. I tried to assure myself that at least I was on a large boat with excellent drivers and an ex-lifeguard/star swimmer. We should be just fine? The boat was being launched off of one swell and slapped back down behind another. Waves were breaking over the boat and we were soaked. My eyeballs were stinging- the water is unnecessarily salty here. I thought about putting on my mask and snorkel. I might not have ingested so much water that way. We tried slowing down and taking the waves at different angles. I wanted to turn around but then realised we were too far into it to turn back.
Eventually we made it to calmer waters and that was only the beginning. Our plan was to head out to Whitsunday island. And we had another massive channel to cross.
The journey across the second channel was the same as before, except a little bit worse:
Deeper waters. Bigger swells. And the loss of Richard's fishing rod - which was ejected from the rod holder as the boat flew between two breaking waves. (It's been really hard to get over that).
When we did make it to the area between Whitsunday and Hook island, it was very calm. The sun came out and we could finally dry off. We made our way to Whitehaven- rated one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It has pure-white, silica sands that squeak under your feet as you walk and brilliant blue waters. And let me tell you, it is THE most beautiful beach I have ever seen. I have been to many places but with this one, I felt for the first time like I was in another world. If anyone has seen the movie Contact with Jodie Foster, the scene where she finds herself on an alien beach? It feels like that. There was hardly anyone else there and it's silent. We anchored the boat a few meters off shore and swam in. Amazing. I think we only spent an hour there but wanted to stay all day. I want to live there. On a boat. Forever.
We made our way back to the calm waters between Hook and Whitsunday islands- Hook passage. We parked off close to a reef and fished for a while. It was a decent spot- we were pulling up small reef fish but nothing large enough yet to keep. Gliding in the distance, we noticed a few sea eagles. They spotted us fishing and immediately flew over to our boat. We threw some bait into the air and the eagles swooped down and caught it. They are amazingly accurate and so beautiful to watch. They seemed pretty tame so Richard thought he would feed one of them right out of his hand. Genius. Those birds are enormous with four knives at the end of each foot. The bird almost took it out of his hand a few times but (thankfully) hesitated and flew off. It was awesome to see them so close up though.
Richard and me, Whitehaven Beach
The ride back to the harbour was the same as crossing the channel before, except A LOT WORSE. The winds had definitely picked up to above 20 knots and the channel had turned into a rumbling mess. I was sure Jerry would not be happy to receive a distress call at this time of day. And we were late. It took two hours to make it back, but nothing went overboard this time. Jerry was thrilled to see his boat in one piece and we all felt like some sort of huge mission had been completed. We slept well that night, except for the rocking feeling we felt when closing our eyes. The burning eyeballs, sunburn, ingested salt water (about 2 litres), lost fishing rod and intense feelings of dread : totally worth it.
Me, Richard and Simon, Whitehaven Beach look-out
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