Whitsunday Islands

8th June arrived Airlie Beach and Whitsunday Islands on the tropical Queensland coast of Australia. Our first job was to wash the decks and generally clean up after a week at sea. The next priority was to dive for the showers - a nice hot shower was so greatly appreciated.
The Whitsunday Islands consist of 74 islands, coral reef, waterways, beaches of white silica sand backed by bushland where bird life fills the air. In the sea are dolphins, turtles, tropical fish and coral. The Great Barrier Reef is 2000 km long, the worlds longest living structure, made by tiny marine animal skeletons pilling on top of their ancestors, a collection of 3000 individual reefs housing thousands of species of fish and six of the worlds seven species of sea turtles, an extremely fragile eco system. We had an amazing opportunity today to go snorkeling and see some of the tropical fish around the shores of Hook Island. The picture below on the left is coral taken with one of the crew members underwater camera, wow!
After snorkeling we had a BBQ on the beach, see picture above showing 2 other members of the crew and myself.
On Saturday 13th - 21st June we join in a sailing rally to some of the Island in the Great Barrier Reef. In preparation for this we have a full day working on Friday to get the yacht in ship shape, cleaning, refueling, shopping etc.