Our tour of the Whitsunday Islands was to be a 3 day, 3 night adventure on board the Ise Pearl, a Japanese former Pearling ship that had been lovingly restored by its current owner and his wife.
The Ise Pearl took us around the Whitsundays
On deck
The couple, Sparrow and Mudgee live on the ship full time and invite guests to stay in their home, where they are treated like family and sail around the islands at their leisure.
Mudgee & Sparrow - our hosts
We were completely relaxed the minute we met Mudgee and Sparrow - a very down to earth couple, they greeted us and we met the German couple who were also sailing with us. We then paid Mrs Snorkel and were fitted for our stinger suits ( very sexy), upon which we walked out into the marina and boarded a dingy - which took us out into the choppy open sea and to the beautiful Ise Pearl who was waiting patiently in the emerald green sea.
We shared the experience with Elgin and Bjorn from Germany
Once aboard we put our shoes in a basket, loaded our gear below deck and made ourselves comfortable for a slow sail to one of the islands where we moored for the night, undertook a spot of night fishing and had a bbq steak dinner - delicious.
Fishing + beer
Plagued by march flies ( which bite like most things in Australia) we settled for the evening initially planning to sleep on deck, however the weather was not playing ball and we moved inside to avoid getting soaked or blown away in the night.
We woke up early as it was very hot and set sail to get away form the march flies, heading for a snorkelling spot that Sparrow said was the best for learning on - he was right of course. the sea was calm, there were no sharks and there was a large wrasse fish named Willie playing amongst the corals.
Suzy's fishing attempt - nothing even bothered to bite!
The bow (?)
After snorkelling - which is the most amazing thing I have ever done, we set sail for Whitehaven beach which was glorious. Sparrow managed to get us there despite the approaching bad weather caused by cyclone Neville. We sat down for lunch before Sparrow took us ashore in the dingy armed with our stinger suits and cameras. We spotted a turtle whilst eating lunch so all of us swam out deep to find her. We couldn't so went for a long walk along the shore, took some time to dry off and returned about an hour later - we spotted the turtle again and swam out nearly as far as the Ise Pearl - we grabbed the snorkelling gear and followed the turtle - Paul managed to film her and swam along with her for about 15 minutes - I've never seen him look so chuffed.
Paul and Bjorn turtle watching
Paul swimming with a large Sea Turtle off Whitehaven beach (& also filmed this...)
Moored off Whitehaven beach
Whitehaven Beach
Suzy chilling with a beer
Paul on deck looking cool
Sunset on night two
"All good!"
Coral trout
Suzy not smiling but still happy!
On the second night the boys had a fishing competition - it took a while but the boys established the fish preferred chicken rather than salami and they managed to catch about ten fish between them -sadly Paul didn't win but he caught the best looking fish for his first sea fishing trip I think he did very well.
The winner!
The turtle again
The sexy couple!
Sparrow and his on deck bbq
Cleaner wrasse doing the business
Giant Clam - it was literally 'this' big (at base of pic)
Anyone seen the film - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou ?
A giant clam - 1 metre across
The final night was spent moored in a protective cove trying to shelter from the South easterly wind. We were very close to the shore, so close in fact that the lorikeets found us for breakfast and stole Paul's peanut butter on toast after out-manoeuvring him!
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