Australia: Day 5, Whitsunday Islands part I

The next portion of my trip (documented in the next two posts) was my favorite part. If you go to Australia, you must, I repeat you must sail the Whitsunday Islands.

Just before boarding.

"Team Responsibility." Eric, Brookie, Karen, and I were given this name by the Skipper, due to the fact that we don't drink-something baffling to all Aussies, especially on a boat.

Karen's friend Brooke from BYU. She was in Sydney for four months on an internship. We immediately became besties, bonding over our mutual California hometowns, and love for Casey Bolger. Brookie come visit NY soon!

The boys raising the sail for the first time. Make no mistake, sailing is HARD work.

Tom, on the left, and Lee (the Skipper) on the right.

Now it's the girls' turn. Seriously, it was really tough.

Karen, me, and Christy.

Now cranking...

Tom. All the guys had that Southern Cross tattoo. I love that you can only see that constellation from certain parts of the world.

Lee, our sexy Skipper. My one Aussie crush.

We spent hours just sitting on the deck of the boat, soaking up the sun. It was heavenly.

In my sexy "stinga" suit. The water was filled with jelly fish. We knew there was a chance of seeing one, but it wasn't until we put our snorkel gear on and started swimming around and saw them everywhere that we realized it would take about a minute to get stung. It made us wonder, ummmm, what about our hands, feet, and face??!

The first time we went in the water we were told we had to front flip off the diving board. After that I threw a back tuck. The first time I landed on my back...owie, but second time around it was perfect. Too perfect. I went straight in the water so water shot so far up my nose into my ears, it hurt really badly. :( I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to scuba the next day.

Brooke's front flip.