Sailing on Solway Lass, Whitsunday Islands

The adventure began last tuesday.
Got picked up in Airlie Beach and we headed to the Marina.
Andy, came and took us to the boat!
I was exhausted after all day in Airlie under the sun...

The crew met and greeted us...nice guys. The captain (skipper) TIM, was my favourite!!
Very nice and polite guy.
First thing they told us: "not more than 2 minute shower each"....:) we had not much water on board.

Ok.... we left the marina at 7.30pm, heading north east. We passed between Hook Island and Whitsunday Island. The morning after we headed to Whitehaven Beach: unbilievable place....we reached the beach after a short bush walk and we stayed there for a couple of hours, maybe a bit more!!! The sun was incredibly strong; got burnt with sunblock number 30!!
The sand was soo white and soft. Never touched a sand so soft in my life, almost unreal.

Back to the boat and sailed all the way up to Mantarey Bay where we spent the night! After dinner a dolphin was hanging around the boat!! So pretty!
We spent at least an hour watching the dolphin...heheheh such kids! :)

The day after we went snorkling and diving in the nearest beaches. Corals were amazing. So many bright colours (blue, purple, torquaise). I saw a huge fish (don't remember the name in english); it is a blue huge fish (in italian is called "pesce napoleone"). I was a bit scared at first but then i got used to it.

Around 4 pm we headed to Hayman Island and we stopped at Longford Reef.

At night we were all exhausted, i was nackerd. A few sharks were hanging around the boat; we threw some food at them to see them closer....not too big but for sure not small either.
Sharks hunt at night; there were hungry....very hungry i would say..scary!!!

The crew was nice. Tim (the captain), Andy, Tim, Damo, Jesse were great...
Damo was really funny...i loved his sense of humor (cute dude as well).

The other passengers were absolutely fantastic!! We had a blast together..
We were from all over the world:
Irish, Belga, Swiss, Americans, Italian (only me), Canadian, France, Scottish, British....Cool folks.
I was in a cabin with an english girl (Claire) and an hilarious irish guy (Andrew); funny roomates, both of them. We got along well.

Hope we'll keep in touch and eventually meet again::))))))
Yesterday we headed back to the marina....there was no wind at all, that's why we couldn't sail...gosh, it was soooo hot and humid, i felt like i was in a huge swamp!!! Thank God there were no mosquitos.

The boat, Solway Lass was absolutely gorgeous...a hundred yr old boat, remodeled a few times, "she" sailed the world and she keeps on doing it.

www.solwaylass.com