Burning sunshine and heavy humidity has been the weather for most of the last days, so we thought it a good idea to book a day trip on a boat. We were told Thursday would be bad weather but Friday would be great, so this was the day we chose. Little did we know...Last night the rain came down in torrential quantities. I optimistically said “don't worry – the more it rains tonight, the less it will tomorrow”. After getting on board, the rain dropped off a bit, and the boat set off – and then the waves started. Nicki can be a bit seasick so she'd taken a tablet against it, but even with that, she felt bad as the boat lurched left and right and up and down. A German couple were sitting near us, wordless. I didn't see the guy say a thing for the whole trip and he looked miserable from start to finish.
After an hour, we were told there were just 10-15 mins to go until we sto
pped for a bushwalk up to a lookout on the coast - “so hold on to your stomachs, guys” announced the cheerfully unsympathetic Aussie skipper. Then the boat really bent into the waves and we were bouncing around. Neither of us had been in such rough water, and I got the feeling they were struggling a bit too much. Why on earth had they let the trip go ahead?
Finally it calmed down and they called for us to get ready for the bushwalk. I took a look at the pouring rain and decided to stay on the boat but to my amazement, every single one of the other day-trippers got on the small dinghy, a dozen at a time, and sped off towards the coast. As the last boat left, the rain hammered down in quantities I have rarely seen before and I sat inside with a coffee, thanking my lucky stars I had not given in to bravado and gone because the others did.Half an hour later, they all returned looking like drowned rats.
Clothes were rung out, towels were wrapped around shoulders and dismayed looks were exchanged. I was reminded of the phrase “are we having fun yet?” Clearly the answer was “No”.Another 20 minutes of tumultuous journey took us onto Whitehaven beach, a 6-kilometre stretch of white sand and idyllic beauty. At least, that's what it should have looked like. Today, it looked grey and foreboding to us, with our minds still full of the info-board in Airlie Beach explaining the dangers of stinger jelly fish. They started to lay out the buffet lunch, saying “we'll have lunch then go snorkelling”. Well, we thought, this is the Barrier Reef and they have stinger suits to protect us, and that's an underwater activity – this won't be affected by the weather, right?
Wrong. After having to battle through the waves, something went wrong with the boat's generators. As we sat down to eat lunch, the boat sped awa
y from Whitehaven - not great timing for those suffering from sea-sickness. A number of full plates and people with green faces lay on deck, facing the prospect of a 90 minute battle with the waves to get back home. Fortunately the sea was a little calmer on the way back, and tempers were calmed too by the news that a full refund would be given.In short, the trip was quite a washout. Yet it was another kind of experience, and I have to admit that I found the rough sea very exciting. We've been lucky that very little on this trip has been seriously affected by the weather and if this is as bad as it gets, it's not so bad!
