It's hard for me to believe that a week ago today we were flying north from Sydney to a teeny little airport called Proserpine- on our way to the Whitsunday Islands, the reefs, and an old sailboat called Enid. Our adventure on the Enid started with our arrival at Proserpine Airport- truly the smallest airport I have ever been in. The airport basically takes jets flying tourists in, on Virgin Blue or Jetstar, and it has one gate for each, for a grand total of 2 gates. That's right- 2. When your flight lands they just pull the plane up right behind the building and unload you onto the tarmac, and as you walk into the airport you can see a ton of people sitting in those airport style seats, but outside in an enclosed area about 30 feet square. Those folks are waiting in the "waiting area" to fly out on the plane you just came in on. It isn't even covered- nothing to protect you from wind, sun, rain, or Mosquitoes (which are affectionately called Mozzies). The crew unloads your luggage onto a flatbed trailer and pulls it around the side of the airport where you root through and find your bags, and then it's on to a taxi or shuttle to take you into Airlie Beach.
We stayed at a YHA hostel in Airlie Beach, a small tourist town right on the water, and the closest access to the Whitsunday Islands. The shuttle ride in from Proserpine was a Cambodia flashback for me- the scenery was eerily like the Cambodian countryside. But Airlie Beach is definitely an Aussie town- plenty of pubs, bars, and a few places for tourists to get stuff they need like basic groceries and medicine. Most of the shops were places to book tours out to the Whitsundays, or places to buy beach towels and tacky souveneir shirts and the like. We found the office for Oz Adventure Sailing and checked in, and spent some time walking around the town (village I should say really) looking at the various places where one could purchase an underwater camera. Naturally things are expensive and way overpriced in a place like that. The marina where we had to board our ship the next day was quite a hike from the YHA and we had to be there early so we hit the hay early.
Early Thursday morning we made it to the marina after some issues finding it and issues storing our luggage (there's no space to bring anything but a small bag on board) and were promptly issued stinger suits, which you need to wear to snorkel this time of the year due to all the jellyfish. The main problem is the toxic ones that can kill you in 3 minutes. The suits protect you from being stung, and have the added attraction of making you look like a blue Power Ranger. After that we walked down a long dock past a lot of boats before we came to the Enid.
The Enid is a beautiful old former racing sailboat- she completed the Sydney to Hobart (Tasmania) race several times back in the 60s, and at full sail she can travel 9 knots, which may not seem like much, unless you're on the boat yourself with all 3 sails up, soaring along the water. Being a former racing yacht she wasn't really built for passengers, but was retro fitted somewhere along the way and now she can theoretically sleep 21- if you don't mind being very cozy with your neighbors. We had 9, and could comfortably have taken about 3 more. There being only 9 of us made it easy to get to know each other over the span of the 3 days we were out.
Being over 50 years old now, Enid has some quirks, as you may imagine. The toilet facilities are very very small, and the cabin space was frequently stuffy and a bit musty in our case since we got a private room. The room was so small and stuffy, and I might add hot at night that we would have been better off without it. But we got by. The toilets have a mascerator, which is basically a garbage disposal for your toilet. You have to run it for 30 seconds to be sure everything is properly disposed of. The ship has a limited fresh water supply, so we were able to take 1 shower a day no matter how salty our skin got, and it had to be less than 2 minutes. I'm all for roughing it, but it would have been nicer to have a heads up before we got there. :)
The islands were beautiful, tropical islands, and the sun was blazing hot- even with sunscreen I managed to get sunburned on my legs, though I wasn't sunbathing (or sunbaking I should say) like most of the other girls. We enjoyed snorkelling and having the fish swim right up to you- we saw reef sharks, jellyfish, lots of interesting coral, and tons of fish. But one of the highlights of our journey was our skipper, Johny.
Johny is about 50, and is a native to the Whitsunday area. He's been taking people out to the Whitsundays for over 20 years, and was one of the first 6 skippers to take people out on tours. They used to join up the 6 boats in the evenings and hangout all together back then. Now there are 75 boats in the Whitsundays, and something like 6000 people a day go out on tours between all the boats. Johny said he stopped counting how many people he personally had taken out at 30,000, about 5 years ago. He figured he'd taken out 6000 more since then.
Johny is a colorful man- an accomplished sailor, and passionately in love with sailing and the Whitsundays. He is a fountain of knowledge- full of fascinating and interesting facts about the area, about the wildlife, about sailing, and about each of the ships he's skippered. He even knows individual animals at the various sites and has names for them- massive fish come up to him when he calls them, and sea eagles fly down from their perches when he whistles.
The thing that struck me the most about Johny is that despite all the people he's taken out, he is still interested in individuals. He and G had a good talk about marriage and about life- his wife was anti sailing, and for a variety of reasons he just couldn't take living torn between her disapproval of sailing and his love of it. So they separated. He comes from a Cathlc background and at heart is more conservative than he seems, but even though it's been a few years it's obvious that he's still dealing with the issues from his divorce and in seeing his children. His kids are 17, 13, and 18 months- the last one was what he called an oops, because in his words "old habits die hard." His oldest is off to university soon. He isn't a skipper all year round- it doesn't pay well enough for him to support his kids, so he works construction (which is booming in Australia and pays very well) part of the year, and skippers the other part.
We enjoyed the Islands, and making 7 new friends on board the Enid, but Johny will forever stand in my mind as a representation of the real Whitsundays. As various powerboats would go flying past us, on day trips out to the reef, or planes would fly overhead on short trips to the beach, he would tell us about what they were missing, and how the Whitsundays had become such a tourist destination that locals didn't even live in Airlie Beach anymore. He was so willing to share his life and his knowledge with us, even though we were 9 among 30,000.
G and I spent some time trying to get to know Johny- we wanted to know the real him, what his experience was like, and to show a true interest in him beyond what most of the people coming through wanted. He plays guitar, and he and G talked about his music, and how that relates to life. I asked him about his family, his kids, did they enjoy sailing- how far was the farthest he'd sailed (Thailand). I really felt like we got to know him, and I hope that he felt cared about by at least we 2 out of those 36,000.
Our whole group was sad when the Enid started for her home port, but Johny put up the mailsail and as we sailed along quietly over the water he went out to the prow and hung over the edge with his cell phone camera taking pictures of the water and the ship as she zoomed along in all her glory. I snuck some pictures of him to send back to him, and to remind me of his true sailor spirit. We were all a bit sad when Enid pulled into her berth at Airlie Beach again, and Johny gave us each a parting hug as we departed.
As I sat on the plane at Proserpine, preparing to take off, I pulled out one of the magazines in the seat pocket- it was about the Whitsundays, and the author had written a bit article on his 7 day trip. He'd taken plane rides, speedy boat rides, he'd sat in jacuzzis and scuba'd the reefs and snorkelled and who knows what else. He had experienced all that there was to do in the Whitsundays and was suggesting all those activities to newcomers. But as I read his article I was overwhelmed with the sense that he missed the most important thing of all- he missed out on relationships with the people who love the Whitsundays, hearing about the history, the details, watching a local pet a 3 foot long fish that came by to say hello, seeing big sea eagles swoop down for some food when they were called....he missed evenings with a salty sea dog playing his guitar and singing, sharing his life....there is so much that he missed as he whizzed here and there. I thought of what Johny said about the people so busy to see everything, and I just knew that he was right.
We'll never forget our trip to the Whitsundays and all the things we saw and experienced there, but most of all we'll never forget Johny. Here in 12F Michigan it's hard to believe that halfway around the world there's a sailor sailing the Whitsundays, sharing his life and his loves with the tourists who stream through. Whenever I see the sea I'll think of Johny out there, and say a pr for him that someday he'll know the one who created everything. If you think of him, say a pr for him too.
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