The morning sky is eggshell blue, no noise but the wind in the trees and the little plop! of surfacing fish. Sit in the breeze on deck as the morning sun comes over the hill, and have a fresh pot of coffee with toast, muesli and a freshly prepared fruit salad. Later in the day as you float into Nara Inlet on Hook Island an eagle might be soaring overhead. No rumbling cruise boat required to get you there; no crowds; no overpriced seafood restaurants waiting to fleece you. This is a real sea change.

"…one of the world’s most glorious travel moments…"

Not all the beauty of the Whitsundays lies in plain view. Most of the islands have fringing reefs, and yachting around the islands enables you to slip overboard whenever the mood takes you and see what’s under the water. A huge wrasse cruises up to the back of the boat, pouting blue lips searching for breadcrumbs. Fish in bewildering colours float around you: violent pink, neon green, Nemo orange. Angelfish swoop past, pouting seductively with their marigold lips. Zebra-fish, striped white and black, manoeuvre busily through savannahs of coral, ignoring the brash damsel fish flirting in bold blues and yellows.

The first heady plunge onto a Queensland reef isn’t just a highlight of the Whitsundays: it’s one of the world’s most glorious travel moments. Take time to make an excursion from Hamilton Island out to the biggest of them all, the Great Barrier Reef. One moment the sun is glaring overhead, birds wheel in a familiar sky, and you’re a clumsy creature with a heavy tank strapped to your back, staggering across the deck. Then you tip yourself over the edge of the boat and suddenly you’re almost weightless, surrounded by deep blue and a kaleidoscope of fish and coral. No words can capture its loveliness.

Every island has its own attractions, but a stop at Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island is another highlight. Regularly voted one of the world’s top beaches, the water here is as blue and clear as a Hollywood swimming pool, and the sand so fine and white it feels like washing powder under your feet. Just off shore, turtles surface languidly, as if coming up to see what all the bother is about, before disappearing again into the blue.

In the afternoon, the odd cruise boat of day-trippers mills about, but here’s the Sunsail secret: by late afternoon you have the place to yourself. Try your hand at windsurfing, take a swim, have champagne on the beach as the sun sets and the headlands glow purple. As the sky fades it’s time for dinner: antipasti on the deck, then coral trout with ratatouille, baked potato and salad. No need to wash up: the dishes vanish into the galley, and all you have to do is lay back on the deck, listen to soft jazz music and be dazzled by Australia’s night sky.

In the morning the sun comes up over water blue as Midori. There isn’t another tour boat in sight. The only crowd here is a shoal of orange-and white striped clownfish sailing sedately over a bed of purple sea urchins: rush hour in the Whitsunday Islands.

For more information visit Hamilton Island and Sunsail. Page: 2 of 2 - back