East Coast Expedition: Anxiety At Airlie Beach

Jan 18, 2011

I woke up this morning and hopped on a 6:20 a.m. bus to Airlie Beach, a small town located at the heart of the Whitsunday Islands. The highlight of the ride was passing the Big Mango in Bowen, Queensland. There is nothing more exciting than glancing out the window and seeing a brobdingnagian mango in the middle of no where. (I learned that word today and felt compelled to use it. Brobdingnagian means 'gigantic, enormous or tremendous.' Go out into the world and use it. There's nothing wrong with having sesquipedalian abilities. That's another one I learned today. It means 'given to using long words'. Isn't this fun? Ok, I'll continue now.) I arrived to Airlie Beach a little after mid-day and settled into my room at Beaches Backpacker Hostel. As I mentioned in the last post, I was coming to Airlie Beach to go on a sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsundays are a group of 74 islands located on the tropical coast of Queensland along side the Great Barrier Reef. The pictures I had seen in travel books of these islands were the most exquisite, beautiful tropical isles I had ever seen, with snow-white sandy beaches and radiant teal blue waters. Just looking at the pictures I could hear the waves crashing on the beach, feel the warm ocean breeze against my skin, and taste the salty sea water. Of all the places in Australia I wanted to travel to, this was number one in my book. My heart ached to physically stand on the islands my eyes had fallen in love with.

The Big Mango

Back in Sydney I made certain to pre-book my Whitsunday sailing trip through a travel company. It was for a 3-day, 2-night trip on the Venus, a traditional and fully restored sailing vessel. I was to spend my days sailing around the islands, snorkeling and sun bathing, and my evenings at the Hook Island Beach Resort where I was to relax in my air conditioned room, float in the pool, play at the beach, and socialize at the bar. I was psyched. I was instructed to arrive the day prior to the ship's departure so that I could attend an orientation meeting about the trip. This is why I had to skedaddle so quickly from Magnetic Island; if I missed orientation at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon then I would have missed my trip. I came to soon found out that missing orientation wasn't the only thing I had to be worried about.

What the Whitsunday Islands looked like in the travel books. Incredible, right?

I arrived at the orientation spot at 1:59 p.m. They told me to come back at 5:00 p.m. So I wandered the tourist friendly streets of Airlie Beach, wandering into book shops, surf shops and trinket shops. I went on a jog along the Bicentennial Boardwalk, a coastal track that winds 3.7 km between Airlie Beach and Cannonvale Beach. It would have been an enjoyable run had it not been so dang humid! I could open my mouth and swallow water from the air it was so humid. I passed the remaining time I had to kill watching the Australian Open on television, which was currently taking place in Melbourne, Australia.

Airlie Beach and Lagoon from above

At 5:00 p.m. I returned to the orientation spot, eager to get all the information on the following day's sailing trip. But inside I was informed that the ship was not going to set sail tomorrow. I stared at the messenger in disbelief. How could that be? The bearer of bad news explained that there were only 8 people signed up for the trip and it was a boat made for 30 people. It just wasn't in the Venus's best financial interests to operate the trip. She apologized. She said that the flooding in Brisbane had screwed up everyone's travels. "It's been dead here because of the flooding," she told me apologetically. Tears began to accumulate in my eyes as I digested her words. This was devastating news. I was speechless. "What am I to do then?" I inquired, hanging onto hope that perhaps there was an alternative option that would make this wrong a right at the snap of a finger.

Unfortunately, the options presented to me only sent me into a further state of anxiety, worry and fret.

• Option 1: I could wait around in Airlie Beach for 4 days until the next Venus trip was scheduled to take part. By Sunday she anticipated they would have enough people for the trip. I was on a tight schedule, however, and could not afford to stay in Airlie that long. This option was no good.
• Option 2: I could shell out an additional $200 and upgrade to a different sailing trip scheduled to depart tomorrow. I was also on a tight budget. I wasn't sure I had enough funds to afford the upgrade and afford room and board the remainder of my trip. It was a chance I was hesitant to take, and money I was hesitant to spend
• Option 3: I could get a refund for my trip, accept that it wasn't meant to be and carry onwards with my trip. This was most definitely NOT an option. First of all, there was no guarantee I would even get a refund. Secondly, and more importantly, there was no way I was leaving Australia without sailing around the Whitsunday Islands. I had fantasized about this trip for far too long to just walk away now. 
• Option 4: I could contact the travel agent who booked my trip and see if he could transfer me onto a different sailing trip at no additional charge. 

Option 4 seemed the best of my options. Now all I had to do was figure out a way to get in contact with Andy, my "travel agent", and get him to get me on a different sailboat by the following morning. Piece of cake, right? Hah. Previously I had tried getting in touch with Andy, the man who assured me if I had any problems to just give him a call. I had left Andy email and phone messages before asking about the trips I had booked. And did he return any of them? No.So my faith in getting in touch with Andy now, in my moment of desperation, was not high. At this point there was nothing more I could do. It was now late evening. The travel company would not be open until the following morning. All I could do was pray that things would work out the next morning. I laid my head down that night with the faith alive that my dream of sailing the Whitsunday Islands would come true.