Sadly my Airlie beach hostel was a firm contender for Most Depressing Hostel of the Year. Airlie beach itself was beautiful. I wandered around the markets on the Saturday morning and admired the view of the sea with it's many boats. After some planning and organising I had a swim in the large artificial lagoon (Stinger-free) which is where everyone hangs out. 
Sunday was the start of a 3-day Whitsunday island sailing trip aboard "Summertime". A beautiful timber-fitted boat, originally a fishing vessel. 17 passengers, crew of 3, 1 lecture about the idiosyncracies of marine plumbing later and we were speeding out across the sea, not entirely by sail power alone it must be admitted!
First stop was Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday island. Dropped off by the tender we walked through a forest to a lookout and one of the most sensational views I've ever see. Postcard perfect with white sand and varying hues of blue and turquoise water. We dropped down and squeaked across this ultrafine sand to the sea to swim. But the advised Stinger-suits to prevent lethal jelly-fish stings spoiled the swim a bit. We saw lots of Stingrays and whole armies of crabs marching across the sand. An hour or so later the tender came to pick us up and trying to get back to Summertime proved rather eventful. More wavy than usual, the weight of us caused the small craft to sit low in the water and fill with waves. I bravely seized the bale but the battle was becoming unequal as we sat lower and lower in the water until a very near crisis occured. The nose dipped and swimming for it was an inevitability just seconds away when we all instinctively moved towards the stern lifting the nose and at the same time Mikki our skipper turned the speed boat back towards shore so that we could abandon ship in shallower water. Boat emptied out and refilled with soaked humans; this time a Dutchman grabbed the bale and this seemed like a good plan. We made it back to dry off and get warm, laughing about our near- capsize! Well fed we turned in to our narrow, cleverly crammed in bunks and slept very well.
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