Hello Everyone!
Today (Tuesday, 10 Feb 2026) we sailed into the beautiful Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, Australia. Originally a range of mountains, the area was flooded eons ago when sea levels rose after an ice age. The peaks of those mountains are all that remain above the water, forming 74 islands of varying size. The original inhabitants of the area are the Ngaro people and the Gia people, whose Juru people has the only legally recognized native title in the Whitsunday Region. Development in the islands is strictly controlled, and most of the islands are still as they were thousands of years ago. Of the 74 islands, only nine are developed. The rest are part of the Whitsunday Islands National Park and under the control of the Government of Queensland.
The entire region is very scenic, with beautiful, blue water of various shades, coral reefs, and pristine beaches. It's a favorite sailing destination and is visited by some 700,000 people annually. It's about 600 miles north of Brisbane and is a popular vacation spot.
Love Me Tender...
This is another port in which we had to anchor offshore and take a small tender boat into the harbor. Due to the shallowness of the water, we were about two miles from the piers, and it was a long ride to/from the ship.
Here's a picture from the shore. Our ship is the third white dot from the left. If you zoom in on the picture, you can see a large Carnival cruise ship to the right which dwarfs our 900-passenger skiff.
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| Our Ship - Third Dot from the Left |
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| Our ship is on the left - Carnival is on the right! |
Here is what the tendering operation looks like. They deploy one of the tender boats (doubles as a lifeboat) from its mount on the side of the ship. In the picture below you can see the open spot where it is normally stored, with two other lifeboats still in place. They tie up alongside the cruise ship and you simply walk onto the tender through a door in the side of the ship. It gets interesting when the water is rough because the tender moves up and down as you're stepping aboard. But there are plenty of crew there to assist, so it generally goes smoothly.
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| Tender Boat |
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| Tender Boat |
Sailing the Whitsundays
Our excursion for today was a 2.5 hour tour of the islands by catamaran. Conveniently, the catamaran could pull alongside our ship and we could board directly without having to tender to the shore first.
I couldn't get very many interesting pictures from the catamaran - it just looks like a lot of islands, I'm afraid. But the scenery was truly beautiful. It was a very warm and humid day but because the cat moved along briskly at 20+ knots, the breeze was refreshing.
The captain gave us a running commentary along the way, telling anecdotes about many of the islands and how they got their names. The group of 74 islands making up the Whitsundays was named by Captain James Cook, who sailed into the area on Sunday 3 June 1770, the day Whitsun (Pentecost) was celebrated on the Christian calendar. There are conflicting reports about whether he recorded the date correctly (you know, date lines, time zones, and all that), but in any case "Whitmonday Islands" wouldn't sound near as good, now would it?
He named various subgroups of islands after the Dukes and Earls who donated money to finance his voyage. Hence names like Molle Group, Lindeman Group, and so on.
The Legend of Cid Island
One of the smaller islands was named Cid ("Sid") Island. Supposedly, Cid was a beloved pet dog on one of Cook's ships, and he passed away. The crew wanted to give him a right proper burial at sea, so they shot him from a cannon into the ocean. But they miscalculated the charge, and poor Cid's corporeal remains landed on the island instead. They named the island in his honor.
Sounds good, but the real story (according to historians, anyway) is that Cook named many places in the Whitsundays after figures from classical literature. “Cid” refers to El Cid, the legendary Spanish military hero Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar. Cook was fond of literary and historical references, and several nearby islands also reflect his habit of drawing names from European cultural history rather than Indigenous names. So the island’s name is essentially a literary tribute, not related to a dog, a local event or feature — it’s a nod to an 11th-century Spanish knight carried halfway around the world by an 18th-century British navigator.
Whitehaven Beach
Whitehaven Beach is located on Whitsunday island, the largest of the islands in the group. This beautiful and pristine white sand beach stretches along the island’s eastern side for about 7 km (4.3 miles) and is part of Whitsunday Islands National Park. As such, it remains undeveloped and protected.
The beach is unique in that it is comprised entirely of nearly pure (98%) silica. Although we didn't get to set foot there, I'm told that it squeaks when you walk on it. Sand from this beach is used for extremely high-quality optics, and the mirror in the Hubble telescope was made from it.
There is no development whatsoever allowed on the beach - no resorts, shops, houses, roads, or permanent commercial buildings are allowed on the beach itself. Only minimal infrastructure (like toilets or designated picnic areas) exists, and any works require strict environmental assessment and approval.
When the catamaran outing was through, we walked around Airlie Beach, near where our tender was docked.
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| A Portion of Airlie Beach |
There's a gorgeous marina there, full of very nice boats and yachts.
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| Airlie Beach Marina |
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| Overkill, Perhaps? |
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| Black Bart? |
Mickey D's is everywhere, including Airlie Beach. But what jumped out at me was the name for the Big Mac - El Maco.
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| El Maco is Backo! |
It's said that everything in Australia will try to kill you nine different ways. This beach sign seems to lend credence to that rumor! A group from our ship went snorkeling today, and they had to wear Lycra suits to protect them from the jellyfish and other stinging sea life.
I asked Chat GPT about it, and here's what it had to say:
The phrase “everything in Australia will try to kill you” is a piece of modern folklore — a humorous exaggeration that plays on Australia’s reputation for having a lot of dangerous wildlife. It’s not an old proverb; it’s more of an internet-age meme that grew out of travel writing, stand-up comedy, and online culture in the 2000s.
Where it comes from
Australia does have an unusually high concentration of animals that are:
Examples that fuel the stereotype:
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box jellyfish and Irukandji jellyfish
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funnel-web spiders
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inland taipan and other venomous snakes
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saltwater crocodiles
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blue-ringed octopus
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cassowaries (basically a dinosaur with anger issues)
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magpies that dive-bomb cyclists
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even plants like gympie-gympie that cause extreme pain
When travel shows and documentaries started listing these animals back-to-back, the narrative became:
👉 “Australia is trying to kill you.”
Comedians amplified it. The internet turned it into a catchphrase.
Look Out for Drop Bears
Another one I heard was about "drop bears", a venomous sub-species of the koala that lurks in trees and "drops" onto unsuspecting prey (or humans) walking below and devours them. Here's a video one of our lecturers showed of some Aussies pranking a Scottish news reporter into thinking a cuddly Koala was a "drop bear".
They're NOT Bears!
By the way, they're called "koalas", not "koala bears." Here's a little ditty about how much their feelings are hurt when you call them bears.
Back aboard
We got back to the ship in the late afternoon, all sweaty and tired from the oppressive heat and humidity (low 90s and humidity around 80%). After a shower and a change, I attended a lecture on marsupials and how they came to be so common in Australia. Fascinating stuff, and related to how the continents split off from each other millions of years ago, isolating certain portions of early animals to certain areas. Hence, about 70% of all marsupials are found only in Oceana, and carnivores tend to be concentrated in Africa. Carnivores are rare to non-existent in Australia.
After the lecture, a friend and I had a fabulous dinner in The Restaurant (perfectly prepared & presented Aquavit-marinated beef loin) followed by musical shows in the theater and the lounge. End of another perfect day aboard the Viking Sky!
We sailed for Cairns (pronounced "cans" by the locals) tonight and will arrive in the early afternoon tomorrow. We'll be in port overnight. I'm scheduled for a visit to the Cairns Aquarium and an Aboriginal Jungle Walk. I'll let you know how that goes!
All the Best,
Jim
The koalas are cute, but not always cuddly. They have an attitude.
ReplyDeleteSo true! Sometimes they pee on you! And they have big claws...
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