The Whitsundays - Intro

As I said in an earlier post, I was living with my girlfriend in Australia, and we were traveling as much as we could.
At this point we decided it was time to go to some place warm and sunny (amazingly you can have 10ºC in Melbourne and about 30ºC in the Whitsundays).
For those who don't know, the Whitsundays is a set of islands close to the great barrier reef. When I say close, it is a way to put it because it will still take you about one or two days by boat to get there. Anyway, it's one of the places you can depart to get to the barrier.
One of the attractions here is to go sailing in an eighty feet maxi racing yacht. This is what we've done. We went sailing for 3 days / 2 nights aboard the "British Defender" with an all girls crew (very cool!).
Check out the following posts for a set of pictures so you can have a better idea of what this trip is all about.
As an advice, if you're planning on doing this trip, I can tell you a few things.
Firstly, book your stay at Arlie's Beach in advance. There are a lot of hostels to choose from, and they are almost all the same in terms of quality and price.
It's better if you book the boat in advance. There are departures almost everyday, in different boats, but in high season many of them are fully booked. You can actually get a discount if you book on site, but you take the chance of not getting a place. If you don't have a tight schedule and are able to wait for a vacancy to come up risk it, but if you have a tight schedule it's better if you book in advance.
Be sure you pack light for the boat. If you're taking a huge backpack or suitcase take a smaller backpack where you can put just a few items for the days you'll be at sea. The hostel will be happy to keep the bigger bags for you while you're out (it has a cost though).
Bring you flip flops aboard. You won't need shoes (in fact you're not allowed to have any shoes on while in the boat).
Bring your own alcohol aboard, but no glass bottles are allowed - They will tell you this in any of the liqueur shops on shore (they even have these plastic bags for you to pour the wine in).
Bring cash if you want to pay for scuba or some other extra drinks.
And that's about it.