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If you Google Map this location you are going to see that you will be hard aground! It may not sound like a great place to be but since we are doing this trip in our minds I thought it would be safe to do. I did this for two reasons; one exploring on an Explorer Yacht not only covers the water but all of the places and lands that you visit. So I felt that the first location should not just be a water location. Second it is very hard to pick a spot along this coast to single out.

You will note that the locations is less then mid way up on the Great Barrier reef, places like Lizard Island (www.lizardisland.com.au), Cooktown (www.cooktown.com) and Cairns (www.cairns-australia.com) to the far north and Gladstone to the South (www.gladstoneregion.org.au) and all sorts of wonderful places between, like Townsville (www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/ ) and Hook Island and the Whitsundays (www.about-australia.com).

The list goes on and on. You can explore the land or the water and find things at every glance that will make you pause, open your eyes a bit wider and stop your heart, figuratively and literally. There are monster fish here to catch and land; big Black Marlins and fish that look like monsters, there is diving on reefs and wrecks and exploring the land and meeting the people, both the locals and the natives.

In the mid 80's I had the pleasure to sail most of the way around Australia over the course of about 2 years on a 86’ steel motorsailer. It was an incredible trip. We went from NZ to Sydney, down the bottom and then most of the way back around. I will not give you the whole trip now but we stopped in Lizard Island and did a number of dives there, stopped in Townsville and were met by people that were friends of a captain of a large cat who we met in Fremantle during the cup races (www.fremantle.wa.gov.au).

They opened their arms to us and showed us warmth that is hard for me to describe. They took us to their home and had a “Barbie” (that’s BBQ) for us and invited dozens of people. They then spent the next week helping us get things done and showing the town and including us in their lives.

We spent time in Shoot Harbor and the Whitsundays diving and sailing and stopped in Gladstone before we left to go back across the Pacific to the U.S. Yes, I know this is the wrong way around but when the boss says go that way, you go that way and make the most of it, which we did. As stunning as an area this is, it is the people that make it all the more so.