Well, it has only been a week or so since my last blog but there is so much to tell i'm not sure how im going to fit it all in!! . . . here goes . . .

after a few days waiting around in airlie beach waiting around on the beach or by the lagoon for our boat trip the day had finally arrived, we got up to a few clouds in the sky and the most humid day ever, we were covered in sweat just walking down the road. Think you can all sense what was coming next, by about 2pm we had storm clouds and a bit of wind and by the time we got onto our boat in the marina it was thunder and lightening and torrential rain - gutted!!! the past 4 days had been glorious sunshine.

The boat was a lot smaller than i had imagined but we all squeezed into seats under the deck and waited for the rain to pass, the 'samurai' is a sailing boat so when we got out of the marine we put the sails up and sailed out to the islands, our luck must have been in as we started to sail into blue sky and were leaving the clouds behind. we salied all the way out the the islands which was a lot choppier than i had expected but sailing was a lot of fun, as the boat tips up on its side to cut through the waves.

we got out to the islands and anchored in a sheltered bay just as it was getting dark and had an awesome bbq for dinner and then quite a few drinks on the boat to get the party going. at about 12pm they knocked the lights off and we headed downstars to our bunks, although it was unbelieveably hot and cramped down there and our stuff was literally piled on top of us - it was going to be a very cosy few days!! we were made up when josh our dive instructor on the boat told us we could drag our mattresses and sheets onto the deck and sleep up there, the stars were the most amazing i have ever seen, and although it was a very tight fit to get all our mattresses onto the deck it was so much more comfortable sleeping up there.

waking up the next morning inches away from the edge of the boat with the ocean and the islands was amazing, although the sun woke us all up by about 5:30am, so we were all dressed, had breakfast and motoring on to our next stop by 7am!!! i would love to say i had a great nights sleep but chris' snoring was the worst i have ever heard and kept me awake most of the night, i was soo tired the next day. our 1st stop was whitehaven beach. it was so windy by the time the boat stopped just off the beach that lauras flip flops went flying into the sea never to be seen again!! josh took us over to the beach in the small inflatable dingy in small groups which was an exprience in itself in water that choppy, the waves were bigger than the boat!! we walked up to the lookout point which you will see from the photos was absolutely stunning, then spent a few hours messing around on the beach before we were picked up for another scary ride back to the boat in the dingy.

we headed over to another cove in the island sfor some diving and snorkelling, i'd told myself all week that i'd try a scuba dive off the boat but was absolutely bricking it when it came to actually signing up. luckily laura had never dived either and was quite nervous too so me , laura and chris signed up for an introductory dive. we were driven over to the beach and loaded up with our gear and after a (very) short check that we could do the skils we set off for our dive. 30 minutes later, after seeing a turtle close up and some pretty cool coral and crazy looking fish we surfaced!! so pleased i did it, would love to do another as i think i'd be a lot more relaxed the 2nd time.

after a dinner of spag bol on the boat we stopped of at the hook island resort to visit a bar for a few drinks. we had to head over in the dingy in the dark and then trek through the forst to find it (laura still with no shoes!!) with only 3 torches between 20 of us!!! the sailing, sun and diving had clearly taken it out of us though as me, cat and chris found some comfy sunlongers and had a nap by the pool!! we got back to the boat determined to sleep on deck again, although the wind was so strong by this point that we had to grip our pillows and sheets to stop them flying into the sea!

Woke up the next morning to see some people already awake feeding bat fish scraps of bread off the side of the boat. The weather was getting much worse so pretty much the only option for the morning was to go and see some aboriginal caves in a sheltered cove on the other side of hook island. the caves weren't that exciting but it was quite nice to be in calm water for a while. we set off back to the mainland after lunch and the wind was getting on for 30 knots at this point (don't know much about wind but thats pretty strong!!) so everyone was getting quite excited about getting the sails up for the journey back. sure enough, the boat tipped right up and we has a great sail back to the mainland in v strong wind and huge waves! it was all going very smoothly up to this point until just before we got into the marina josh and a few others tried to take the sail in and it got stuck and wouldnt come down. the boat at this point is being thrown about everywhere in strong winds and after a few minutes the panic on josh's face was making me feel a bit concerned!! as the wind changed the boat turned and we had to scramble up to the other side of the deck to stop ourselves falling in, this carried on for about 20 minutes and really wasn't much fun, quite scary really. didn't feel much better when josh started shouting that he needed a knife to cut the rope (as u might have quessed by this point josh the diving instructor was the only person on the boat who seemed to know anything about sailing, the captain didn't have a clue -it was his first trip on our boat!). however, we all survived the drama, josh eventually got the sails down and we motoed back into the marina, have never been more glad to be on dry land!! and after 3 days on a boat with no shower and smelly tiolets have never been as glad to be clean either, great trip though, loved it!