Powerplay, rays and total awesomeness!

Well the title rather says it all. I have just had the most amazing 3 days on a lovely boat with an awesome crew and lovely company.

The first day started with the usual safety briefings etc etc over a lovely lunch (which was the start of a lot of food over the 3 days). It took about 2 hours to get to the first site and we all had a snorkel and then had a dive. As the only certified diver on the trip apart from the 2 dive instructors Josh and Gareth I got to go off with Josh while the other had their introductory dives with Gareth. Josh took me to meet Priscilla, a humongous fish who is like a puppy and like you to play with him (yes it is a him, despite the girls name), Priscilla rather crept up on me so when I turned around i was up close and personal with him. We then continued on to have a lovely dive and saw turtles and lots of fish and some amazing colours in the coral. It was so much better than in Cairns. After warming up in the hot tub (yes we had a hot tub on the front of the catamaran!) and tea and biscuits we all had our 1 minute showers...what a precious 60 seconds that was. The cat was then moved to the next site where we were stopping for the night, The sea was so calm and there was next to no wind and barely a cloud in the sky. We saw whales playing in the distance which was good although I wasnt quick enough with my camera to catch it. When it went dark we got to do some star gazing which, so far our and with no light pollution was stunning. After a delicious and huge dinner, including pre dinner snacks, we settled down for a slide show about the reef, followed by chill out time and lots of Family Guy on the projector screen.

I slept OK and we were woken bright and early with the aim to get to whitehaven beach before the crowds. We had been beaten there by 2 other boats but still it made for an amazing morning on the beach, lots more getting to know each other and sunbathing and a few photos to boot. (I will try to upload them soon). In the afternoon we moved to a new dive site called manta ray bay. Only certified divers could go and I was strongly recommended to do the dive on the agreement that if it was as amazing as that spot could be, I would pay for it, and if it was rubbish, I got it for free....win win!

I did pay for it as it was absolutely fantasmorgorical! We saw a stingray up close, loads of turtles, another smaller ray and the corals were awesome. We could here the whales calling under water as well. Magical. It put all 3 of us on a bit of a high because it was really so good! That evening, after another afternoon of sunning ourselves, sitting in the hot tub and generally having a really nice time, we were lucky enough to see whales in the distance again. After a lovely dinner we had a slide show of all of the photos that the crew had taken over the 3 days. The photos were brilliant and I have a copy of them on a memory stick. That evening we had a few drinks and Josh joined in as it was his last trip. We all played a few drinking games and had a good giggle before crashing into bed.

The third day was started with a race to get in to the water, with the threat of a vegemite fine if you are the last one in. We had a brief swim and a few people had a snorkel, followed by breakfast before we started heading back to Airlie. As we were sat on the front of the boat all chatting over how unbelievably amazing the trip had been, 3 dolphins came up to the bow of the boat and were playing and jumping in the waves. It couldnt have been a more perfect end to the trip.

Yesterday afternoon was spent lying by the lagoon in Airlie soaking up the sun, before we headed out for a meal and a few drinks. Everyone from the trip came and it made for a lovely evening. I now have to face a 14.5 hour bus journey down to Hervey bay ....not fun! But its all for a good cause as I start my 2 day trip to Fraser Island tomorrow.