Still feeling hyped from making it to airlie beach, and after a nap in our air conditioned room after the night bus, we headed out to celebrate! We met friends from the oz bus that we had been stranded with and everyone had made it safely to airlie and everyone was excited for their boats so we only had a few drinks and got an early night! Today was the day we boarded our boat 'The Atlantic Clipper' which we were sailing on for 2 nights around the Whitsunday islands! It has a reputation for being the party boat and as we all sat on the top deck, after putting everyone's alcohol in the fridge, it seemed like we had a good group so looked forward to the trip even more! On board were 6 crew members including a chef and dive instructor, the captain and entertainment crew, and it had capacity for 52 of us and ours was full! We were amazed it could hold and sleep so many and when we went to our room we realised how! We were sharing with Becky and opened the door to find a bunk bed and what they tried to make a double bed on top, me and meg would be cosy on this trip! The room was tiny which we didn't mind but the stairs down to our section were deadly, vertical is not an exaggeration and they were the steepest onboard but we survived! After everyone had settled in we sailed to our first stop and anchored up for the night watching the sunset. Then we were treated to fresh fish, salad and our favourite mash potato, we ate sooo much we even went up for thirds and started to eat the mash from the pan! After removing ourselves from the food we went up to the deck and spent the evening getting to know everyone playing drinking games and watching the stars! We had an very early start in the morning so after a quick dip in the jacuzzi and a check with Chase, the chef, that there wasn't any mash left we went to our cosy bed. Up at 6.30am for breakfast we were already sailing and it wasn't the best we felt rocking from side to side, everyone else looked just as rough as us though. This morning we headed to Whitehaven beach voted the second best in the world, unfortunately all the water around the Whitsundays is full of jellyfish and stingers so we had to get our stinger suits first. Even though it was 8 in the morning the walk to the lookout point was very hot and after avoiding the biggest spider in its web we made it and the view was amazing. We can only apologise about how bad the picture of us is as we were too hot and just wanted to get in the deadly water!!! Our wetsuits were awful but everyone soon ran in the water and we chilled in the waves all morning, not seeing a single jellyfish. We took our suits off and had group photos on the shore before heading back to a mamouth lunch of wraps, meats, cheese and pasta salads...yum! After sunbathing on deck we arrived at our second stop 'blue pearl bay' nicknamed the aquarium and after sorting our snorkelling gear we soon saw why! We were swimming with so many fish of all colours and sizes and we could even stroke the bigger ones. It was amazing and we can officially say we have snorkelled in the Great Barrier Reef. Back on board they let the slide on the side of our boat down so everyone had fun playing on the sea and some, Meg included, were even brave enough to go off the dive board! After our snacks of crisps and cakes dinner soon came round, slag bol with garlic bread we definitely got our money's worth of food from the trip! Tonight was the big night as the crew arrange lots of games so after a few drinks the fancy dress box came out and everyone got involved. What happened next was hilarious, the crew had us running from side to side trying to rock the boat, singing and dancing and then we visited the clipper zoo. We had to do impressions of the animals they shouted and people were eliminated if they weren't good enough. Of course we made it through with our chicken, snake, kangaroo and the favourite koala impressions where we climbed the shoulders of the closets boy very fun! The rounds got harder and we made it so far but our rowing boat wasn't good enough so we had carpet burns for no reason but got to watch the rest of the madness unfold! Soon only a few people were left fighting to be king of the clipper, the final was 4 boys and the dance off that occurred was YouTube gold! We lost our voice cheering for Liam Rose a welsh guy in a leotard who was hilarious and won, everyone went mad! After the games it went quiet so a few more drinks and then bedtime still laughing about the nights events! Another early star 6.45 and time for snorkelling again before heading back! We took the opportunity to take a photo steering the boat with the captain before more snorkelling! We didn't spot any turtles and headed back for more slide-dive fun and sunbathing on our return journey sailing along loving life! We arrived back in Airlie and had a final talk from the crew thanking us and all headed off saying out goodbyes and planning to meet for the after party! We refuelled with a mcds and a much needed nap then headed for our didgeridoo lesson, we wont be the new Rolf Harris but was fun. We had a good night with the clipper family, unfortunately our cheering for Wales in the rugby didn't work so we went to sleep reminiscing about all the fun we had! Unfortunately the next day went slightly wrong, after getting up at 6am to catch our bus to Cairns we found out at the bus stop it was cancelled so we had to wait all day for the night bus. We tried not to complain and on the bus we looked through our boat pics and realised how lucky we are and have had great people on every trip we've done! Lots of love Amy and Meg ... Pro sailers xxxxx