Hello there...

So we are back in Airlie Beach now after a 3day/2 night sailing trip of the Whitsunday Islands. We're staying in Magnums again for one more night before heading to Mission Beach tomorrow. Anyway i'll start from Day One....

We woke up on the Tuesday and packed our stuff ready for the trip. We walked over to the lagoon waiting to be picked up for our boat trip. At about 2.45pm one of the men who worked on the boat (called the Atlantic Clipper) came over to collect us and we stepped onto the boat waiting for our journey to begin :)

After what looked like hard work on behalf of the crew members and some of the men on board, the sails went up and we sailed to unsafe passage past Southmole Island and then past the East and West moles. When we got to Hook Island we stopped and ate a gorgeous barbequed fish and mashed potato for dinner. We settled here for the night in a coved area away from any winds and had a few drinks before going to bed in our cabins earlyish. Oh almost forgot... apparantly there is a boat record of 30 people in the little hottub that is on the boat. So we decided to jump into bikinis and boardies and break this...which we did :) 35 people in a little hottub whoop whoop. We created history :)

On day two of the trip (Wednesday 23rd) we got a wake up call at 7am and went upstairs for some breakfast. We left hook Island and went to Corner Bay where they dropped us off. After a 600 metre walk we came to a beautiful lookout of some of the Whitsunday Islands. We then walked back down and headed to Whitehaven Beach for a few hours. People went in the water and saw a big stingray which was cool. We then got back on the boat and had another gorgeous salad buffet lunch. Then we sailed past Dunbell Island and back to Hook Island. We got taxi'd over to Lunchin Bay by a little boat to snorkel. After collecting our stinger suits (because its stinger season and there is a transparent jellyfish that if it stings you can shut down all your major organs) Loz and I headed out - Steph stayed on the boat before sitting on the beach as she didn't want to snorkel again. So Loz and I snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef :) which was really cool. We had an underwater camera with us too so hopefully those pictures will come out clearly. Saw so many fish and the corals were really pretty. The man of our boat, Jimmy, kept throwing food at us so the fish would come round us. We then went and joined Steph and Kate on the beach befor eI went in again with Alan and thats when it happened... Jimmy threw in food again at us from his boat and a fish b**** slapped me - it actually did!! (For those of you that don't know what b**** slapped means, it means it slapped me across my face with its tail!!!) Alan found this hilarious though. We then went back to the boat and sailed through Round Corner to Haymen Island and stopped in Blue Pearly Bay for the night. Dave (one of the boat guys) turned on the underneath lights then about an hour later we saw some squid eating little fish, then some dolphins appeared beside the boat eating the squid. Then a few hours after, a few sharks appeared to which the dolphins disappeared :(. So while Loz and Steph drank copious amounts of alcohol, me and a few others stood watching them. Loz and I then went to bed earlyish while Steph was playing many drinking games, she was battered - was really funny!

Day three (Thursday 24th) we had another early wake up call for breakfast at 7am and got the chance to snorkel again at a different point in the Great Barrier Reef. Loz nad I stepped out again in our stinger suits. It was awesome. Massive massive fish - some bigger than my arm span! Jimmy was throwing food out agian and one massive fish jumped out of the water and ate it out of his hand. Was amazing!! We then had lunch, and headed back to Airlie beach Lagoon as it was the end of our trip :(

Have had an awesome 3 days, so much sunshine so our tans are looking great. Met loads of nice people, some who we'll reunuite with in Cairns or New Zealand. So thats it. Going to a place called Morrocos tonight to see everyone of the boat for one final night including crew members so it should be fun. Then on a 9 hour bus journey tomorrow to Mission Beach at 9.05am.

Hope all is well back home and the rain isn't too depressing :)

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