Sunday the 15th, we woke up to a rainy day in Airlie Beach. Watching the weather in the morning, we saw the entire east coast being battered by storms and rain. Man, were we glad we decided to head north as quickly as we did - around Noosa there was flashflooding and such crazy surf that all the beaches were closed. What we didn't realize when we planned this leg of our trip is that the tropical northern areas of Queensland have their rainy season in January. Whoops.

After the first 3 days of crazy driving rains, the rainy season became our friend as it only rained for small periods during the day and left us traveling in the ultimate low-season. The downside being we couldn't really camp anymore because although it didn't rain a lot during the day, it absolutely downpoured most of the night. The upside being that we found great deals around town.

With umbrellas, we walked around the main strip in Airlie Beach. Because this coastal area has an overabundance of poisonous jellyfish, the beach here is mostly just for sunbathing and walking. But, in the park along the beach, they have dug out a freshwater lagoon, a huge sand-bottomed swimming pool overlooking the bay. We took a nice walk through this park but didn't have our suits for swimming. We did head to the info site on the main road and booked a sailing/snorkeling tour for the next day. Again, because of the rainy season, we booked the trip at half price!

We took it pretty easy the rest of the day and just tried to keep dry around our resort. When the rain let up in the evening, we had a nice swim in the saltwater pool (and Mark enjoyed the waterslide!)

Early the next morning, we were picked up and brought to the marina for the start of our day at sea. I woke up well before the alarm because of the howling wind outside. I was pretty nervous to get on a sail boat for the entire day when the wind was that strong.

Our ship for the day, Illusions, was a catamaran with 2 sails. There were 10 of us on the boat in total, 8 tourists, the dive master and the skipper. After quick introductions by all, the 8 of us headed up to the front of the boat and each took a seat on a bench facing out over the water, our legs between the railings on the front of the boat. The water was pretty calm in the bay, but once out on the open seas, the huge swells began to roll.

While we glided up and down, wave over wave, the dive master came around to brief us on our snorkel tour, including the stinger suits we had to wear (to protect against the jellyfish), and to offer us the opportunity to go with her and do an intro scuba dive. With such a small group and such a great price neither Mark nor I could come up with a good reason not go. None of the others took the bait so it would just be Mark and I with one instructor making the dive. Perfect for 2 first-timers!

After about 2 hours of sailing, Illusions reached our first stop in Blue Pearl Bay, a fringing reef off the coast of Hayman Island, one of 70 islands in the Whitsundays. This reef grew due to the protection provided by the Great Barrier Reef, but isn't actually categorized as part of "The Reef".

As we anchored in the bay, Mark and I got suited up with stinger suits and weight belts and we learned the fundamentals of diving before hopping in the dingy and going to the beach. As soon as we hopped out of the dingy, Naomi, the dive instructor, had us putting on our vests, and tanks and we then practiced breathing underwater. First just with our faces in the water, then sitting on the bottom in about a meter of water, then laying flat on our bellies. It was such an odd feeling, being underwater and breathing, and definitely takes some adjustment. At first, I felt like I was letting more air out than I was taking in, but Naomi assured me that it was normal and urged me to keep going. Once she was satisfied that we were breathing normally and weren't going to panic if we went deeper, we were off and swimming.

We descended very slowly but still were swimming amid live coral in no time. Right after we started, as we were still descending, Mark pointed over my left shoulder and I looked to see a huge box jellyfish (the poisonous kind!) with it's tentacles all tangled in the reef. It couldn't have been more than a couple feet from my head! He tried to point it out to Naomi, but she was either too busy trying to get us to equalize the pressurize in our ears or she very skillfully ignored it so we wouldn't freak out; and we moved on. During the dive, it was so amazing to come face to face with the living coral and see the fish feeding all around it.

When we had swum down to our deepest point, about 4 metres in, we were between two reef ledges and Naomi pulled out some food and surrounded us in a school of brightly coloured fish. At this time, we were also visited by a HUGE fish, a mauri wrasse that they've named Priscilla. I don't think I've ever seen a fish this big. And with such giant lips! It was incredible and was probably very used to divers in the area because it came up close enough that we were able to touch it. She also pointed out an anemone swaying to the pulse of the sea with a bright orange clown fish (Nemo!) hanging around. Again, so incredible to come face to face with such life.

And then, after about a half-hour under the water, we were up and breathing the sea air again. We unloaded our gear and still had a good amount of time to snorkel around the reef. After having been right down in the reef, it was hard at first to stay at the surface of the water, but in many areas the coral was very close to the surface and gave great viewing of fish and plants alike.

Mark is much more adventurous than I am with snorkeling so he headed out a good bit further while I stayed a bit closer to the beach. I was rewarded in seeing a HUGE stingray flying along the bottom of the sea, only a few feet away from me. He was pretty fast so it wasn't long before he got away from me.

Eventually, we were rounded back onto the boat and sailed over to our next destination, a smaller reef off a tiny sand bar. The captain of Illusions brought us here for a short snorkel because there are often sea turtles swimming in the area. And for Mark and I, they didn't disappoint. The visibility in the water was much lower here (because of all the recent rain) so it was harder to see the deeper reefs and you couldn't see fish until they were pretty close to you. Mark and I were snorkelling over a reef and he pointed down and I looked to see a big sea turtle swimming around the coral. I looked at him in to show my excitement and there was another sea turtle swimming just a foot or so from his head near the surface of the water! We both reached over and touched him, just gave him a little pat, before he swam down to feed around the coral. Mark held his breath and dove down to check out the first turtle and gave him a little pat before coming up to the surface. After waiting for hours to try to see sea turtles in Bundaberg, it was so amazing to swim among them.

We finally hopped back on the boat and resumed our stations at the front to ride the waves back to the mainland. As we sailed into the bay near Airlie Beach, the sky finally opened up and it just poured on us for the last half hour of the trip. It had rained on the shore almost all day, we were so fortunate to have such great weather all day until we were almost back at shore.