…And we woke up in Airlie Beach and left the bus (finally!) at 9am.

Our boat wasn't due to leave until 3pm, so we had a few hours to kill in town. Kel made a phone call home to Michael and then we headed to ABC Travel to check-in for the trip. Airlie Beach is in a beautiful bay, but there are huge signs up all along the beach warning swimmers about the dangers of the jellyfish that are active along the Coast at this time of year including the lethal box jellyfish with tentacles up to 3 metres long that can kill instantly! The local council have gotten around this problem by building a huge lagoon just behind the beach which is safe to swim in. It was packed when we walked past and looked very inviting!

At the travel agents, we collected our boarding passes, dumped our rucksacks and had an hour online before heading for the free showers next to the lagoon to freshen up.

Next, we went to Harry's Café for some lunch (huge club sandwiches!) and a drink. Then it was time to head to the marina to get on the boat! We were collected just before 3pm by a girl mysteriously known only as 'M' (we never did find out what it stands for!) who was French and our cook on board for the next three days. Once on board, we met the other crew - the Skipper Eddie and the deck hand James. Soon, it was time to set sail…we were off!

We spent some time getting to some of the other passengers before stopping in Hook's Passage, between Hook Island and Whitsunday Island, which is the largest of the 75 islands. It was time for our first swim in our stunning stinger suits, which apparently reduce your chances of a jellyfish sting by 75%…good enough odds for us! We jumped in from the diving board on the boat a couple of times, swallowed lots of water, and got out again!

Dinner time…M had whipped up a fantastic meal of damper fish and mashed potato, which we all wolfed down after our swim. We spent the rest of the night with our box of goon, chatting to a few people we'd met - Patrick, Ciaran and Corey from Ireland, Sarah and Kelsey from Canada and Gemma and James from dahn sarf in England!

A good first night on our boat! Looking forward to our trip to the beach tomorrow…