We got on board the Anaconda III after our briefing on Friday evening and found our small cabin down near the bow. It comprised of a double bunk with a single bunk above it and a little ensuite toilet and shower. We would be sharing with Nathan, the welsh guy we had met just before boarding the boat. We dumped our bags in the cabin and made our way back upstairs to have a safety briefing and introduction from the crew, which consisted of the captain, Baz, two crew, Stomper and Ecka, two dive instructors, Nemo and Jacco, and Brooke, who would be making all our food for us.

Once we had been intorduced, we set sail from the marina at Airlie Beach in the dark and set out towards the Whitsunday Islands. Once we were out of the harbour the sea was immediately really choppy, and most people were feeling quite ill belowdecks. We had bought some ginger tablets to help with seasickness so we took one of these each and spent most of the evening on deck even though it was pretty chilly, getting to know some of our fellow passengers.

Eventually we reached our destination for the night, Hook Passage, between Whitsunday Island and Hook Island. The boat had stoped rocking enough to let us get off to sleep, which we did, although we were woken at points by Nathan snoring in the top bunk, despite him having claimed he didn't snore. This only provided a reason to take the mickey out of him the next day.

we were woken early on Saturday morning by two rings on the ships bell, signalling breakfast was served. We were moving again, however and neither of us felt like eating much. I managed to force a bowl of muesli down whilst sitting up on deck but Lucy wasn't able to eat anything. After a short time we were moored again and we all gathered on deck behind the wheelhouse for a briefing. We were going to land on a small beach on Whitsunday Island and walk through the bush to reach Whitehaven Beach, the famous beach of white sand on the island.

We got in the Anaconda's two tenders in groups and were ferried to shore, where we walked along a cool path climbing through the bush, first to a lookout over the island and Whitehaven Beach, then down to the beach itself. Sadly it was a cloudy morning and the sea was a litle choppy, so the beach wasn't quite as pretty as in some pictures we'd seen of it. Nevertheless, the bright white sand was amazing to see, walk on, and exfoliate with as with the sand on Fraser Island, and the surrounding background of the forested, rocky Whitsunday Islands was really nice.

After about an hour on the beach during which we walked up the shore and checked out the cool patterns in the sand, and sat chatting to some of our fellow passengers, we made our way back over to the other side of the island to be picked up and ferried back out to our yacht.

It was then time to set sail again, and we headed up around Hook Island and moored in a bay there, Luncheon Bay, with rocky cliffs and a narrow stony beach backed by huge boulders and bush, where we had a tasty lunch of tacos sitting out on deck. After lunch we got another briefing about the diving and snorkelling available in the bay, and people signed up for the various activities.

I signed up to go with the certified divers and got into my wetsuit and geared up but, after heading out on the tender and rolling back into the water, I found I couldn't breathe very well through the regulator I had, which immediately made me uneasy and I lost a bit of confidence. I decided to not bother with the first dive and to do a free refresher dive with a group to get more comfortable with the boat's equipment. I jumped back into a tender and got dropped off at the beach, a bit annoyed about bottling it on the dive, but didn't waste any time and got into the water for some snorkelling.

There turned out to be a fantastic reef just off the beach with amazing coral formations, teeming with fish. I saw loads of fish, big and small, but the highlight was spotting a couple of white-tipped reef sharks gliding between the huge rounded coral bommies. The sharks were only about 1.5m long but they were amazing to watch as they darted suddenly for fish, diplaying incredible speed and power.

Eventually it came time for me to do my diving refresher which I managed fine, although I found the regulator I was using for that was also a bit raspy under the water, which didn't really improve my confidence in the boat's diving equipment. The instructor was also quite hasty and to my mind didn't pay enough attention, which slightly put me off diving with him. However, it was good to get a bit of time underwater checking out the fish and corals.

After a bit more snorkelling and hanging out on the beach, where Lucy was sitting chatting to some Dutch girls from the boat, it was time to get in the tenders and get back on the Anaconda. Lucy hadn't fancied the snorkelling as the water was quite chilly, even in the stinger suits, and she wasn't 100% comfortable with being in the open water.

Once back on the boat, we spent the remainder of the afternoon in the bay just hanging out on the boat and getting to know more of the passengers, most of whom were really nice. After a tasty dinner of roast chicken, potatoes, and salad, we set sail again in the evening, this time bound for the Great Barrier Reef. Once again the boat was rocking and rolling all over the place, and we spent a lot of the evening lying down in our cabin reading, to avoid feeling ill. We tried to go to sleep but with the boat moving so much it was like trying to sleep on a rollercoaster, so we didn't really get off to sleep until after midnight, when we arrived at Line Reef, out in the Great Barrier Reef.

Once again we were woken by the ship's bell announcing breakfast. I grabbed some toast and brought some to Lucy in bed, before heading up on deck to get our briefing about diving and snorkelling on Line Reef. With my confidence with diving and with the boat's equipment a bit low, I signed up to go with one of the introduction groups for a dive. As I was in the last group to dive, I decided to go out for a snorkel on the reef first. I hopped in the tender with a few other people and got dropped off at the edge of the long reef, which we swam up the side of, checking out the corals and fish.

Though impressive, with a variety of corals and fish, the colours weren't as stunning as those I had seen before and we didn't see any really remarkable fish. There was also a bit of current pulling towards the reef which meant I had to always swim against the current a bit.

Eventually I requested a pick up by Stomper in one of the tenders by raising my fist in the air, and got dried off and warmed up on the boat, where Lucy had been relaxing and talking to folk, to wait for my dive. Unfortunately, all the other dives took so long that there wasn't time for my group to go before lunch. We had another tasty lunch then sailed to another part of the Great Barrier Reef, Hardy Reef.

Once again we got a briefing about diving and snorkelling, and this time I was in the first group as I had missed my dive in the morning. I got kitted up, this time using Nathan's diving gear which he had been kind enough to lend me, and we headed out in the tender and got into the water, James Bond style. Once again, as I started to descend, I was breathing quite quickly but I soon managed to calm down and soon had my confidence back. I enjoyed the dive, which took us along the base of a coral wall with a huge mountain of dead coral sloping down into the depths below us, and although we didn't see any big or outstanding fish, it was good to feel comfortable under the water again and to see the reef from the underwater perspective.

After surfacing and being picked up by one of the tenders, we nipped back to the boat to drop off our diving gear. I decided since I was already in my wetsuit that I'd head back out for a snorkel, and left Lucy once again on the boat as she didn't fancy a snorkel.

I found the snorkelling at Hardy Reef much better than the diving in the end, as I drifted along the edge of the reef, able to see across the top of the immense coral forest as well as down its edge and into the crevasses punctuating it along its length. The variety of corals and the abundance of fish was incredible, with all colours and shapes of coral and tons of colourful tropical fish. I spent most of the snorkel floating above a humungous shoal of sardines, glistening below me as they twisted and turned through the water in unison. I spent quite a while in the water before deciding I had better get back to the boat and see what Lucy was up to, as well as get dry and warm up.

Once everyone was back on board, we set sail again, heading back towards the Whitsunday Islands. As we set off, we sailed alongside the reef and witnessed one of the colest sights on the reef. As the tide lowered, water poured from on top of the reef into the sea below. This resulted in an effect like a river in the middle of the ocean, with water apparently pouring from one sea into another sea a metre lower. It was quite eerie and cool to see.

As we continued sailing, the sea was really choppy and most of us ended up out on the deck behind the wheelhouse trying to avoid feeling sick, though some people failed with predictable consequences. Lucy and I had taken our ginger tablets and weren't feeling too bad. Lucy spent most of the time down in the cabin lying down and reading while I sat up on deck and chatted to some of the others.

I had to nip down and get Lucy however, when we saw some whales spouting and breaching out in the sea. Once we were both up on deck, we sat watching the sunset as we continued sailing back to the islands, eventually mooring in a calm bay, Blue Pearl Bay, at Hayman island.

We had dinner here, some grilled fish with pasta, mashed potato and salad, and then I had a few beers with some of the guys. Some of the others had signed up for a night dive, which they went on. I opted not to go for it, deciding it would be better to do a few more dives and get a bit more confidence, but in hindsight I wish I had gone on the night dive, as I think I would have been fine.

The rest of the evening was spent drinking beers and chatting, before everyone eventually headed to bed.

We were woken by the breakfast bell for the last time on Monday morning, and after breakfast, were given our briefing for our last lot of snorkelling and diving, in Blue Pearl Bay. This time I signed up for the first dive with the other certified divers, determined not to be put off by the problems I'd had on the first dive.

Lucy, after being persuaded by everyone on the boat, decided to finally give the snorkelling a shot, and we both set off on tenders to get in the water. I had a dive with Edwin and Mikel, two of the Dutch guys we had originally met on our Castaway island as well as one of the instructors and had no problems or worries, finally. We started the dive by descending to the bottom of the bay at around 4 metres, where the instructors proceeded to feed the fish Weetabix from plastic bottles. This resulted in a frenzy of fish swimming all around us, nibbling on the food, which was great to see. The highlight, however, was Elvis the huge Napoleon wrass who floated about, munching on the food. The big, greeny-purple fish with its protruding forehead and bulbous eyes on the side of his head was so placid it would stay still as we stroked its sides and followed it around the bay.

Whilst I was down on the bottom, Lucy was snorkelling around above us, getting a little bit more involved in the fish feeding than she'd have liked as Stomper threw the fish food all over her, bringing the excitable fish right up to and all over her, even crashing into her mask. However, she still enjoyed her snorkel and swam around with Sophie, Mark and another British girl, Natalie, evnetually swimming back to the beach on her own, her fears of the water faced.

Meanwhile I was having a swim through 'The Maze', an appropriately named forest of coral in the bay, with the other divers. Although the visibility was quite poor, it was fun swimming between the towering formations of coral and seeing all the fish living there. We eventually came up on the surface and were picked up, though I opted to just put my diving gear in the boat and go for a snorkel since I was already in the water.

I swam over to meet Lucy but she had alreay had enough snorkelling, and was heading back to the boat, so I floated around on my own for a bit, once again enjoying all the great tropical fish, especially the big multicoloured parrot fish who chomped noisily at the coral with their beak-like mouths.

Soon it was time to get back on the boat and we hoisted the anchors for the last time before setting sail for Airlie Beach. On our way we had our last lunch, then sat out on deck in the sunshine enjoying the views until we reached the marina.

After a meeting on the deck to say thanks to the crew, we all left the boat, with most of us arranging to meet up later that evening at a bar in Airlie Beach for an organised after-party. Lucy and I walked back through the marina, around the promenade into town, and caught a bus back out to the campsite where we got the van and checked in for another night.

We took some very long and much-needed showers, having been limited to one one-minute shower per day whilst on the boat and relaxed with a beer before catching a bus back into town to the bar.

We met up with most of the other passengers in the bar and had a fun night with quite a few drinks and free pizza, staying in the bar until quite late. One of the barmaids in the bar turned out to be from Aberdeen so we had a chat to her before leaving with two of the other passengers, Laurel and Natalie, who were staying at the same holiday park as us.

We managed to get a taxi and after being dropped off at the park, crashed out for the night, knowing we'd be back on the move the next day.