Hi All,

Well C and I have just returned from our 3 day/2 nights Powerplay boat trip today. We boarded the vessle called powerplay on Tuesday at 11:30 with 4 crew members and 19 people. The boat was over booked by 1 but it didn't seem to matter.

When we were waiting to board we started speaking to this English couple called Ben and Jenna who were from Yorkshire and lived minutes away from Charlottes family. They were around the same age as us and both Ben and I were in the same type of job back home. We really hit it off so it always makes it better when you make friends.

When we boarded we had our flipflops taken off us and were told bare foot was the only way from now on. We were taken to our little private cabin, which was small but nice. Some other people slept in the main eating place at night as the tables went down to then convert into beds, glad of the little cabin.

On the first day going out it was reallt choppy and raining. Charlotte ended up going green and being sick over board as it was pretty bad. We were heading for the Whitsunday Islands but we all were having a laugh calling it the wet sundays.

None of us could really go out on the boat due to the weather. The skipper (Paula) tried her hardest to get us to the Whitehaven beach but we were only running on one engine so couldn't make it. We ended up parking up for the night in the stonehaven bay. It was a lot calmer and sheltered from the wind.

The food on the boat was amazing everyday breakfast, snacks, lunch, sunset snacks and dinner was all good. Charlotte was catered for very well by on board chef Megan. The boat even had a barbeque to cook the food.

We all had a few drinks and were in bed at 10 to get up early at 6:30 to go scuba diving and snorkling. I woke up at 5 annoying charlotte due to being excited on the day ahead. We went to our first stop called lunching bay.

Charlotte and I got into Wetsuits and I went out on the boat with my scuba diving gear on to do my first dive. We had to backflip of the boat into the sea and then go through our introduction with my diver Adam. After that I went on my first dive for 20 minutes and got to a depth of 10 meters. The reef was so cool so amazing it's hard to decribe. Everything around you is alive. You think the coral is all different colouted rocks but it's not it's fossils that move and breath. The fish are amazing all different types and colours. My dive went really well and enjoyed it.

I met up with C who was snorkling with some of the others and enjoyed looking down at the fish. We had these coloured floats that attracted them to us so really cool.

We boarded for lunch and then headed to a second diving location called Manta Ray Bay. This was one off the coolest spots ever. I got hooked on the diving so went a second time. This time I went to 12 meters which was a bit scary but fun. Your ears constantly need popped.

When I was diving I seen a black sting ray at the ocean floor, superb and when I went snorkling a fish we call Georgina which is a fish with a helmet head was near the boat, huge and so friendly. You'll see him in the photo.

When I was looking at him there was fish with one funny tooth in there mouths big things, well one bit me on my pinkie so I have a sea scar which is cool!! The crew filled the spa with hor salty sea water so everytime we came back in we went in there for some heat.

The skipper always took us through where we went and what we did each night while we enjoyed desert even the photo's took under water. All funny and some of me and C!!

We moved on to dock in the blue pearl bay on the way there C, Ben, Jenna and I stayed in the spa while it heavy rained on top of us. Really nice. We met some really interesting people of the boat from different backgrounds even an american lad who was a practising priest. Everyone was so much fun. We were all so tired after a few drinks we were in bed by 9:30.

I really got the bug for diving and decided to go a third time, Phil the other diving instructer and C convinced me to go for it, You get a free T-shirt on your third dive. I had to get up a 5:45 to dive at 6:15 this morning. Again we went down to 11 meters and seen some amazing part of the reef and types of fish and clamps (things of live big shells that open and close). We were down for 30 minutes this time so much longer. When I got to the top I had a small nose bleed due to the pressure and popping my ears. All okay and no reef sharks came to eat me.

C was snorkling and I joined her and again we managed to see huge fish feeding of the coral and going around our body and faces. All good stuff and georgina appeared again. We headed home today at 8 and docked in the harbour at 11:30.

We are super tired and I haven't had a shower in days (Rain showers and in the sea all the time should count I think). The crew were amazing and the trip was fantastic.

One of the guys said that I took to the diving really well and should consider as a hobby we will see.

C and I are sitting at the PC right now and our heads and bodies are still swaying from right to left, front to back. What people must be thinking.

Were going to make some more beeds today and we then need to pack our bags to head for Magnetic Island in Townsville tomorrow on a 6.30 train. AHHHHHHH!!

We are going out tonight to have fish and chips and meet the boat crew and some of the people of the boat for some free drink. Not a late one though we can't be drunk heading back to our Camp-O-Tel for tonight.

Well we are hoping to get all these amazing photo's up for you all to seen soon. Until then good bye.

Crazy Snorkler Charlotte and Scuba diving Iain