from Vera the 4x4 to Peggy the 73ft yacht; sea, scuba, finding Nemo, meeting the King himself and deciding that being a land mammal is so over-rated!! the next big leg of our East coast adventure began on monday evening, when laden with Goon, snacks and sun cream, after a tough day of sunning oursleves by the lagoon, the four of us made slow progess towards the harbour in Airlie Beach. From there we boarded Pegasus - a little rough round the edges but fortunately seaworthy and our home for the next three days! the group were pretty nice, no crazy pyscho Isrealis at least!! the crew on the other hand were totally lala!Consisting of our skipper, a mohawked Kiwi named Pete, Simon our dive instructor who looked like the love child of Sam Atkinson and a walrus, Yauldy our chef extraordinaire, whose roast dinner and apple pie was almost as good as my nanas! just don't tell her that, then Suzy and Katie who were hte deckhands/potwashers. Collectively they proved the theory that too much sea air con result in cabin fever and certifiable insanity! which, of course meant that i got on with them all really well!! So, as we left Airlie behind and pointed the bow towards the Whitsundays we set about the arduous task of drinking an awful lot of goon (although as it turns out seasickness meant that most went to bed pretty early!) the next morning we took the little tender over to Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday Island. the beach is probaly one of the most beautiful beaches in the world - the sand is almost pure silica and the sea was like crystal even though tyhe weather wasnt too fab it did nothing to dampen the beauty of it - with a bit more sunshine it could easily have been that picture postcard idyll of paradise!! despite the weather hol and I did don our super sexy stinger suits and braved the waves!! not for long though and we soon retreated to the beach for a few games of 'soccer' and 'footy' thats football and rugby to those of us who speak proper English! before heading back to the boat. After the beach we headed further round the Island to get in a spot of snorkelling which was awesome! i have never seen so many colours and so much life before, it was like God had created the reef while on some mega acid trip it was insanely beautiful!!! unfortunately though after a while the cold got the better of us and we retreatedto the boat for some lunch and some sun-worshipping - not that there was to much sun to be had if i'm honest! the food on board the boat was unreal!!! after a few months of processed ham and mingy pasta the sight of real ham and actual veggies was almost too much for me, it think i nearly fainted!!! never one to let good food go to waste i made the most of a tough situation and ate three helpings for pretty much every meal on board!!! that evening we moored up in a beautiful serene bay and set about celebrating Holly's 22nd Birthday - cue a fair amount of sambuca consumption, a helluvalot of goon consumption, boys in make-up (yauldy enjoyed it a little too much if you ask me!) and lamington (used to make Hol an improv cake) fights resulting in a few very green looking people - especially hol - and a ship covered in lamington the next day!!!!! the next morning - feeling smugly completely lacking in hangover - i did my free intro scuba dive which was awesome!!! the only one of my group to complete the dive after hol and Chris - aka the most pathetic excuse for a man i ever met or Prissy Chrissy - decided diving wasnt really for them! when it actually got going the dive was so amazing, a very strange sensation but totally awesome once i got used to it! the sun even came out while i was down there making the scenery even more beautiful and breathtaking!! in fact i loved it so much that I even did an extra dive that afternoon, I even saw a shark yay!!!!- i think i pretty much got bitten by the dive bug although i guess thats better than a shark or the bed bug bites some ppl came away with!! Had a pretty chilled out evening that night - I swear Yualdy slippedome sedatives into the roast or mybe we just over gorged ourselves but ended up falling asleep with my cup of goon in my hand! the next morning the weather had taken a turn for the worse so we headed out in the tender for one last snorkel on the reef - it was here that i eventually found the elusive Nemo!!! yay!!!! it ws also here that i discovered Elvis is alive and well!! in the form of the biggest and coolest Napolean fish ever!!!! he even has his very own Priscilla to keep him company!!!!!! after that as the storm picked up and we headed back to dry land we finally got all the sails up which was awesome!!!! we got a good 9 knotts out the old bird at one point . It was pretty choppy at this pint though and most of the group particularly Lu turned a funny shade of green for most of the trip back to the harbour!! Can't really say i was too sad to say goodbye to any of the group, they were all nice enough but just didnt really have much in common with any of them. I was pretty sad to leave the boat though - the crew had been totally awesome and really good fun to hang out with - plus i really wnated to steal Yauldy so he could cook for us n NZ - and i really wasnt relishing the prospect of being back on dry land!! ever!!! I had an awesome few days and cant wait to do some more dies in Fiji and being on a boat again has really convinced me that i wanna crew next summer!! so if you'relooking for me next year i can guarantee you i wont be on land for long!!!! love you all loads and this is the fourth time i have tried to write this entry so be thankful for my dedication heehee!!! As the famed philosopher Sebastian the lobster once said 'darlin its better under da sea!!!!!!!" xxxxx Ariel