Hi
It was a nice feeling again arriving back in Port Douglas and a trip here would not be complete without a snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef so a booking was made for the next day. Pick up was at 7.40am and we were sailing for the 90 minute trip to the outer reef by 8am on a windy but warm morning. The big boat was full '48 people' so there was just 18 on the smaller boat that we were on which felt nice and spacious.
The wind was about 20 knots making the sea at the outer reef quite choppy but jumping into that warm sea felt just great. Steph found it a bit too rough on this first location to be enjoyable but she gave it a good go for about 15 mins before returning to the boat. The climb back onboard using the water level dive platform was made tricky in the choppy conditions and poor Steph got a nasty jab in the ribs that was to be painful for many days later ! The fish life was awesome but even I thought it was just a bit too rough and you had to keep clearing your snorkel.
After about a hour it was back on board for a yummy morning tea and off to the next site. The next two sites were a lot better and you could go on a tour with the marine biologist or do your own thing which Steph and I did together. There were a few very large and friendly fish which stayed at the boat possibly awaiting a free feed. The colours of the corals and fish were amazing and we especially enjoyed seeing giant clams and squid flashing their ever changing colours. Lunch was very yummy too with lots of fresh tropical fruit and after the last swim at 3pm it was hard to find room for the home made cheesecake but some how we did. As the wind had not dropped down much the swells between the many reefs on the way back in became quite large and at one stage the boat surfed down a large wave and did a 180 deg. turn making it quite exciting for all ! Even the big twin hull cats following us in were steering all over the place and the skipper said that he felt safer in this smaller mono hulled boat which amazed me.
Any way it was good to get back to the calm harbour and as nobody was sick most people felt that it was still a great experience. Port Douglas is just a great place to just chill out in and a walk about the Main Street with all those tourist shops and food joints easily fills in a day. Our neighbours at the camp invited us to join them at the local yacht club for drinks before dinner and we all enjoyed a each other's company and had a good chat as you do. Once a week the yacht club has a sailing afternoon and if you are keen for a sail you just turn up and the skippers pic a novice crew from who's there and you could end up on a small or very big Yacht for a great sailing experience. Unfortunately I found out about this too late as I would have been very keen to have a go. After three great days it's time to move on again and we plan to visit a crocodile adventure farm 25 k/m's south of here which you need about 4 or 5 hours to see all the attractions and shows.