Exclaimer: Carly is currently unable to use her phone due to slight motion sickness. Therefore these are very much Edd's views and may not be fully shared by the whole travelling party! Ps. Edd has also had a bottle+ of wine....
We awoke to another beautiful morning in the Whitsundays. Ok it's maybe not the blue skies you see in all the brochures but the thick level of cloud cover was helping get rid of any homesickness! We both had good night's sleep despite the rocking and were ready for a full day ahead!
As usual we were first to wake ahead of the rest of the boat and had a cup of tea up on deck with the captain. Breakfast was simple but lovely. Fresh fruit and yoghurt for me, Carly relived her youth with a bowl of chocolatey goodness in the form of coco pops! Neither of us were brave enough to try Vegemite so settled for honey.
We set sail just before 8 and motored through Hooks gap towards our first snorkelling spot of the day. At this point the weather took a definite turn for the worse. Happy to say I was the last one standing up on deck with the captain as we headed through driving rain. A combination of quite enjoying this weather and also the rocking motion below deck doesn't agree with me.
Luckily the weather blows though pretty quick round here and it wasn't long before the rain had dried up and the sun was threatening through the clouds. We arrived at our first stop for the day and put on our still slightly damp wet suits for another snorkel.
It was low tide so we saw even more fish than yesterday and the coral was again amazing! We even caught a glimpse of nemo! Having started to get the hang of it yesterday it was so much fun and we spent almost an hour bobbing in the water. Really wishing I had a decent underwater camera as it's so spectacular down there.
After a cup of tea and some sweet snacks we headed over to tongue bay. After mooring we took the small dinghy ashore and wandered up to the lookout view. Before us laid out Whitehaven beach in all its glory. The sand isn't formed in the usual way but from lava and as a result is tiny particles and brilliant white. It's like walking on warm snow!
We headed down to the beach and enjoyed an hour exploring and relaxing. Carly and I had a little splash around and took some pictures around the beach. We had another lovely lunch back on the boat on top deck and were lucky enough to see turtles coming up for air.
As you can imagine Carly was beside herself with excitement, she loves the little critters! It's so nice to have lunch outside on the boat and overlooking turtles at play! We rounded the headland after lunch and headed to our final spot, the skipper assures us it's the best spot on the entire great barrier reef!
The afternoon was for me one of the moments of the trip so far. With 20 knots of wind we were able to get up the main and the head sail and we cruised along the islands. The weather was also incredibly kind to us given the forecast and we were able to sunbathe on top deck as we reached speeds of 9 knots under sail. The sea was choppy in parts but so peaceful as we cruised along with the engine off.
We arrived at our snorkelling spot and were not dissapointed. As soon as we hit the water we were surrounded by fish and this continued for the entirety of the trip. This is my third ever snorkel and I already doubt if I'll snorkel anything better. The coral and multitude of fish were simply stunning.
Back on board we had another lovely dinner and fun evening with the other guests. We've got a very eccentric German couple in board who have the most infectious laughs and are fun to be around. We have a lovely evening although very brief as everyone turned in around 9 after a very full day.
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