Lorikeets!

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This morning Katharina, Daniele and I were on our own as Guido had to fly home for the weekend. We were up early as usual, and I hopped in the boat as Daniele backed the trailer down the ramp. He hoped in and I ended up driving for most of the day. Today we headed south towards Repulse Bay as we had seen the animal there yesterday. Soon enough the water started to get choppy, and we headed out to a few of the islands. After circling them for a while we headed north towards a spot about 45 minutes north of Airlie Beach. Daniele showed me a feature on the gps I was unaware of to better help me travel long distances in a straight line. On the way north we spotted a dolphin traveling, and we slowed down and prepared the equipment. Unfortunately for us we couldn’t spot it again and after a while we packed everything up again and continued traveling.
At our destination, we circled a few islands on our way south. At one point I looked up and saw a boat fast approaching, and not really sure what they were doing I slowed down. I realized it was the department of fisheries, so I put the boat in neutral and we started talking to them. They were doing safety inspections, and after checking our lifejackets, and other safety equipment we realized that we did not have the correct permit, and our signal flares were out of date. After a little more hassel we were on our way back with the warning that if we were caught further than a half mile from shore we would get a $200 fine. By that point in the afternoon the wind had picked up quite a bit and we actually had to head in. We headed back, and the harbor was so choppy I actually had to slow the boat quite a bit in order to keep the amount of splash down. In the marina Daniele decided he wanted to run to the store quick and buy some flares, and we would head back out. Katharina and I stayed with the boat and ate lunch, and when Daniele returned we headed back out across the harbor. Soon enough we realized it was way to windy, and even if we found dolphins it would be extremely difficult to do any work. We headed back home, and Daniele had to go to the fisheries department for a few hours in order to sort out everything with our permits. Meanwhile it was feeding time for the birds, and I headed over with my camera to get a few shots of them.
Needless to say the lorikeets were extra cheeky today, and a few landed on my head, shoulders and arms. I stayed for a while taking pictures of them because they are just way too cute! When I got back, Katharina and I headed to the reception desk to book our diving trip. Daniele is actually a dive master, so he said he doesn’t want to come because he wouldn’t have the freedom that he would normally want. Katharina does not have her dive license with her, so hopefully someone back home can photocopy it for her. For now we are going to wait until tomorrow to book it, but as it is winter season I am not too worried about not getting a spot. Tomorrow is supposed to be crazy windy so for now we aren’t going on the water.

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