Finding Nemo

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Hyjah!!!

Back from the Reef! The day started out nicely with coffee on the Catamaran 'the Ocean Spirit' which took us to the East Reef about 1 and a half our from the coast of Cairns... It was a bright, sunny morning ( so it didn't look too suspicious that I was wearing sunglasses all the time due to the extensive consummation of a regional drink on the previous night... Mango, pureed with crashed ice and bacardi... highly addictive, but that stuff is wicked... you don't realize how much alcohol is in there until it hits your system...)...

Yeah, so the weather was great but very windy... and the tide was high so I turned out to be lucky to have a very thoughtful host mum who provided me with anti sea sick pills... It didn't look like everybody was that fortunate... I"ll just say, that the brown paper bags were in high demand throughout the journey...

But unfortunately the waves were a big problem not only for easily upset stomaches but also to our diving... The introductory dive went awfully wrong for me, for the only time I got my head under water was, rather involuntarily, due to an xtremely high wave...

That disappointment was compensated by lunch! Whole prawns en masse, salads, mountains of fresh fruits.... After lunch we went on to our second destination Michaelmas Cay, a sandbank in the middle of nowhere... Because of the high tides it was unfortunately under water when we arrived there, so the water went up to our knees but it was still rather impressive to stand on that little speck of land in the middle of the ocean, the only thing you can see is water, all around you...

So we tried to go snorkeling from there... The water was about 23 degrees warm, but I can't remember swallowing that much salt water in all my life... Don't laugh... Whatever I thought snorkeling would be like... it defenitely wasn't almost drowning amidst the great barrier reef because of metre high waves and a twisted ankle (damn those fins!!!)...
BUT, we had those handy hand-signs, in my case, waving like a mad(wo)man and so, after about 30 minutes of being thrown around like a plank of driftwood, I was, rescued is a bit strong a term, but yeah, rescued by the cute guy, steering the glass-bottom boat, doing rounds between the little sand bank and the catamaran...

So, as it seemed to work, I maybe should try the damsel in distress thing more often... He was very considerate and nice... "gg"

Well, I got to see quite a bit of the reef on the tour, though...
But (again) the waves were in the way and because of the lack of light, the colours of the reef didn't come out to full extent...
BUT,yeah, I found Nemo!!!!! Actually, I found Nemo and loads of other fishy stuff...

And the crew did some fish feeding back at the boat as well, so the trip was worth it...

After that we sailed home, the wind was defenitely strong enough for sailing... Alina and I got comfortable on the back deck, getting a nice tan... Or at least as comfortable as you can get, being totally splashed by water every now and then...

And here I must sadly announce that I'm mourning the loss of my CD player which has faithfully served me for a very long time... He couldn't take all that water...

However, even its loss couldn't smaller the fun we had, lying on our towels in our bikinis, sipping champagne, hair flying in all directions... AND we definitely had a good laugh when, all of a sudden, a flip flop flew by....

Yeah, and the boat's crew was very charming too...

Right then, today it's been incredibly hot... must have been about 35 degrees... and I'm so not looking forward to cycling home in this heat...

Anyway, hope everybody is fine, greez'n kisses Jani

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