Whitsundays

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Awoken by the loud noise of the ancor being raised. It was 6:00am.

Got out of the incredibly tight bed and got dressed before climbing up onto deck.

It was cool but the sky was clear so we were in for another beautiful day.

Had Breakfast.

Before long we reached Whitsunday Island and tonge cove. We then got our gear together (beach gear, stinger suites.) then took the speed boat to the adjacent beach. Once there we took the 1km hike up the hill to a viewing point overlooking the magnificent Whitsunday beach. The sand was so white (apparently so fine its like flour) and the water incredibly turquoise. Once we had taken some photos we made the sort trip down to the beach and put our stinger suits on (head gear included). Being the first ones there we had the whole of the beach to ourselves. We got into the beautiful cristal clear waters and had a bit of swim and even saw some sting rays!
After an hour and with the beach now getting quite busy we headed back to our pick up point and then boarded the New Horizon.

Once everyone was on board we set sail again. It was now 11:00 and we had an incredibly early lunch. It was a another trully great meal.

We reached Pearl bay again before any of the other ships. This is where everyone would be diving, except myself, so I had to be content with simply snorkeling among the reefs.
Fortunatly Charlotte was in the same predicament so at least I had a Snorkel buddy.

We got on the speedboat and were "driven" to the beach. Got geared up straight away and divid right in.
I have to say that snorkeling in the great barrier reef has to be one of the trully greatest things ive done. It was so beautiful. The fish really dont give a monkeys about you. They even swim right up to you to check you out. And some were spectacular in colour (the purple tusk fish being one of my favourits) and really big. The reef them selves are awesome aswell. An underwater jungle of strange looking plants, all with unique shapes, textures and colours.

After having descovered most of the designated area and having scared the crap out of Charlotte at least once by swimming under her at break neck speed, while pretending to be a shark (I seriously did hear her yelp underwater), we then cockily decided to swim to the edge of the reef in search of turtles.
10 minutes afterwards we only went and found one! Snorkeling along I spotted what I thought was a strange shaped coral. I thought to myself, strange it looks a bit like a large.....before I could finish my thought it moved. It was a large turtle feeding off something in the reef. It must of seen us as it suddely stopped and started swimming away. We followed it for a while but then it disappeared into the deep abyss beyond the reef. It was a trully beautiful sight and I probably wouldnt have seen it if I had been able to do my 10min free diving session.

After a couple of hours we were al picked up and once again we were back on board the New horizon. We set sail for another cove.
Some people were speed boated out to the beach near by to chil out while the rest of us, with stinger suites on, decided to jump off the boat. Some of the guys (particularly the skipper) jumping off the boat were excellent, doing front flips, back flips and all sorts. I had to make do with the classic bomb dive.

after an hour or so and with everyone back on board we had probally the best dinner in months (roast beef with pasta, veg, gravey).

Afterwards we got going with some serious drinking. We played alot of drinking games (led by the skipper although he wasnt drinking much) most of which involved alot of shouting and screaming (played wild wild west and Get f#*k#d up) to annoy the other surrounding anchored ships.

All up partying and singing till 3:00 - excelent time.

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Comments

[Devs]

Sounds like an absolutely genius day.