Boats, Snorkeling and finding Nemo!!

Aye Aye Maties!!

Our boat-Powerplay

Sorry for taking so long with posting another blog, but I am finally back from my most recent trip to the Whitsunday Islands!!! This past weekend, 10 girls along with myself heading to the Whitsunday Islands for a weekend on the waters!! We arrived to the strong winds, heavy rain and were told the Whitsunday Islands hadn't received this much rain in 75 years.....GREAT, thats just why I came here!! After taking our coach and being told by the driver, that if the rain persists the roads may flood and we would most likely be stuck here, we finally made it to our hostel that we would be spending the night in. When entering my room, I realized that I was right above the bar and it pretty much sounded like I had my own, private concert in my room, because the music was so loud, haa. After finally falling asleep, we all headed to the marina where we would then get onto our boat, Powerplay it was called, and live there for the next to days and nights. We first met the crew, Mikey (Dive instructor), Dunan (the skipper/so cute) and Natalie (the "boat mum"). We then headed out to sea and were ready for a great adventure ahead of us!! We first sailed to a couple different places and were able to go snorkeling and diving. The reef and the underwater life was absolutely amazing, I had never seen anything like it before, even though I had been to Cairns, this was different, it was so amazing the coral was so colorful and vibrant. When snorkeling, all the fish would follow me and my snorkel buddies (Meggers, Jenners and Tim) all around. They would swim right up to our masks and I even touched a few of them. It seemed as though they weren't afraid at all and were so intrigued by what was in their water!! After a day of relaxing, eating, swimming and snorkeling we all got ready for the evening. When I mean get ready for the evening, I mean taking showers that consisted of ONE MINUTE, where the shower was in the same place as the toilet and sink and we had to use the extendable hose connected to the faucet. It was pretty much the smallest/grossest thing ever, so that day I decided I could live without a shower for 2 days and let the ocean be my shower, EWW!!!  That night, we had a barbie and watched a movie in the lounge (oh, which also happened to be my bedroom as well as 7 other peoples' bedroom).
SIDE NOTE: We watched this movie called "Shark Waters" and it was an incredibly informative and emotional documentary that showed the defining of sharks that are cut off them and sold in the market to Asian countries for the use of their "shark soup." The population of sharks has decreased by 90% in the past couple years and it will continue to decrease if people continue to kill sharks for their fins. It was WAY crazy and sad to learn about that.

snorkel buddies

Well the next day I woke up around 6:45am with a sore neck and to find that I was wet because the window in the ceiling had leaked and was dripping on me all night!! GREAT! We then sailed for a couple hours and went snorkeling again!! This time, I saw so many fish that were so beautiful and I FINALLY FOUND NEMO, and his mom, dad and maybe a couple cousins, hah. I was waiting for this day to come!! When we swam over to the anemone we saw all of them swimming around it and poking their heads in and out of it, it was so amazing!! I also saw rainbow fish, parrot fish, a stupid fish (which thinks that you can't see it but you really can) and a HUGE fish with BIG Angelina Jolie type lips, hah!! After we were all done snorkeling and our hands and feet were wrinkly, Duncan sailed us over to one of the top ranked beaches and the most "eco-friendly" beach in the world called White Haven Beach. This beach has NO SAND. White Haven beach is made up of silica which is formed from tectonic plates grinding together and it felt amazing to walk on. When we arrived, the water was turquoise and we saw 10-15 sting rays and little baby sharks, AHH!! We took hundreds on funny pictures (which you will soon see on facebook) and then headed back out to sea for one last and final night :(

SUN!!

That evening, Mikey thought it would be a good idea for all of us to participate in a game on the boat and the game was to pick up a box on the floor with your mouth without using and hands and you couldn't go down on your knees (well here goes nothing). I ended up being one of the last people remaining (along with Court, Cath and Emily) to pick up a flat piece of white paper on the floor of the boat (pretty unsanitary if you think about it, haa) and it was really fun. We then had a "sausage sizzle" and ate dinner! We were all SO tired from the massive day we had earlier that we tried to watch a movie but none of us could stay awake.
It was finally the morning of of the day we had to leave and we woke up around 7 am, went snorkeling again (in the rain) and then headed back to the shore. The sun FINALLY came out for a couple hours and the whole group including myself laid out on the front  of the catamaran and tanned.
We finally arrived back at the marina, said our goodbyes to the awesome crew and 5 others including myself headed back home that night.....where I finally got a decent shower,  and I am pretty sure I looked like a bum with a rats nest of hair, who smelled like wet dog by the end of that weekend, but I didn't care it was so amazing and can't wait to return to the Whitsundays again!!!

STAY tuned.....FIJI on Friday!!! Can't wait.
xx