I had another one of them so called lie ins this morning, although I was forced out of bed by the sunlight this morning as the hatch was left open all night. It was nice to have some air circulating in the lower deck though as I felt a little seasick down there when first going down there because the heat, probably caused by so many people being on what was really a small boat. When emerging from the lower deck our neighbouring boat was into the full flow of activities with an inflatable water slide amongst the activities at just half 7 in the morning! It made my boat look bad, although the Apollo which I was on is an old race boat.
Breakfast this morning was bacon, scrambled eggs, beans and bread, another cracking effort by our chef who deserves credit for keeping so many people with big appetites happy. We sailed off early this morning, the plan being to stop on the small Langford Island for the morning, before sailing back to Airlie Beach early afternoon. We soon arrived at Langford Island which was a small island connected to this large sand spit at low tide. It was nearby the five star resort we saw the other night, which apparently was used by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie recently. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers even stayed there once, and were kicked off for going into the restaurant for wearing just ties after being sent away for not wearing ties previously!
When getting transferred to the island, seeing the odd turtle, I unlike the others walked along the stony sand spit before the tide separated the sand island from the main island. Whilst doing this however I hit my large toe on a rock which had a blister, creating a lot of blood! When at the the other end of the spit which was fascinating seeing two different tides meet in the middle, I got in the water to snorkel back to the others.
Despite there being a strong current, the sunlight really made an impressive array of corals illuminating these yellow and green corals amongst the predominantly brown corals. There were also more blue and purple corals. In terms of fish there so many fish which were just unique with amazing colours and patterns. I like following a fish through the water. I was most impressed however by this massive group of grey fish which was quite daunting being above but just amazing seeing the sheer quantity of the fish!
After a while traversing through the warm waters I went back to shore, looking at the flappy bit of skin from my toe. I tried to ignore our captains comments on the first day about the salty waters here being bad for cuts. A short while later we were transported back to the main boat, seeing more turtles en route. It was disappointing not to see one whilst snorkelling though.
Shortly after boarding the boat we started sailing for home, and after a quick rain shower through the really windy channel we drifted through this sheltered area for lunch. Lunch today consisted of ham, rolls, rice and salad. The thing I like about these meals is that when I cater for myself the the components to the meal are limited, but here I get variety. It wasn't long before we re-entered the main channel which meant our captain put up the sail to catch the strong winds and gain some real speed. We passed this big cruise ship en route which was docked to transfer people to shore. We even got the ship to beep at our boat!
By about half 2 we returned back into the marina at Airlie Beach and after a quick evaluation form and goodbye I put on some footwear for the first time in three days to head back to the hostel. I think the bare feet did me good though. After checking into the hostel I maintained my philosophy that internet was more important than a much needed shower, although before long I was up to date with everything and relaxed in the hostel for the afternoon.
Come the evening I met up with some people from the trip at Beaches Bar, taking advantage of my $6.50 for a meal and drink deal as I was staying at Beaches hostel. I had the "kick ass" burger and chips, a greasy meal which did me good. After spending the evening with the group, I left them before they went clubbing, going back to my room via the local nightowl store for some freddos. I needed to try the peppermint and 100s/1000s ones! After a while in my room relaxing I eventually put my head down in the hope of catching the England game tomorrow!
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