Cairns Snorkeling

Snorkeling out of Cairns

At least it is not raining. Still it is a bit windy and the sea will not be flat. The desk clerk gives us a ride to dive central where we check in at 7:30. The Passions of Paradise is a maxi catamaran.

We speed out to Michaelmas Cay where we are driven onto the beach in a glass bottomed boat.

The waves are enough to tumble me around as I struggle with my flippers. Lots of birds live on this cay and you are only allowed on the beach in a roped off area, so you don't bother the birds.

It is hard to stay with a partner and I lose William as I finally manage to get out of the beach zone and head out over the reef.

William takes some lovely pictures and I remember some of the same coral animals.

I swim back to the boat while William heads back to shore. I make sure that he gets the message that I am on the boat.

After a nice lunch we head to Paradise Reef. The water is too rough for the Bakers. We decide not to go in. Even some of the younger set come out quickly saying it was too rough. We hear the water is quiet off Bali. Maybe we will snorkel there someday.

There are people from everywhere on the boat. We meet Irish and people from Northern Ireland, Germans and a sizable group of French who are making a documentary of their travels.

William makes friends with all of the staff. They decide he looks just like an actor, Ron Perlman? So they comp him drinks.

The sail is up for the trip back to the harbor.

One of the staff gives me a card good for a $5 pizza at a nearby pizza bar. Sounds good to me, so we find it and order pizza and beer. They put strange combos on vegi pizza here. Red onions, black olives, red peppers (which they call capsicum), spinach and pineapple. Pineapple, really? A strange young man buys William a beer and sits and chats with us for a while in an incoherent manner. Never really did figure him out. Time to walk back to the hotel. We need to get ready to fly to New Zealand tomorrow.