Back to the reef

It would be very easy here to just slip into totally lazy holiday mode, run beforehand and a bit of walk after breakfast, beer at lunchtime and a nice swim in the pool before a Jacuzzi bath and dinner, but there is so much to see and do we just keep on booking more exciting trips in an effort to pack it all in.
After a chilled out Saturday we booked a second reef trip for Sunday, this time on a sailing catamaran to the Low Isles, which are just 15km out from Port Douglas. It was incredibly windy which made for a very fine sail and an exciting ride – fortunately for us we have very strong constitutions when it comes to rough seas. It also meant that the large contingent who were due to join the boat from a cruise ship were unable to come as the captain felt the tenders which would have brought them to shore would be unsafe in the conditions. A shame for them but it meant we had the boat almost to ourselves, apart from a family of very large Liverpudlians and a group of Chinese who were making a promotional film about North Queensland. The star of the film is apparently the most famous person in China and even bigger than Justin Bieber but I’m afraid that not being on top of Chinese teenage pop idols the awe inspiring nature of our fellow passenger was lost on me!
I decided to take the guided snorkelling tour with Erica, the on board marine biologist, whilst John stick to the glass bottom boat tour. So it was back into the lovely, lycra stinger suit and on the small tender to the island where we snorkelled from the beach. Unfortunately the wind, which had given us such a nice ride, had stirred up the water so visibility was very poor, you could only really see the reef by diving down and it was hard work swimming against the waves and the current. John had much the same experience in the glass bottom boat. After lunch we took the tender to the small island and took the guided walking tour around it as the tide was going out which was lovely. We saw a pair of Ospreys watching us from the top of the lighthouse and a shark cruising the reef. Apparently it gets pretty crowded on the island in peak season so we were lucky to see it in a fairly deserted state as it certainly wasn’t very big.
Another exciting ride back and we were in port and washing the salt off in our huge bath. Our air conditioning unit decided to give up which made it very sticky and hot. As the hotel was not too busy Phil gave us the key to the next door room so we could get a decent night's sleep. They managed to come and fix it the very next day which was impressive – our dishwasher in Manchester gave out in October and, despite 2 visits from an engineer, it’s still not working!