Our last day of our sailing trip... it was bittersweet, knowing that it'd be some time before I had the chance to enjoy being on a sail boat of this size again.
We had a great surprise as we cruised to our last snorkel stop – with a whale surfacing about 200 meters away...
Then it was the best snorkel stop of the trip, with seriously varied and complex coral formations.
As we suited up, Josh and Cat saw that the couple of sea eagles that called this bay home were around, so they threw a bacon-wrapped onion into the water, where it floated about 25 meters away...
… the eagles were pretty used to sail boats, and one swooped in and grabbed it in a flash. What made it even more amazing is that eagles' feathers aren't waterproof, so if they even slightly misjudge the dive, they would be stuck on the water and forever unable to fly away.
Once we got in the water, I almost got lost, which is pretty funny if you think about it. The water was clear and shallow, only about 10 to 20 feet deep, but as you got going among the winding coral alleys, if you wanted to turn around, it was occasionally a very tight fit. You can't go up and over, as the razor sharp coral reached near the surface, so it was the snorkelling equivalent of a five point turn... very, very carefully.
Finally, it was time to head back to Airlie Beach, mostly under full sail and no motor. It was sad to leave, but all in all, three days was just about the right time to experience that – still a novel treat, without it getting even tinged by becoming routine.
Here's the route for the trip:
...and a pic of how we generally spent our time, when the boat was underway...
The rest of the afternoon was spent in the resort town of Airlie Beach, and then it was time for a 12 hour bus ride down the coast, to our launch point for Frasier Island in the morning!
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