Michelle's visit Part 2
25 June 2011 | Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Manjula
Our trip was off to a great start. The sailing gods had decided Michelle should have a well-rounded experience and it became quite a sailing adventure. Our second day of sailing saw some of the roughest water and windiest conditions Steve and I have ever sailed in. I was sure Michelle would be frightened and seasick. (I was.) I have a mental photograph of Michelle seated in the cockpit with angry green, roiling, steep and white capped waves breaking just behind her head, with the roar of Endless Summer, pitching and crashing into the waves, and Michelle calm and happy as a clam saying, �"This is great!!!�" Bear in mind that Michelle had thought she might need Dramamine to sleep on the boat in our slip at the marina.
Oddly we had the same experience as with Kurt and Candie, that the conditions were not calm enough to get to the Great Barrier Reef until the last couple days of the trip. So we spent the next five days exploring the islands- four anchorages in five days. One of the main draws for Michelle to come to Australia was to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef. Michelle had been certified in Hawaii a long time ago and hadn�'t been diving for nearly fifteen years. Steve is also a scuba diver, but before Kurt and Candie�'s arrival also had not done a dive for around ten years. And I had only been scuba diving once, fifteen years ago, with a half hour of instruction, uncertified, and well�...a serious beginner. So the three of us were quite a team. I won�'t say the blind leading the blind because Steve got a few refresher dives in with Kurt who is very experienced, as all Reef Police must be. And Steve is a natural with mechanical stuff and being in the ocean. Plus he�'s a great teacher. (I won�'t even describe how we managed to rent scuba gear under these conditions, but let it suffice to say gifts to the dive shop owner were involved.) So Michelle and I had our scuba training with Steve in the beautiful Butterfly Bay, and thankfully the weather settled just enough to allow us to sail to Bait Reef once again, the next day.
Bait Reef was magical, and we had it to ourselves. Though we chose a slightly different location, we were greeted again by the stunning and enormous Humphead Maori Wrasse, or possibly his twin brother. The rainy weather conditions were not ideal, but we were determined to dive and we had an incredible time. Michelle and I got very comfortable diving after a short while and were able to thoroughly enjoy the landscape of layered corals, gold and blue staghorn, plate, brain, and massive ochre colored coral, bizarre sponges and delicate, plant-like soft corals. Scuba diving, we could linger long enough to enjoy the ubiquitous reef fish- each an intricate masterwork of design.
An easy sunset sail back to Airlie on the mainland, and Michelle was away the next day. It was unforgettable and we thank all of our guests for joining us and allowing us to slow down and really savor where we are.