21st January 1992 Day 185

The Diary
We've been travelling for 6 months now. Beth's bus was on time so the three of us got on the courtesy bus to the Ariel Point Marina while Beth recounted tales of Fraser Island and her dodgy travelling companions. Oh-oh. On the South Star we were greeted by Ed, our skipper, and Yvonne, our deckie. 

  

The Souh Star

Our fellow passengers were Chris & Debbie from Somerset and Manchester reading Mech Eng and Pharmacy, Ian from the Royal Navy, Heidi from Canada, (I never found out if she had a Canadian flag on her bag, which seems to be obligatory for Canadian travellers), Stefanie, the cute if slightly overweight German from Stuttgart who's English was pretty good and Roswitha and Markus, the German speaking Italians from a restaurant in the Tyrol. Everyone turned out fine, Ian was a little overbearing at times and Markus and Roswitha could be a little quiet but everyone got on. Definitely no dickheads.

We sailed, or rather motored, out to a sand island and did the first of several snorkel sessions. This was the start of  "did you see...", "it was this (arms spread out wide) big". Tea, biscuits and sandwiches appeared throughout the day and were quickly devoured. We had a little bit of trouble with the engine but managed to get in some more snorkelling on the reef. Wow.

I felt quite ill in the evening due to the smell of the peanut sauce on the bbq satay sticks - definitely not seasickness - so I went to bed early without my evening meal.


2012
Some other views on Airlie Beach