New Life Day 7 - Sydney to Cairns

9.05am picked up by mini bus to take us to Shute Harbour to board Maxi Azure. This trip has only been operating for 2 and a half weeks and our crew were Judy and Andy who obviously had many years experience on boats although young. Judy was the diving instructor and was originally from Melbourne. She’s been in the Whitsundays for 3 years and working as an instructor for 1 year full time in the Coral Sea. The trip took us to Whitehaven Beach for lunch and then diving on Hook Island from the NE point. The weather was unfortunatley quite rough and cloudy skies. See log book for dive.

We spent a second night at the van park in a powered site using 240v to charge our car batteries, torches, video batteries, fridge, mobile phone and computer – we had five things on at once!

The amazing thing here is the possums. They are so tame they run along the ground towards you – right up to your toes while you are walking to the amenities block. They actually seem a bit scary – in the night they literally rush you to the point of bowling you up to a sudden stop. They don’t run away – they like to play, scratch tummies, have their faces patted. Very different to Sydney possums.

Eric from Sun City phoned back at 9.30am to say that the diving was off due to strong wind warnings and rough seas. Mum rang for 9mins this morning. She rang again at 7.30pm after diving re camera settings.

We ate coffee and biscuits after diving. Then corn and chicken soup with bread. Stir-fry vegies with tinned Asian tuna with vegie stir-fry packet sauce and yesterday’s sushi topped off with another coffee.