Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me

The last few days in Australia have been incredible: I boarded a sailboat called "Kiana" on Thursday and spent the next three days diving, eating and sleeping on the open sea- specifically the Coral Sea. We (the three crew members and 14 passengers) spent most of our time in the outer Great Barrier Reef, 64 kilometers from the nearest land mass. I woke up to watch the sun rise, and watched as it set, giving way to more stars than I knew were in existence. Calling the experience spectacular barely does it justice. My fellow passengers included 3 Brazilians, 3 Canadians, a Chinese couple on their honeymoon, an Australian couple, a British couple, a Danish girl, and me. Somehow the entire group gelled and by the end, I collected everyone's email address so we could share photos of the experience...as somehow we all ended up in each other's photos.

I'll be honest, I was worried about a few things before boarding: being the only single person on a boat full of couples, getting sea sick, getting claustrophobic (not unfounded, as my bottom bunk was tiny), or ending up on some sort of party boat with a bunch of 19 year olds. Apparently, this last concern was not mine alone; J, the Danish girl, who became a good friend after we immediately clicked while bumping into each other en route to the marina to board Kiana, actually called to verify that the average age was over 25!

See why I like her?

Anyway I could go on and on about the feeling of freedom and the utter beauty of the Whitsunday islands, about the endless underwater terrain that is the reef, about its vastness and the variety of creatures that I saw- especially the dolphins. DOLPHINS CHASED OUR BOAT. It was magic.

I could go on and on, but you should just go see it for yourself. I will leave you with this: the crew took notice of my sea legs and how much I enjoyed myself, cause I got a job offer- $170 AU per day. Not bad. I told them if nothing else works out, I'll be back.