Sunday, March 1^st 2020

Airlie Beach, Whitsunday Islands

Today was the day I had been looking forward to for years – today we are snorkeling at the Barrier Reef, how totally cool is that!

I LOVE snorkeling, and our best holidays have always involved a snorkeling adventure of some kind or another, but I have always thought nothing would beat snorkeling on the barrier reef!

We decided to go with the ships tour as organizing a private one seemed too complicated, and I am glad we did.

We anchored quite a way from Airlie Beach, but we didn’t have to worry about a tender ride there as the tour catamaran picked us up right from the ship.

It was about a 2 hour ride to the pontoon, and we sat on the top deck of the boat and watched us motor thought the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. There was no shade up there, but it wasn’t too hot or sunny, and in fact we were cooled off by a couple of passing squalls.

There were bathrooms on board (so you could change if needed), they served us fruit to nibble on, and there was also a concession stand so we could keep well hydrated.

Finally we arrived at the pontoon. We all piled off the boat and onto the pontoon to choose our snorkeling gear and stinger suits. Now I had never met a stinger suit before, but I thought they were a really good idea. They are sort of full body Lycra swimsuits that literally cover you from head to toe – including mittens for your hands. The idea, I think, is to protect you from jellyfish and UV rays, so that seemed like a good idea. However, they are not attractive on everyone, especially those of us who are not as tall and thin as we would like to be. They are very unforgiving, and alas, they make you look like a Teletubby.

We picked out our fins and Brian chose a mask (due to extreme myopia I travel with my own one with prescription lenses), and off we went into the warm deep blue waters, and there we were, snorkeling on the Barrier Reef, wow!

It was really beautiful, loads of intricate corals, brightly colored fish, and good visibility. Everything I had dreamed of.

Brian and I always stay close to each other when snorkeling so I grabbed on to him, only to scare a poor man who clearly wasn’t Brian.

Then I realized there was a challenge. I usually recognize Brian by his bright blue swim trunks, yellow mask, and red fins when we are snorkeling. However today, everyone was wearing the black stinger suits, they all had yellow masks, and 80% seemed to have blue fins. I thought it would be intrusive to grab onto every passing swimmer until I located Brian, but I didn’t like not being with him.

Luckily Brian located me, so looking very Teletubby like, we could paddle off hand in hand and not lose each other again.

We were quite a distance from the pontoon when we heard someone yelling ‘rescue, rescue!’, and saw someone being pulled out of the water and onto the pontoon. The staff seemed to be taking care of things so we snorkeled on, marveling at the sights below us.

A delicious buffet lunch was served on the catamaran, and then we went for a ride in the semi submersible boat they had there. It was just like the Nautilus in Disneyland, except it was real, and we traveled along the edge of the reef getting a great view of the coral and the fishes. It was great fun.

There was also beginner scuba on offer, but having been warned not to leave valuables on board the catamaran, we had only brought small change for drinks, and didn’t have our credit card with us, so we had to give that a miss.

Then we eased our bodies into our wet stinger suits (not a pleasant experience) and headed back into the water for one long last snorkel.

All too soon, we were told that we needed to get out of the water as it was time to head back to the ship. We waved goodbye to our fishy friends, dried off, and settled back into our seats on the top deck of the catamaran for our two hour ride back to Queen Mary 2.

Brian and I agreed that it was really not the best snorkeling we had done, and being surrounded by so many other snorkelers was a bit of a challenge. However, we had had a fantastic day, and we were tired but happy.

My happiness did not last.

When we got back to the ship I called a friend to talk with her about our tour in Brisbane, and she let me know that her husband had died while snorkeling on the Barrier Reef this afternoon.

Whilst Brian and I were gliding over the beautiful scene in the water below us, feeling that we live in a wonderful world, Bill passed away. It had been such a perfect day. To lose him seemed so incredibly unreal. It was just wrong. It had to be a mistake.

Sadly, it was real. Bill was an amazing human being, always smiling, always upbeat, always something good to say. And he was another huge fan of the Commodore Club. I could not face going back there. It is so hard to accept the fact that he has gone.