Anaconda 3 and I'm not talking about the snake!

So we have just returned from a 3 day/3 night boating extravaganza on a yacht called the Anaconda 3 and it was in a word...spectacular. After our harrowing dive on the Yongala in a tiny boat rendering us both sea sick and vomitous, this was a well deserved change from the puke! We had our own cabin...it was as tiny as an ants nest, but air conditioned and after spending a few weeks in a sweaty, stinky (yes, it does get very stinky...like BO, feet, sweet cheap food products and Tiger Balm mixed together just to clarify for Jill) tent on top of the Jucy van, the air conditioned room and that coupled with the ever gentle rocking of a ship at sea, we slept like little babies for the most part. We were also fed like kings and you know who was always at the front of the line with that meal bell rang...me and Al...and then again who was at the front of the line with we were allowed to get seconds...that would be me and Al again. Were we ashamed you might ask...were we heck! We were getting in there, as fresh salad, cheese with crackers and crudites, fruit cocktail crumble, roast beef, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes far out do the ramen noodle feast medley we have been devouring the past few weeks so we figured we should stock up accordingly...and so we did! The 3 days were spent as follows...wake up at 6:55am to ensure our first crack at breakfast served promptly at 7:00am, then get into our wetsuits...a hugely humiliating experience for anyone who is not Alex's shape and size (so that would be me), or anyone who gets sweaty quickly (so that would be me again), or anyone who has any sort of finger or hand injury (and again, me, as I was the one and only passenger who got bit by a fish...of course). So, needless to say, I did not enjoy the putting-on-of-the-wetsuit activity and therefore stayed in that bitch all day long sweating like an animal...a very sweaty animal. After the wetsuit dalliance, (oh, you have to wear them, as it is stinger season and you don't want to get stung by a jellyfish, as my mother can attest to) you either jump straight into an open ocean to snorkel and swim around, or you are taken in a tender (a little boat with a motor to rally around from place to place in) to the beach where you can go on a little hike or lay out or go for a run (guess who did that with me trailing behind), or go snorkelling...and let me tell you something...snorkelling in the Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef is unmatched the world over! The water is like a million shades of blue and green and the sand is powder white...it never gets hot and it screeches as you walk across it, as it such a fine soft powder-like consistency. There were other beaches which were covered with shells and coral and that made up the beachfront...this was a tiny bit painful to walk on, but gorgeous nonetheless. After a few hours of snorkelling, you have the option of going on a scuba dive (there were 7 total, including a night dive) and again, the diving around the Whitsunday islands and the Great Barrier Reef offers inexplicable beauty that is hard to match in the world. Alex and I decided to spend as much time being active and partaking in all of the different water activities possible so we indulged in 2 dives, one around the Great Barrier Reef and let me tell you that the sea life is about triple the size of those creatures dwelling in Thailand, where we were certified and we also decided to go on a night dive, which are our favourites because it is as if you are diving in a whole new ocean. Creatures of unimaginable size and shape and colour come out when the sun goes down...we saw 7 turtles the size of horses down below...one called Big Mama, as she is over 150 year old. I cannot explain how tiny you feel when you rock up to a giant turtle resting comfortable beneath a coral ledge...imagine being in a pitch black ocean with a tiny flashlight, you delicately navigate yourself under, through, over various coral reefs working hard to balance and maintain your stillness and buoyancy in order to float motionless peering at a 400 pound turtle. You are on their turf, they know this ocean and you are merely a teeny tiny visitor...we were also accompanied by Travellies the entire night dive, as they love to use our flashlights as a guide to find those sneaky little fish that are hiding out amongst the nooks and crannies of the coral. The Travellies then slam themselves into the coral to eat these little guys so you kind of feel guilty for causing so many baby fish murders. What a rush it is...we also saw a giant sea snake...yes, just as scary as a land snake, but so much more colourful and amazing for some reason. Al and I also spent our time throwing our Pound-Store Frisbee around, jogging, applying massive amounts of sunblock, doing a bomb competition of which I won and hiking around. There was a lot of down time to relax in the shade on the boat and read or just gaze and the crystal clear aquamarine coloured water and feed some of the Batfish and Travellies, as well as the Maori Wrasses, which as these large (I'm talking large here people) fish with giant lips that resemble either someone who has lip implants or Mick Jagger. The brownish ones are female and the blue-green giant ones are male. When the male dies, the most dominant female turns into a male and changes colour and size...how cool is that. Well, this was the fish that bit my finger off when I was feeding it bread, but I will have you know that the Skipper gave me the bread and ensured me that they wouldn't bite...and they didn't bite anyone else...just me. We spent a lot of time jumping from the boat into the water below (and the dozens of large fish hanging out around below) doing dives and cheerleading jumps (you know I did a Texas T with major pride and only a small groin pull) and bombs...what a rush to jump from a boat into the open water where you can literally see nothing but open water for days. The nights were also a special time on the boat, as there were almost no clouds in the sky and you can see every single star twinkling away up there. I can only really identify the dippers, but the ship crew were amazing in their knowledge of the stars and the sea and it is amazing how much they depend on each other. The wind was cool...sometimes a bit chilly...and you could lay near the bow just looking up and trying to count them all, losing count after about 7,459 of them. Al and I were talking about how people can purchase a star for someone and then they can name it as well. Wouldn't that be shit if they really only sell the same star to everyone and all these people out there think they have this namesake star, but really everyone has the same one? This was just one of the many fascinating topics Alex and I pondered during our 3 days of bliss. The people was also really cool...it took about 2 days to warm up, but by the third we had made some really good friends. Even the Canadians were acceptable so that is saying a lot. We met these two Canadians, Tracy and Brandon and they were both raised on farms in Saskatchewan, Canada and work with farmers for a living by helping them produce the best crop possible. Very interesting work and they were both lovely and friendly...despite being Canadian :) We also met a couple who live in Norway, Arna and Craig. Arna is Norwegian and Craig is Australian. They kept to themselves, but we were lucky enough to spend our last night on the boat talking with them for about 4 hours. They are both fascinating people. Arna has 3 siblings who were adopted in India and they had both travelled there so we swapped our horror and beauty stories of the country and that was a lot of fun...everyone who has ever travelled to India has both horror and beauty stories. Craig has his PhD, which is awesome, as he is only 33 and I was very excited to ask him loads of questions about that process, as I am interested in working towards mine. They also LOVED hearing all the stories Alex has about the children with special needs that she works with, as there are just so many and they are funny. Of course Alex's favourite is the one in which Pam**name has been changed for privacy reasons** removed my glove in the middle of a cold winter's day when I saw them in the park and proceeded to beat me with it about the face and followed this up with a victory lap around the park. It was another sad and humiliating day in the life of Mel. Overall, this Anaconda yacht trip gets a big 2 thumbs up from Mel and Al and we would go again tomorrow, but only after we take a shower, as you have to conserve water on the boat and are only allowed one, 1 minute shower per day with no shampoo so we are pinging at this very moment, but we felt it was more important to blog and email than to shower, plus we want to go for a run on this very hot day around Airlie Beach...well, Alex wants to go for a run and I am going to piggy back on her motivation and push through my sweat mustache to smile.