A very early morning today - the bus picked us up at 7.15. The boat was nice and big and they even had biscuits waiting for us, which is a good start. There was also a large crew for only 30 passengers. Another guy was on board making a promotional video for the company.

We set off and it was a nice, leisurely pace, lots of sunshine, very warm, but windy on the deck and the nets between the hulls of the catermaran. We filled out diving forms and after about two hours we got our equipment together (slightly damp wetsuits too) and jumped off the edge of the boat.

After using up all the film in the underwater camera yesterday, we carefully put a new film in it and hoped that it wouldn't leak. We were very lucky, although I won't know how the pictures turn out until tomorrow. The water was cool and I was shivering immediately, and while there wasn't a huge abundance of fish, there were more types of coral than I've ever seen. And so much of it too, even coral growing on other coral! It was very beautiful, the water was calm, and it was a nice dive.

Back on the boat I warmed up in the sun for a bit, and then we had a big lunch. An uncomfortably short time after lunch we were back in the water, although Mikey stayed back to take photos. The visiblity on this dive was worse than before, only about 15 feet, but again the coral was superb. I hope the photos come out! The little tender towed us back to the big boat, and we were dragged through the water which was quite fun.

More sunbathing to warm up, cheese, fruit and cake for tea, and more lying around reading as they put the sails up. The camera man got a great ride in a little sling to take him to the top of the mast, and I think there will be some photos of us on their website. I'll give them a week or so and then have a look. I finally finished my book, I've been struggling with it for weeks, and we've found a book exchange in town so we can visit there tomorrow. The crew gave a drunk guy a bottle of champagne for his birthday (and he shook it up and drank it) and we all posed for a group photo for the website.

Back on dry land, we checked into a new room (same cool kiwi room mate as before) and had very satisfying showers. Then, after supper we did a load of washing to get rid of all the salt, and now I'm going to bed.