Sailing the Whitsundays

Just returned from an awesome 3 days on the high seas aboard the maxi sail boat Apollo. It is a previous winner of the Sydney-Hobart race but unfortunately we didn't really get to see it in action as there was very little wind. Still, that suited me down to the ground; I would swap all the wind in the world for the 3 days of sunshine we had :) We cruised around visiting beautiful beaches, snorkling in the Great Barrier Reef and doing head first pencil dives into the ocean (no matter how many times you jump from a boat it never gets boring!) Being on the ocean gave me the opportunity to get back into the diving we all enjoyed so much in Thailand. This time I chose to do a night dive with my partner in crime Mr. Woodroof. It was an incredible experience - plunging backwards into complete darkness with torch in hand was terrifying. You can literally see nothing other then the 10ft that the torch beam covers. During our night dive, we were followed by a huge cod skulking on the sea bed. These mammoth fishes often use divers lights to hunt during the night. Everytime we saw a little fish we fixed our torch lights on it. Now these fish were blissfully unaware of what was about the happen as the cod stealithy crept up through the darkness. As it approached the fringes of the torch light you could see the huge cod slowly stalking its prey in a similar fashion to a lion, completely invisible to the poor little fishy! Then when it was in striking distance the cod pounced, snapped his jaws shut with a huge boom and the fish was no more. While it was great to see nature in action I cannot help but feel a little responsible for the demise of that poor fish! :p