Sailin'

I slept well in the double bed I had to myself, until they turned on the engine at 5 am. We could sleep until 7, but it was tough with the noise and the rocking. Our first stop was Whitehaven Beach, a beautiful sand beach. After hanging out there for a couple of hours, we sailed to our next stop, a coral beach. Instead of sand, the beach is made of pieces of coral, so it hurts to walk around. Included with the cruise was a free dive, and I decided to defy the doctor and give it a go, since I was feeling pretty good. I could always just stop going down. Since I'm not certified I had to do an intro dive, which meant I had to listen to a lecture and prove I could clear my mask and take out and replace my regulator. We did this in shallow water, then swam out to where it got deeper. The instructor had my BCD so inflated it was hard to go down, but I managed about seven meters with no problems, now that I know how to equalize. It was fun, and there were lots of fish, but even though the water is aqua-colored, visibility was poor, so you couldn't see much. I'm just glad I know I can dive, though, and can't wait to get certified.

After dinner we had apple pie. Instead of being served with ice cream, pies here are served with custard, which is like melted vanilla ice cream. One of the German girls, Rachel, had never had pie before, and I had to explain the difference between cake and pie. This led to the subject of cupcakes, which always confuse non-Americans, since only we have them.