Nelly and Kelly See the World: I'm On A Boat! Again!

Nelly and I just spent and amazing few days on a boat named "Matador" sailing through the Whitsunday Islands with 20 other people. Our original trip was supposed to be on a boat called "Spank Me" however that trip was cancelled due to a lack of bookings so they put us on a different trip a day later (along with paying us for an extra night's accommodation and a free scuba for the inconvenience).
We boarded in the afternoon and headed out for our 1st snorkel sight. It is currently jelly fish season here so anytime we went in the water we had to wear stinger suits. It kind of took the fun out of jumping off the boat on a whim, but better that than a sting!
This is our group on the first night which including the crew there were 3 Americans, our dive instructor from NZ, our captain and deck hand both from Australia, 2 Swiss, 2 Swedes, a Brit, our cook from France, 4 Irish, 3 Germans, a Korean, one guy from Taiwan and our favorites, 3 Mexicans.

To get to know one another the captain made everyone write their name on their left foot and their country on their right. It worked!

The next morning we were up in time for the sunrise in order to get all of the day's activities in. Luckily the sunrise was at 6:30 and not any earlier!

We then headed to Whitehaven Beach where we met up with people from other boats. This beach was picture postcard perfect (except for the fact of having to wear the stinger suits).

Has the news of all of the shark attacks in Australia made it back to the states? This one was quite scary, but luckily no one was seriously injured.

After Whitehaven Beach Nelly and I got to go scuba diving and saw some amazing coral and then we snorkeled and saw even more amazing fish. We spent the afternoon laying out on the boat before socializing on the boat that night.

The sunsets were so breathtaking.

On the 3rd day we woke bright and early again and did some more snorkeling. This was the best site of all and I felt like I was in a fish tank. They swarmed us and literally were inches from our faces. Their colors were amazing as well. There was not much wind over the three days so we didn't do much sailing, however on our way back to the marina the captain made the boys hoist the sail and we caught a bit of wind.

One of the local bars in Airlie Beach gives free beer to everyone that went on a boating trip and groups the tables by boat. The Matador had the best representation of all of the boats that had returned that day.