Ahoy!

Last weekend, I spent three days sailing the Great Barrier Reef on a boat named "Wings".  I was able to snorkel and see different parts of the reef along with the accompanying variety of coral, fish, and crustaceans.  One time I spent a full hour longer than everyone else on the boat out swimming and diving and looking at fish; I almost was left behind!  I guess I was just mesmerized by the fish that I was seeing.  Unlike in other places I have been, the Great Barrier Reef fish seem confident and not at all scared of a human presence.  Fish were swimming all around me as if to boast their colours.  The coral and plants below swayed with the tide.  I even spotted a sea turtle that swam right up to my goggles and surfaced for air right beside me.  ...The ocean is really something magical.  Being out on the ocean for days on end felt like an entirely different lifestyle.  You live without shoes and you let the salt in the air fill your lungs and settle in your hair and on your skin.  Towards the end of the trip our boat hit rough weather with waves that passed over the windows and flowed across the decks.  The captain was sipping rum and the passengers were getting seasick.  I was loving every moment of it though.  As the boat tossed about, I kept wondering what it would be like to live in a boat on the ocean.  The sun eventually made its way back through the storm clouds and as it beat back down on my skin, I couldn't help but fall in love with the ocean.  A life-long romance, I'm afraid.  I think for the rest of my life I'll be trying to find my way back to the ocean.