CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

April 3, 2023 — We had another early-morning wake-up call at 6:00am, once again complete with Disney songs. I can remember hearing the theme from The Lion King and “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid. Such great morning songs.

The day started out semi-gloomy. We had breakfast in the saloon and up on deck. I had a couple bowls of cereal. The crew got all the fun stuff set up for morning water activities — they had a blow-up slide off the top deck of the boat, stand-up paddle boards, a mat, and a diving board.

We spent over an hour in the water after breakfast, swimming and enjoying. I can’t get over how clear and blue the water is — I’m not sure how far down the visibility actually is but I could see myself swimming in a wide blue expanse and that’s quite a bit better than the muddy lakes and rivers at home that I’m used to! You could see all the way to Atlantis if it weren’t so deep.

We got back on the boat when it was time to get going, dried off as much as possible, and sat out on the deck or inside to enjoy the journey back to the port of Airlie Beach. It was actually sunny (of course) and a really nice (albeit rocky and wet) trip back. It made me smile when they played the Pirates of the Caribbean theme over the speakers.

We arrived shortly after noon and filtered off the boat. We were also given bracelets for the after party if we so desired, although I’d decided against it. I was tired and still kind of disappointed about how the weather had been. I got back to the hostel after walking from the marina and I was relieved to find that I was able to check in early. I got into the room (the same one I’d had before) and dumped my stuff, put my swimsuit on, and then went and hung out by the pool while doing a load of laundry.

Some time later, I showered and put on clean clothes. I curled up in bed and vegetated for a while. For dinner, I went to the Noodle & Rice Chinese takeaway place just a couple doors down from the hostel. I got satay chicken and chicken fried rice in large enough quantities to have some for lunch the next day as well.

I watched TV with dinner and took a walk to talk to Mom and Dad since I finally had reception again. Then I headed to bed. And slept good! (For some reason, I didn’t sleep very well on the boat, even though I was expecting to since the only other time I slept on a boat was when my family had one and we took an overnight trip and I slept like the dead. So sleep was very much needed.)

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