Snorkelling with Seastar

We checked-in at the Seastar boat in the Cairns marina at 7.30 am and after a quick safety talk were off across the coral sea to another of the outer reefs of the Great Barrier reef system, Michaelmas Cay and Hastings reef. There were 35 of us on board a catamaran and we made fairly good time across the rough seas to our first stop, Michaelmas Cay. It was a nasty trip for anyone who succumbed to sea sickness, which fortunately didn't include any of the Davidsons. This Cay is made up of millions of years of dead coral building up to make a small sand island in the middle of the sea. It is home to thousands of sea birds, many of them only calling in at nesting time, otherwise the rest of the year is spent at sea. The reef was a few metres off the sandy beach and we spent 2 hours here exploring. After seeing some great reef life we headed back to the boat for some lunch then motored off to Hastings Reef which was a bit closer to the open water. Here Dad did a scuba dive while Mum and the kids listened (with Rosa as guest presenter) to a talk on the local reef system. We spent another 2 hours in the water chasing white tip reef sharks, teasing Nemos and seeing hundreds of beautiful fish among the coral gardens. Ed, Rosa and Tom were great at snorkelling and we were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived back in Cairns after a full day in the water.