Diving every day

Please forgive the poor quality of the accompanying image. We transmit these images by low-bandwidth short wave radio and must be content with pictures of very low resolution.

After arriving here in the Whitsunday Islands and having an overnight rest, we have spent three quarters of an hour SCUBA diving every day since. Underwater visibility is much better on these Whitsunday reefs than it was when we visited six years ago and the beautiful coral forms and colourful fish are a treat to both the eye and the camera. In contrast to the cumbersome drysuits we wear diving in frigid northern waters, neoprene wetsuits a few millimeters thick keep us comfortable for long periods in the water.

Mary Anne mentioned our autopilot troubles on the trip down from Townsville. All that is now behind us; after substituting an onboard spare for the failing part all seems to be fine. The grammatical error I introduced on proofreading M.A's blog posting is still with us though - at least until we have some internet service again. We can post blogs from out here but we can't change them!