Day
Ten - Rough Waters and a Dancing Fool
The meals on the Santa Maria were excellent and plentiful.
I doubt I've ever eaten so much in a two-day period. Breakfast this
day was no exception. We were served an assortment of fresh fruit, yoghurt,
granola, salmon and eggs. I was offered some vegemite
for my bread and I figured since I was in Oz, I should give it a go.
It was the most awful thing I've tasted in quite a while, if not forever.
I was told the people of Australia can become sort of addicted to it.
I'm confident I'm at no such risk.
We snorkeled as a group for a good while and then
Amanda and I were called in for another dive. It was another incredible
experience. We saw some giant clams, dog-faced puffers, and loads of
clown fish, including some purple ones.
After lunch, the crew recruited me to help hoist the
sails. It's quite a bit of work, which was being hastened by an oncoming
storm. The high winds provided good sailing speed and I was enjoying
bouncing around the rough waters. The waves were getting bigger and
bigger and it was highly entertaining for me. Not so much for Amanda,
who kept telling me we were going to tip over and poor Jessica, who
was having a rough go with the seasickness. After 4 hours on the rough
waters, we were back at the docks and saying our goodbyes.
I found a decent hotel and took a much needed shower.
I found some excellent prawn fajitas at a well-hidden place call Fiesta
Cantina, though the margarita was quite disappointing.
Back on the boat, Amanda and I had discussed possibly
meeting up later at PJ's. It was getting to be about that time, so I
walked over, and sure enough, she was sitting at a table. We enjoyed
several pints and talked about travel, hockey, life and such. She was
very interesting and had visited so many unique places. She also had quite a flair
for storytelling.
We left PJ's and ended up at a place called The Wool
Shed. It was sort of a cheesy college/tourist type bar, with all sorts
of bad dance music. It seemed the thing to do was to dance on the table-tops
and sure enough, Amanda hopped right up and signaled for me to join
her. I obliged and we enjoyed being the dancing fools for the rest of
the evening.
Day
Eleven