Passions of Paradise- Great Barrier Reef Cruise

Friday morning was an early one, but it was so worth it. We boarded the Passions of Paradise boat around 8am for a full day adventure. We had about a 2 hour ride out to Michaelmas Cay where we had the opportunity to snorkel and scuba dive. I was in the first group to go scuba diving, so we started getting ready before we dropped anchor. We finally got to jump in once our gear was secured and we had some practice dry runs using it. Once in the water, we had a quick 5 minute lesson before agreeing to pay for the full dive. There were four of us linked up to each other and our dive master, Lance. When we reached the ocean floor,about 6-8 meters deep, we unlinked arms and were free to swim around on our own (but not too far from Lance). We saw a clown fish swimming around his anemone and also a giant clam; no turtles, sharks, or other cool things though =(. After scuba diving for about an hour, we swam back up to the surface to get ready for snorkeling. There wasn't too much to see at this location, so I didn't stay in the water for too long. As we headed to Paradise Reef for the afternoon portion of the tour, we had a great meal on board. We docked at Paradise Reef, and Brina, Brittanie P., and I jumped right in with our snorkeling gear. There seemed to be a lot more at this site. We saw a bunch of unicorn fish, a family of four squids, a cleaner wrasse station, and all different types of coral. We ended up staying in the water the entire time we were there, and when we got called back in all three of us got wicked bad charlie horses in our legs. It was an interesting swim back, but we finally made it. All of the crew members on board were awesome and took some time to talk with us on a more personal level. I had a great day and I can't wait to get Scuba certified so I can come back here some day <3.