Feb 13, 2026: Cairns, Australia

Another wonderful day of snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. Yesterday I went to the inner reef, today I went to the outer reef.

This time there were probably 120 of us and we took the tender to the shore, then walked down to the pier and boarded the boat. About 30 minutes later we docked at a pontoon- in the middle of nowhere- that was setup for snorkeling. They had an area for snorkeling roped off that was over a reef. They also provided a mask, fins, snorkels, ‘sting suit’ and lunch.

We had more good weather and It was another wonderful snorkel- lots of colorful coral, many more species of fish than yesterday. Since there were so many people on the catamaran we didn’t have a very good seat on the catamaran on the way to the pontoon and it took longer to get all our equipment. Therefore I wasn’t convinced that the snorkeling would be good but it was wonderful.

It was also nice because Jennifer went too.

Hot and humid weather today
We are all walking to the catamaran from our ship. Some of these folks had been waiting in the hot sun for awhile before we were told it was time to walk to the catamaran- it was a pretty short walk but plenty warm
Diane and Jennifer snorkeling
snorkel area from the pontoon boat
Enjoyed watching this turtle. At one point it looked like it was eating the coral
Evening clouds after we got back from snorkeling