June 15th...

We were up bright and breezy, lemon-squeezy because we had eventually managed to find a date when we could go out on Crafty Jane and Mark's boat.  It is a lovely boat and we had had such a nice time when we had gone with them previously.  I was putting food together for a picnic and John was getting all the swimming and snorkeling gear ready.  John had asked if he could have a go water ski-ing so Jane and Mark were making sure they had the equipment on board.

When we got up at 7.00am it was as black as your hat and misty outside - John couldn't tell if there were any white horses because he couldn't actually see the coastline from our house - deep joy - it looked like we were going to have to postpone it.  I said to John that we would go as I had prepared the picnic so we could find somewhere to eat it!

We got down to the slipway a little bit early and went for a wander around to take some photographs.  Fortunately by this time the weather was beginning to clear and it looked like we were going to be lucky and have a reasonable trip!

This was the slipway where we had met with Jane and Mark the last time we had gone out and what we should have realised was that they were waiting at the other slipway because this is the one that they would normally use and had only used the other one when they were doing work on the marina!!  Jane realised the mistake and gave us a call and we were soon reunited!  The boat was already in the water and the Springate's ready to go!!

We made our way along the coast to about the Anassa where the water was deemed reasonably flat enough for some water ski-ing.  Jane paved the way showing John what he should be aiming for - mind you she and Mark ski on a single ski and John was going to be starting out with two skis.

Jane makes it look easy - she seems to be very confident on the water and was busy skipping across the water, weaving from side to side and waving at us!

Then it was John's turn - he had tried many years before and I think he said he managed to get to an upright position but that was about it so today he was determined.  He had a few abortive attempts getting upright but then -  WIPEOUT so Mark got into the water to make sure that John had his hand and feet and body positioned correctly and then left him to it and VIOLA he got up, stayed up and managed to ski for quite some time - I managed to get several minutes on video and John was soooo chuffed.  He will probably pay for it tomorrow when everything will ache!

We moved on to the bit of coast that Jane and Mark call Kingfisher Bay and stopped to snorkel.  It was stunning - all the clouds had gone and the sea and sky were the most brilliant colour.  The sea was clear and there were only two other small boats in the cove to keep us company.  We realised that we should have brought our underwater camera with us when we saw so many different fishes.

We stayed a while in the bay, swimming, snorkeling, laughing, sunbathing, swimming, snorkeling, laughing, sunbathing - get the picture before we all got a little peckish and Jane said she wanted to go round to the Blue Lagoon and moor up there to eat.

Blue Lagoon is beautiful and was particularly so today!  The boat that Jane and Mark have allowed us to go close into the beach and we moored up and unpacked the picnic.  Jane had made some savoury muffins and I had made a salad and we had prawns and chicken pieces and carrot and halloumi fritters and some savoury Lebanese flat breads - which we followed with fresh fruit.  The lagoon started to get quite full with a mix of private boats and the tour boats.  We were interested to see Chris from C&A apartments with a party of people with disabilities enjoying the water - we are hoping that maybe we can do a trip with John's family when they are here.

Those with a nervous disposition should take care when they see the next photograph...

We were busy enjoying our lunch when we spotted a young couple make their way down to the beach and then - TAKE ALL THEIR CLOTHES OFF!!!

They were clearly comfortable in their own skins and the girl ran into the sea and turned her back to us so that her partner could stand on the beach facing us in all his glory taking her photograph.  I didn't dare take a snap at that point so just took a sneaky when his back was turned!!!

We made our way back to Latchi having had a really brilliant day.  It is incredible how tiring it is to be out in the sun and wind all day and we had underestimated just how much sun we had caught!  John and I collapsed in a heap once we had packed everything away!