breaking the barrier

This is what I should be seeing today.

We were scheduled to stop at Airlie Beach, Queensland where we would tender for two hours one way to the Great Barrier Reef. The afternoon would then be ours to explore the reef.

With lots of fish, eels, turtles, snakes, corals to amaze us.

Well, at least for now. Before the chemistry and temperature of the seas bleach out the coral colonies and the reef become nothing more than a hazard for punching holes in the bottom of unwary boats.

Instead, this is as close as I got to the great reef today.

You can barely see the outlines of the reef as the waves break across its edges. But that is a portion of it

As is often the case with nature outings, the weather was not a good partner today. The cloud cover was welcome. The unshielded sun can be rather relentless on the reef.

But with the clouds came winds. Not large winds. But large enough to whip up the waves enough to create a hazard for boarding tenders. Even if boarding had been possible, the waves would have made snorkeling less than pleasant.

For our own safety, the captain waved us off. We are now slowly plowing the South Pacific looking for patches of sun to bronze the tan-seekers beside the pool.

Like everything in life, an opportunity missed is merely a chance to have a greater adventure. Nancy, Sophie, Roy, and I elected to have our excursion tickets switched over to another go at the reef during our Cairns stop -- two days from now.

And rather than play tan god, I am going to write to you and then catch up on my backlog reading of The Economist and National Review.

Flexibility is a traveler's best companion.