Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef!

This one has been on my bucket list since I was a teenager, before the term had even been coined.  Technically I should check it off, but the reality is that it only whetted my appetite for more!  Taking a break on the beach yesterday I was giving thought to getting a scuba certification when I get back home.  Whether I do it or not remains to be seen, but I had a great time seeing all the varieties of hard and soft coral, fish, and other assorted marine life.  I am discovering sore muscles this morning that I haven't been using in a very long time, and I have some sunburn on the backs of my legs, neck, and ears.  A small price to pay for an experience of a lifetime!
The boat ride out to Michaelmas Cay was about 90 minutes, and one poor lady was seasick almost from the moment we left the dock.  I felt a bit queasy myself, but stayed out on the deck watching the horizon.  The wind was not my friend, though, and I was getting diesel fumes almost the entire way.  I think that contributed quite a lot to my queasiness.  The boat ride back was even rougher, and the same lady was sick again, but I coped better by standing most of the way, holding on to a support post and letting my legs act as shock absorbers, effectively keeping my inner ear and equilibrium much more stable than the boat.  The wind was also working in my favor, blowing the fumes away behind us instead of back at us.
Anyway, back to the snorkeling.  That was one time I thought contact lenses would be a wonderful thing, because I would have been able to see everything in more detail, but I still had a terrific experience.  There were so many varieties of coral, from huge brain shaped mounds, to flat ones that looked like scales, hard spiky ones, and the soft versions that  swayed in the current like grass in the wind.  It would be impossible to pick a favorite type, but the spiky ones with blue tips were very cool.  I saw the giant clams too, some live and eating by moving water in and out of their orifices, and some that were just the shell of long dead mollusks.  Just like something on TV!
There was a huge variety of fish, as you can imagine.  The longest I saw was probably 16-18 inches long, and the smallest looked like something you would buy to put in a small aquarium.  The colors ranged from pitch black to the whitest white, with just about every conceivable combination in between, and the markings were spectacular.  I noticed a few small starfish here and there, and none of them were bigger than the palm of my hand.
I saw one sea turtle and hung out with him for a few minutes.  That was cool!  We were both just kind of checking each other out.  I positioned myself so the current was pushing me away from him, and I just kicked lazily and intermittently to hold myself in position to just watch without approaching any closer.  After awhile he had enough and swam away.  I didn't follow so he wouldn't feel harassed, but I would have liked to hang out with him longer.
On this excursion I left my camera and phone at my accommodations.  I didn't want to take a chance on either one of them getting lost, stolen, or damaged, but I was wishing I had at least brought the phone when I went on the semi-submersible boat.  It's an enclosed boat with glass windows in the hull to allow people to get a good look without getting wet.  The crew member that was doing the narrative was very good, pointing out the different varieties of marine life we would see when snorkeling or diving.
When I got back, my hair was so windblown (and full of salt; it felt like straw), that my host insisted that I let her take a couple of pictures of me before I showered all the salt residue off, so those are the only photos I have to post today.  G'day mates!