Great Barrier Reef- Cairns Day 2

Snorkelling was ridiculously cool! We sailed out for 2 hours until we got near the Green Island and in the center of the reef. It was gorgeous! We got our flippers & goggles on and jumped right in. The water was warmer than sitting on the boat because it was so windy. There was sooo much reef, all different kinds it was crazy to actually see. We were swimming around and saw tons of huge fish and swam through little schools of small bright fish. Everyone swam off and I'm of course in my own little world with my head in the water so oblivious to my surroundings and hey what do you know... a reef shark is about 6 feet away from me, then 5, then 4, then 3 and then I brought my head out of water. I figured if I can't see it, it can't hurt me haha. I couldn't see Katelyn so she didn't get to see that one but she saw another later. So I found the group of people we were with and then all these HUGE fish were swimming up to us and then more sharks! Not 1, 2, or 3, there were 5 sharks swimming around us and swimming in circles. Feeding time? So I start screaming at the guides on the boat and I think a few cuss words may have slipped out. I didn't want to move, if I swam in any direction I was swimming into these monstrous fish and sharks... the fish were at the top of the water about 5 inches below the surface. So I couldn't swim forward because I would swim into them. I freaked out just a wee bit, but it was all fun, I was half kidding. I got a bunch of pictures but not many turned out, we'll be loading our pictures tomorrow so everyone can see on facebook. After snorkelling we took a little boat over to the green island and walked around, walked to the end of the boardwalk, AND we found a coconut palm. So we took a coconut from off the ground and used every bit of muscle to peel the outside off the actual nut. It took a while. Then we had the nut and I banged it against big rocks as hard as I could and coconut juice came out and the inside looked so cool! We didn't drink it, it smelled really gross so I'm assuming its really rotten. But that was a highlight of our day, how often do you see a coconut on the beach and break it open? We walked some more along the island and then found the pool bar and the rest of our snorkelling group. We all sat around and talked for a while and it was great learning about all of them. I was sitting with a couple from the north island of New Zealand who now live in Australia in a camper and just travel everywhere, a girl who is from canada and on a working visa here and her mom who came to visit, and then another couple from tazmania, australia. It's so fun meeting all these different people! We got back on the sailboat and then snorkelled a little more and saw a ton more shark. It was time to go in and then we set off for our 2 hour journey back! The trip was great and they gave us delicious lunch, appetizers, and desserts, even wine but katelyn and I didn't want it. Oh yeah I forgot, around lunch time when we were all back on the boat, one of the guides fed all the sharks and other huge fish and they were trying to jump out of the water but couldn't. This huge black fish got some air out of the water and snagged the food from him and then he gave a shark a chicken wing haha and he grabbed their fins. Probably not the best idea but it was crazy seeing all of the sharks circle around our boat trying to eat! Now we're heading out to dinner & getting a good nights sleep. Not much more we are looking to do in Cairns, we just want to relax by the beach tomorrow. When we get to Sydney we'll do all our sightseeing. This is just a very beachy town and snorkelling was all we really wanted to do. I'm so glad we did it, it was such a great experience!