We pulled up at the marina and saw hundreds of boats waiting to take tourists out on trips - but the biggest most fabulous one was ours! We set sail as everyone gathered on the shade deck for champagne and munchies. The food was delicious. Our cabin was fantastic - wood panelled with a brass port hole and an ensuite bathroom. The ship was gorgeous wood and brass and sail and the crew was so friendly and great fun. The sunset that night was spectacular and the stars were out in force as we watched jumping fish leap out of the water and catch the lights from the boat in their silvery scales.

The plan was to do lots of snorkeling and hopefully get our first dive in on the second day. We started out snorkelling just off of Hook Island - they gave the beginning snorkellers a shallow, beach-access place to snorkel from. It was pretty good - but there was quite a lot of coral bleaching. I couldn't wait until we got out onto the outer reef.

A half-hour after we set sail for the reef Dave was asked if he had his asthma inhaler. Another passenger (Bernard) was ill and couldn't breathe. He was upfront in the crew area, but they kept us apprised of his condition. He was on oxygen and couldn't breathe on his own. He was ill: fever, nausea, dizziness, tingling in his arms. The skipper conferred on the radio with the mainland - and was told that Bernard needed immediate medical attention - but we were several hours from shore. It was decided that they'd take us far out onto the reef where a medevac helicopter could land on the Reefworld pontoons. We motored as fast as possible out there while Bernard was kept on oxygen. They sent us all off snorkelling while Bernard was transported to Mackay Hospital. They assured us it wasn't a jellyfish sting but we ran into him on the mainland a few days later and he said that's what the doctor has diagnosed - a box jellyfish sting. It could have been fatal if Bernard hadn't been wearing a stinger suit - but the stingers probably touched him on his hands or feet or head.

Again the snorkelling had been a little disappointing. Even more coral bleaching this time - and probably a lot of damage from the thousands of tourists that go through Reefworld each week. But we kept our hopes up for the introductory dive that was to happen the next day. Unfortunately, when they were taking down all the information for the dive boat that was to meet us, they found out we had asthma and niether of us was allowed to dive. We went snorkelling instead. It was the best snorkelling of the trip. Huge bright corals of all shapes and sizes and thousands of fish in clouds - striped, spotted, silver, gold - it was spectacular!

We got back on the boat and continued on to the white sand of Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven is almost pure silica and, like the beaches on Fraser Island, it's cool to walk on. It also squeaks like snow as you step on it. Since you can't swim without stinger suits and we were sick of them, we built a giant turtle in the sand.

That evening, our last meal of the trip, we were all served a feast of chicken in a prawn bisque with asparagus and a brown rice risotto. It was delicious. We stayed up playing poker with other passengers until the wee hours.

The next afternoon, a couple of hours after disembarking from the ship we started to feel ill - both of us had stomach cramps - and initially we thought it was indigestion. Both of us worsened the next morning and by the time we got to the airport to go to Sydney we were both periodically running to the toilet. We werent' terribly surprised when we ran into some of the people who had been on the trip with us who were also ill. They had met several other groups of travellers from Whitsunday Magic who were also ill. Out of the 11 people we heard of, 8 of us were ill with some kind of gastroenteritis.