We used the school holidays to take a brief trip to Cairns - chasing the sun. It's a few degrees warmer up in Far North Queensland this time of year. No trip to Cairns is complete without at least a day out on the Great Barrier Reef. When we did this a few years ago we went out on a large Catamaran with Quicksilver tours. It was a great trip but we fancied doing things a little differently this time. We chose the Ocean Free tour which combines snorkelling on the Reef with a few hours on Green Island. The best bit is it's a sail boat restricted to a maximum of 25 guests - a vastly different experience to the large catamarans. We got a little soaked on the way back, bouncing through the waves tacking are way back to Cairns.

It's been a long time since I've been sailing. During my time in the Navy I went on a couple of sailing expeditions - that seems a long time ago now. Some of the training came back to me but I would really need to do a Skippers course if I wanted to get fully hands-on again.

I took this photo on the last leg of the journey, heading back into port.