Lisa, Will You Marry Me?

Well we've been back for a few days now and we've finally had a chance to look at the photos and put some online. This is a quick preview of the holiday and more will be up in the next few days. Everyone’s been asking about the proposal, so we wanted to get some photos up now. First, let's set the scene, it's sunset on the 6th night of our liveaboard dive trip on the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea:

We're currently 120 miles from the nearest land, in the Coral Sea at Osprey Reef:

The sea conditions can be pretty bad this far from land, so there’s a 50/50 chance of the boat not being able venturing this far. As you can see from the photos, the water could not have been flatter! I’ve been in lakes with bigger waves. Lisa was relaxing after 4 dives, reading her book. Having spent 6 weeks planning the next 5 minutes, I asked one of the crew (Lauren) to take some photos of us at sunset. Lisa reluctantly agreed and walked to the front of the boat, for a few snaps. Little did she realise that I had been secretly carrying the ring around with me for 8 days. I think she guessed as soon as I dropped to one knee what was to follow. I can’t say it came out exactly as I had planned (recommendation for anyone else, keep it short and simple, you’ll only forget it!). Lisa didn’t fare much better, as she had to be asked by Lauren “Was that a yes?” as she was holding her left hand out for me to put the ring on.

The rest is a bit of a blur for both of us, but the crew made it really special by giving us a bottle of Champagne which we shared with some of our fellow passengers. That’s it for now, after leaving the boat (and an amazing and knackering 26 dives) we flew to Adelaide for the rest of our trip:

more photos and a blog posting to follow…