Wednesday was the day I'd been looking forward to as this was the day we landed on Bazaruto Island. Amazingly (thankfully) the sun was shining for the first time on the trip.

We enjoyed a huge breakfast on board (as no lunch or food would be available on the island) and a wrapped up a few muffins for padkos. We then collected our tickets for the zodiacs and were lucky enough to get onto one of the first heading for the island.

At 9:35 we climbed aboard the speedboat and flew across the ocean to the island. We landed in a small bay where MSC had set up long lines of gazebos for shade. The beach was beautifully white and the water crystal clear. There were some rock ledges to the south and large flats to the north.

My plan was to propose at the deserted light house and I was nervously carrying the ring in my baggies pocket so that Sharon would not accidentally find it (In fact, it had been on my body for most of the trip just in case she'd decided to get anything out of my bag). Thus I was a little concerned when I jumped off the zodiac and into waist deep water, leaving the ring somewhat below the water line and me hoping that the pocket was properly sealed.

With very little wind Sharon and I decided to snorkel before hiking to the lighthouse. I placed our bags on the rock ledges and helped Sharon into the water. This allowed me to go back to the bags on my own and to slip the ring into a safer place while I snorkelled.

Sharon in the meantime seemed incredibly impressed that I'd helped her into the water without rushing in myself as I would normally do. What a gentleman.

With both of us in the water we snorkelled for around an hour enjoying the many tropical fish surrounding us. Sharon was fun to watch as she'd follow a school of fish out to sea, look up and suddenly realise how far from the shore she was, and then swim back as rapidly as she could. This process was repeated consistently much to my amazement.

After taking a few underwater shots we headed for the shore where we found the most amazing scene; while we'd been snorkelling the tide had risen and had flooded the ledges where our bag (and the ring) had been left. Amazingly I'd put the bag onto a rock where it was thankfully perched, safe and dry.

With our snorkel conquered it was time to walk to the lighthouse. We went to the information tent where we asked about the best route. While being told that there were no paths two men walked up to us, red and sweaty, and told us the walk had been scorching hot and had taken over three hours.

None the less my plan was set and, after leaving our bags in the shade, Sharon and I began the walk along the flats to the lighthouse. On the route we passed a beautiful resort which certainly looked worthy of a visit sometime in the future. After passing it we turned inland and began the climb up the dunes to the lighthouse.

At this point another couple passed us coming down the dune. It turned out that the sand was so hot that, despite them having slops on, they'd given up on the lighthouse and were returning home.

Sharon looked at me nervously but I pushed on up the huge dune, feet burning as the sand poured over the edges of my slops. And then, half way up the dune, one of my slops broke and I was forced to carry on barefoot. Bear Grylls would've been impressed.

Again Sharon looked at me strangely as I ran from shadow to shadow hoping on my one remaining slop. But somehow she knew not to question me and we continued onwards.

By the time we summited the dune we were both sweating profusely and my foot was on fire. It was at this point that I chose to stand on the broken glass from the old lighthouse element and started oozing blood. FANTASTIC! Was this a sign?

After taking in the beautiful outside of the deserted lighthouse we climbed through a broken window and took photos of us inside the magnificent structure. Far off in the distance, and well below us, we could see the Sinfonia floating in the blue ocean. It was perfect.

Having taken enough photos we climbed out of the lighthouse window and started getting ready to descend back down the dune. It was now or never! I made up an excuse that I had to find some string to repair my slop and headed off behind the lighthouse. Carefully I pulled out the ring and cunningly palmed it in my hand as a magician would do. I then walked out from behind the lighthouse and approached Sharon.

"I've got something to ask you", I said as I walked up to Sharon. This was met with the unexpected reaction of Sharon turning and backing off while yelling, "You're going to throw a spider at me!" Ok, minor setback. None the less I got down on one knee and popped the question.

There were lots of statements like, "You're joking", "You're lying" and my personal favourite, "You found this behind the lighthouse". The last one did hurt a little after all the effort Chris and I had put into designing the ring.

Eventually I managed to convince her that this was real by showing her our names were engraved inside the ring. The answer was of course "yes".

We spent the next half an hour celebrating and taking photos of the ring before tying my slop together with a piece of string and heading back down the dune.

Ironically my second slop broke near the bottom of the dune but by this stage we were on the beach and for some reason the sand was much cooler. We walked merrily back towards the crowds next to the now underwater flats. What an incredible moment!

Back at the beach we frolicked in the small waves....um, I mean, swam...*manly grunt*. We then joined the queues to head back to the Sinfonia and 15 minutes later were back on board the ship. By this stage it was around 3pm and the hunger really had kicked in. My lunch muffins had not been eaten and looked like a mushy pulp in the bottom of our diving bag.

We headed for the pool where we rinsed off the salt water from our day on the beach. This was followed by some fantastic pizza to fill the hole and a virgin cocktail to try and get the fluid levels back up to a passable human level.

It had been a long (and incredible) day in the sun but it couldn't end too early...there were after all things to celebrate. Sharon and I had a quick shower, pulled on our brightest clothes (my radiating yellow Savannah shirt), and joined the rest of the crowds on the pool deck for an island style party.

For me the most exciting part of this particular party was the cocktails served in pineapples. I quickly joined the queue and ordered a couple for Sharon and I. I was highly disappointed when the barman reached behind him and pulled the two smallest pineapples off of the shelf. I did try requesting larger ones but was told that they were for display purposes only. Grrrr!!

None the less we gulped down the 15 millilitres of cocktail in the semi hollowed out pineapples before ordering a real, man sized cocktail. The party continued with dancing girls and salsa lessons on the deck. I had to laugh at one girl who was absolutely pickled and for some reason thought she was teaching people when in fact she was not even close.

Sharon, brimming with excitement as she'd been unable to tell anyone we were engaged due to the lack of cell phone reception, finally managed to blurt out the news to Maximo (from Honduras) who seemed hugely excited. In truth this may have been due to his lack of English skills, but hey, at least he seemed excited.

Eventually, at 11:30pm, we headed back to our cabin and fell fast asleep. I really was hoping to make the midnight feast which was accompanied by ice sculptures and more food, but we just didn't have the energy. It certainly was a day never to be forgotten.