Thursday, July 12, 2012

To the Ocean!

Though we have had intermittent internet access, we have been keeping logs on each day's adventure, so here come a bunch of new posts.

Sunday, July 8

This morning started bright and early at 6:30am - though not so bright. We were greeted by an overcast, saturnine morning with light rain. We inhaled a light breakfast knowing we would be on a boat headed to Norman Reef - on the outskirts of the Great Barrier Reef. We were packed and checked out of the hotel by 7:40am, with a pickup at 7:45am to take us to the dive shop.

There we were given passes indicating we were to be boarding another boat on which we could live for three days - not just going to the reef as part of a day trip. By 8:30 everyone was checked in and we headed to the marina, which ironically, was right next to our hotel.

We then got on board the SeaQuest - seen below:


Then we grabbed a seat:

We had a very energetic crew that kindly warned us that on the day prior the surf had been so rough, 13 people had been sick. They then offered us sea sickness tablets. Stephen capitalized on the opportunity; I, not surprisingly, couldn’t take the tablets due to allergies.

No worries though – 80 minutes in (of 90 total), we were doing well. It was the last ten – when I went to the bathroom to put on my suit, that I became a statistic – 1 of the many sick. Oops.

Turned out to be a brief passing phase. Once we were anchored, we got in our wetsuits, flotation devices (known as BCDs – buoyancy control devices), tanks, masks, snorkels, weight belts, and flippers. Unfortunately, there is no photographic evidence of these super sexy outfits.

Instead, here is a picture of most of our equipment:


Under the guide of our instructor, we took the plunge into a reef known as “Shark Mountain” (good thing we didn’t know that when we started) and made our way to the mooring line (what the boat was anchored to). We had 2 other people in our group, one of whom panicked and ended up having to get out rather than finish (or even start) the dive.

We were underwater for 23 minutes in 72C water – where we practiced a few things on the sandy bottom. We got to see a spotted stingray and explore a small section of the reef. It was gorgeous, even with bad weather above.

We then surfaced for 20 minutes before we were back in again (just three students this time) for 21 minutes, again down to 10 meters, practicing lots of scenarios, including cramp removal and buddy towing – for when your buddy freaks out from that close encounter with that really big shark.

Then we had lunch and boarded our LiveAboard boat – “Taka” – with 15 other people and were assigned our rooms.

Here’s ours:

I look great at 6am, I know. :)

Once settled in, we put on our suits for a third time and jumped into a new dive site, with the much more pleasant name “Playground”. 


This time our group was just me and Stephen, and our instructor Pam. We practiced just one skill underwater – underwater compass navigation. Turns out, like mother like daughter – I cannot navigate underwater AT ALL. Totally faked it – counted my kicks, did a 180 turn, kicked back until I saw Stephen, sitting all alone on the bottom of the ocean, in the distance and readjusted as necessary. Stephen did great on his navigation test – which came in handy later.

This time we were down at 10 meters for 27 minutes – our longest dive yet! That was our third and final dive of the day, and shockingly, we still were not officially certified. We took our allowed 4 minute showers (in our very small bathroom) and headed down to the main common/dining area for the evening. 


We met many of our fellow divers – some students getting certified like us, others long time divers. There was about a 50/50 split – a fair number of Aussies on holiday, some American backpackers, and a group of teens on an adventure trip. The picture above was taken mid afternoon - also known as nap time.

Dinner was surprisingly good – the chef was made aware of my veganism and most of my meals looked as good or better than the food for everyone else.

After dinner we went on deck and watched the certified divers prepare for their night dive (which we were not yet eligible for), we watched lots of seabass circle the back of the boat by the lights, and saw 6 sharks and a potato grouper as well (baby potato groupers are about the 8 feet long and grow to the size of a small car).

By 10pm, we went to bed, quite excited for tomorrow’s adventures!




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