The Reef
Trip Start
Mar 14, 2006
1
256
374
Trip End
Mar 15, 2007
Great Barrier Reef,
Australia
Friday, November 24, 2006
Check-in down at the harbour with Down Under Dives was onto a bigger dive boat than I'd been on before with around 80-100 others piling on, mainly Japanese. Despite the high numbers though there was only 5 other certified divers on board the large high speed catamaran with us feeling privileged getting our own little room upstairs above the masses below.
The journey out to the reef took around 1.5 hours with the seas not being too rough, yet I'd never seen so many people throw up on a boat before and I used to work on one. Was just glad they'd all stopped by the time we reached the first dive site otherwise I was not getting into that water/soup
Batfish and Something
.Feeling fine but Claire my dive buddy was not up to diving yet after spending most of the trip hanging over the side so I joined up with the others for free on a guided dive around Saxon Reef. The sea was rougher than anything I'd dived in before seeing me waste a lot of air on the surface being continually pushed back against the boat before finally being able to sink below the waves to the calmer waters below.
Wow.
The visibility was not great but still OK considering the conditions with strong currents pushing us about the place making taking pictures with the underwater camera I hired yesterday an exercise in luck at getting a non-blurred photo. The coral was larger than anything I'd seen before and although not as colourful as all the pictures you see it was still amazing with the dive suddenly over feeling like it had only just started.
After a big buffet lunch including shrimp, pasta and more steak I got suited up again for my 2nd dive at Saxon Reef with me trying to fit in as many dives today as I could
Clown Fish
. What this meant though was that no one else was diving again at this point so I got another free guided dive with just myself and the instructor with the conditions being a bit better this time. Taking our dive around the huge coral formations we spotted a moray eel out of it's hole swimming along in the open water which was pretty rare and some kind of ray hidden in the sand below us which I almost missed entirely.A short journey later we arrived at Hastings Reef for my 3rd dive getting yet another free guided dive due to odd numbers. Visibility was a good deal better here with more marine life out and about with plenty of Nemos and a huge giant Napoleon Wrasse around 2m long gliding past us.
With my time on the Great Barrier Reef over we all relaxed for the journey back to Cairns as I wondered how many of the photos I took would actually be usable but guessing since I took around 300 that the law of averages should at least give me a few OK-ish ones.
