Great Barrier Reef

Thursday, June 2

We walked outside and over to the Oasis Motel at 6:05am and found the dive shop van waiting for us. The van picked up some other passengers but it was near silent as we were all still waking up and coming to grips with reality. We had a quick stop over at the dive shop for all the people that hadn’t read the instructions to stop in the day before, and then it was off to the boat. It was a little creepy driving onto the pier so early in the morning with no one else around. It felt as if we were about to turn the corner and see a group of mafia guys leaving, brushing the fresh concrete dust off their hands.

Once on board, they gave us breakfast and a briefing and then showed us to our room. We were so happy that we got a double sized bed instead of a bunk bed! Our cabin was also on the same floor as the salon (kitchen and dining room) and we had a window. It was spacious, air conditioned, and clean.

After we dropped our stuff off, we had some time to hang out on the boat as we cruised toward the outer barrier reef for the first dive of the day. We had chosen a three day, two night liveaboard trip that would include a total of 11 dives. This came out to four dives on the first two days and three dives on the third day. I finally wrote down all the dives I’ve done since being certified and my total came out to 30 dives. So the trip was about to increase my dive count significantly!

There were about 25 people total on the boat, including staff. Over the next few days we spoke to almost everyone and became friends with a handful. It seemed like most of the participants were Australian, taking advantage of their newly found freedom after being in COVID lock downs for the better part of the last two years. There was also some Europeans (one English, one Dutch, one Spanish), another American, and three Canadians. About 1/3 of the participants were getting their open water certification and another 1/3 were getting advanced certification. There were about 6 of us not doing a course, just being recreational divers.

I think we were a little late arriving to the first spot, but the crew hustled and we had our dive briefing and prepared for our dive on time. Just as everyone was coming upstairs for the dive briefing the captain spotted a turtle. It was just a little guy but by the time everyone arrived, the turtle had dived back into the depths and they had missed it. Carl and I hoped this turtle luck would continue.

For every dive Kevin, the French dive master, would show us on a white board where we should go on the dive. Before this trip, 99% of the dives we’ve done have been led by a guide so we didn’t have to pay attention to where we were underwater. This time, right off the bat, we were on our own.

We felt very safe because of the abundance of security measures (counting us twice every time we got back on the boat), we were never swimming very far from the boat (and, if lost, could surface and see it), and often ran into other dive groups under water doing the same route. Still, there were times of anxiety when we didn’t know exactly where we were.

We started off at Milln Reef at a dive spot called The Swimming Pools. Of all the dive routes we were given, the first one was probably the most complicated. I took a picture of the route and now I’m laughing as I’m looking at it because the drawing looks more complicated than the dive really was. We didn’t see any sharks but we did see a big barracuda hanging out between two rocks.

We also saw a new fish that was black and white with stripes and spots which we identified later as probably a juvenile Midnight Snapper. Overall I think we were more focused on navigating than on looking at fish. We did see a lot of tropical fish, but this was probably the least we’d see of all the dives and Kevin told us that every dive would get a little bit better.

We got back on the boat and had a nice lunch during our surface interval. During the second dive we stayed on the same reef, but took a different route. Instead of starting West from the boat we went directly South, along a reef wall. As we went along we spotted a large bush of reddish stag horn coral and we must’ve surprised the stingray that was hiding out here because all of a sudden it shot out from its hiding spot in the sand and glided around us.

We chugged along this wall for a bit, then circled back to the barracuda rock before hanging out in the shallows East of the boat. As we crossed the sandy areas we saw two more stingrays (one might’ve been the same one twice) that seemed to have no fear of swimming close to us. We also saw a big Sweet Lips, a Unicorn Fish, and – the pièce de résistance – a Humphead Māori Wrasse! (Also known as a napoleon fish). It was about the same size as the one we’d seen in the aquarium.

As we meandered in the shallows we thought we got lost but somehow we found our way back to the boat’s eastern buoy. During the next surface interval we were fed warm banana bread. This is when we realized that the three days were going to be a repetitive cycle of dive, eat, nap, dive, eat, nap, etc.

For the third dive of the first day we stayed on Milln Reef but went to a new spot. We jumped off the back of the boat and headed northwest toward a big reef wall. We swam along the wall for a bit and then turned around and headed back to the boat. We saw most of the same fish but we think we also saw a smaller, female Māori Wrasse.

As we left the wall and followed our compass to intercept the boat we somehow overshot it. When we noticed new rocks we hadn’t seen before we decided to surface and see where we were. We did a safety stop and then surfaced and, sure enough, we’d somehow gone past our boat.

Totally calm, we started swimming back to the boat. One of the staff saw us swimming back and decided to get the dingy to come out and get us. We didn’t need the lift but we agreed to hold on to the rope and be towed back. He told us to put in our regulators. Carl, closer to the dingy, had a head full of ocean water. When we got back he said it was like all his sinuses had been cleared with a giant netti pot full of salt water.

We were fed dinner and then we watched the sun set and the stars emerge as we prepared for the night dive. During the briefing, Kevin tested us by telling us that in order to make hand signals underwater we should take our regulator out and put the flashlight in our mouths to use both hands. I think we were all so anxious and intimidated by the night dive that it took us tooo long to realize he was joking. And then, the thought of doing a night dive and getting to keep my regulator in my mouth the whole time was very comforting.

Because we had never done a night dive before they offered to guide us for the first one. Carl and I were lucky to be the pair directly behind the instructor, Martina. We were all given small flashlights and told not to shine lights directly at the eyes of any animals, especially any sleeping turtles that might wake up. They also warned that if we shined a light at a little fish, a bigger fish would be waiting nearby, happy to have your assistance in eating the little guy.

As soon as we hopped in, we were swimming in the middle of swarms of big fish. It was predator o’clock and they had all come toward the boat because of our lights and food scraps from cleaning our plates after dinner. We were surrounded by big, teethy silvery fish in every direction. There were also lots of big red bass. I felt out of place like the protagonist spy in some action movie, trying to blend in at a party attended by all the evil villains. It was super creepy!

We got into formation and a fellow experienced diver named Daniel fell in line directly behind us. He brought his own light and it was much brighter, lighting up areas past me and totally negating the need for my light. So, I mostly kept mine covered with my hand to prevent being the accomplice to any fish murder. Carl, on the other hand, went up to coral and shined his light in and found tons of tiny little fish hiding in the nooks of the coral, looking like they were scared sh**less. He also saw at least one get swallowed.

Very soon into the dive we spotted a black tip reef shark swim by us on the left. It glided by gracefully and then back into the dark. As we circled back to the boat we saw another one that hung out for slightly longer. In comparison to the swarm of big fish below the boat, the shark seemed so cool, calm, and collected. The ultimate cool guy (or gal) at the late night party. The night dive was short, but incredible.

Back on the boat we were fed once more: desert. We noticed a group playing spoons so we joined in. I was out almost immediately but Carl stayed in until the final three (of course). Then it was 10pm and we all decided to go to bed to prepare for another full day of diving.

Friday, June 3

We woke up just as the sun was rising and the clouds were tinged with a beautiful shade of pink. We hadn’t moved during the night so our first dive of day two was the same spot we’d done the day before. This was fine with us because we wanted a chance to redeem our navigation abilities after messing up on the third dive the previous day.

We started at a buoy east of the boat and then swam under the boat to the next buoy. As Carl was looking down at his compass to get the direction right, I noticed a turtle swimming down from above us – beelining a path right for Carl’s head. I pulled on Carl’s arm and yanked his head up to attention just in time for the turtle to swim RIGHT in front of us. If I hadn’t had pulled him up, they probably would’ve collided. It definitely would’ve been the turtle’s fault, but the ocean traffic court is probably more sympathetic to turtles than us, so good thing it didn’t happen!

We redeemed ourselves and navigated successfully and also felt generally more comfortable in the water after having dived most of the day before. We saw a trumpet fish swimming straight up and down and some Eggplant Fire fish, which were so weird they took us by surprise. We also saw another big Humphead Māori Wrasse.

After the morning dive, we cruised to a whole new reef: Flynn Reef. The second dive of the day was at a place called the tennis court because of the shape of the sand patches. Here we saw a giant clam with a teeny, tiny nudibranch in the sand right next to it. Looking underwater at these two very weird, very different creatures it’s hard to remember that they are real, and living on planet earth.

We saw lots of Moorish Idols (think Gill from Finding Nemo). We thought we saw another Māori Wrasse but then realized it was something else. I didn’t even know this fish existed but we later looked it up and confirmed that it was a Bumphead Parrotfish! Imagine my favorite parrot fish but HUGE and with a big, protruding forehead. As we hovered and stared at it in awe we watched it bite off a huge piece of coral with its massive beak and chomp on it like it was popcorn at the movie theater. It was nutty.

For the third dive we stayed on Flynn Reef but moved to a new spot called Gordon’s. This was another complicated route through poorly described landmarks (coral marks?) and I didn’t like having to focus so much on where we were going.

Kevin told us to head toward the Mickey Mouse rocks (underwater didn’t look like that at all), then to ‘The Maze’ and then ‘The Fishbowl’, before heading back to the boat. It felt like we got lost a bit but somehow we navigated our way back to the boat. This ended up being a practice run for the night dive which we were going to do in the same location, without a guide.

We sat atop the boat again as the sun was setting. The ‘dad’ of the group (older man who brought his two adult children) was usually found upstairs, smoking near the ashtrays. He strolled near us and mumbled something about Minke whale bait while pointing out to the ocean. We followed his finger and saw a dingy out there, right in front of the setting sun. Apparently one of the instructors had dropped his dive computer during the last dive and had to go out and go get it. But that was a couple hours ago- why was the boat still there?

We realized, at the same time the staff did, that the dingy had been tied up badly and had started to float away. Kevin ran out onto the deck and Martina said (very calmly) “get in the water, Kevin”. Kevin jumped in and swam as fast he could out to the dingy, which continued to drift further away into the setting sun. He managed to catch it. He stood on top the dingy as he rode it back and, hearing our cheers as he approached, he did a little circle, putting on a show for us. It was very James Bond esque and concealed the fact that they almost lost their boat.

On the night dive I told Daniel we’d love if we had his bright as flashlight again and he said “ok!” and joined us to make a dive group of three. We went back toward the Mickey Mouse head and as we pushed through ‘the gate’ Daniel spotted a HUGE turtle hiding on the ground, partially concealed by the rock. The turtle’s shell was as big as our old IKEA dining table. I later heard people refer to the turtle as Brian, which seemed fitting. We didn’t see any sharks that time but because there were less predators I felt comfortable looking into the coral. Sure enough there were lots of little fish hiding in there, nearly shaking with fear the poor guys!

That night we went to sleep early because we had to wake up at 5:40 the next day for the early morning dive.

Saturday, June 4

For our first dive of day three, the boat stayed in the same spot but we swam northwest of the boat, toward a big wall. When we hit the wall we swam west, along it, toward the cut through which would indicate where we were supposed to go around and then swim up the other side of the wall, going east.

Well, we must’ve missed a turn because somehow we ended up on top of the reef in the location marked as ‘too shallow’. Indeed it was way too shallow and I started worrying because we were basically surfacing after being deep, without having done a safety stop. Underwater we communicated this to each other and managed to do a safety stop by swimming in the shallows before we agreed to surface to discuss where to go next. We came up and saw the boat and agreed we needed to swim over the reef, back to the south side, and head back to the boat.

When we went back down we saw a turtle swimming by. We headed toward the boat and I felt that we were going the wrong way and we were still so shallow we may as well have been snorkeling. I was about to rest my knees on the sand so I wouldn’t ascend while we conferred and I looked right in front of me to see a playful stingray. Like a cat it seemed to be rubbing itself on the sandy mounds, swimming around us, not shy at all.

We ended up surfacing again and I had been dead wrong about which way the boat was. We re-aligned and then went back under to swim to it. I was frustrated about getting lost but also was consoled by the fact that we saw a ray and a turtle in the shallows that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

For the third dive we went to a new spot on Flynn Reef called Coral Gardens. The day before I’d asked Kevin about renting a dive camera for one dive, but he had forgotten in the chaos of preparing for the third dive. He remembered for the second to last dive and offered that we could use the camera for two dives, for the price of one. It was a nice cannon camera in a big, buoyant plastic case (that only floated up and hit me in the face a few times).

Daniel joined us again and impressed us with his ability to spot animals. We went deep along the coral wall against the current and immediately he spotted a shark below us. It seemed to still be asleep, just hanging out there. Pretty soon after he spotted a ray hanging out in the sand. We also saw a big puffer and another big Humphead parrotfish.

We headed back to the boat to do our safety stop. While we were hanging out we decided to take a selfie with my rented camera. As I tried to position us all into the frame I felt something touch my back – it was the boat!! We had accidentally ascended without realizing it and we were running into the bottom of the boat! What amateurs!

We pushed away and went back down and collectively agreed to do another safety stop, this time on the safety bar. We still showed off our flips and tricks, but at a safe and consistent depth.

For our third dive of the day and final dive of the trip 😦 we went to the same spot but swam the opposite way along the wall and stayed a little shallower. We saw a giant trigger fish, another puffer, and clouds of tiny fish. It felt like the most fish we’d seen on the trip. I had fun taking pictures with the camera and am excited to see how the photos turn out.

Unfortunately, instead of sending us the photos, Kevin just popped out the SD card and handed it to us. Back in the US I have an SD card adapter but here, with my carry-on backpack, I don’t even have a laptop to plug the adaptor into! Carl looked at the card and said “what are we supposed to do with this??”

So, we don’t expect to be able to access or share those photos for a while. In the meantime, there were lots of divers on the trip who had go pros and were happy to share photos with us. So all photos here are stolen from them, for now.

After our last dive we had to pack up and then it was about a two hour boat ride back to Cairns. When we got back to the Airbnb Karen had made a big pot of pasta and broccolini for us! We ate and rested a bit before heading back downtown to meet everyone from the boat for a farewell drink.

We met at a German beer hall right next to the Lagoon. It was funny drinking with a bunch of fellow divers because we all still felt like the boat was moving (and held on to things as we walked, Jack Sparrow style). Plus, all our ears were plugged or waterlogged so we were all shouting at each other and still saying “what??!”

We planned to just have a beer or two but then the party moved upstairs to a cocktail lounge and we couldn’t resist. I think we were just starting to get into drunk politics talk when the party moved to a nightclub. We followed everyone but I didn’t have my ID with me so we couldn’t get in. I was really sad because I wanted to see Kevin dance. Carl and I walked home. It was sad to end the night ‘early’ but also better for our wallets and heads for the next day.