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Published: September 19th 2004
king of the world
you knew this one was coming...Hello everyone!
We have returned safe and sound from our three day adventure on the Santa Maria. We fared much better than the SS Minnow (Gilligans Island). There is so much to report!!
Our last meal ashore, we went to a restaurant in Cairns that served the "Hop, Skip, Swim, Hump" (or something like that).
It consisted of kangaroo, crocodile, ostrich, and camel steaks with vegetables. (YUMMY).
Three crew members - cap't Ron, Divemaster Phil, and sailor/hostess Jackie - set us sail east towards Thetford reef (a part of the great barrier reef). It took a little while for us to get our "sea legs". But fortunately for us, no one was sea sick the entire time.
We had a lot of luck getting great co-passengers. There was an Australian family, an Irish brother and sister, a young german couple (just engaged), and us!!!
It had been a little while since Patsy had dove last, so "it was soo super scary re-learning how to breathe ONLY through my mouth!" Once she had about 5 minutes down under (no pun), she was good to go. So, yah...we spent the first day exploring the reefs in that region
din din
they say that everything tastes better on a boat, but REALLY, the food ROCKED!!! down to about 12 meters, had AWESOME food (minus Veggimite sp? 😊heehee), and just a plain ole' good time getting to know the other folks. The colors of the fish were AMAZING...we saw beautiful coral gardens, sea turtles and swam through some passages with the fishies and we almost found Nemo.
The night before we headed out to the reef, we went to a lecture in town about the reef system and all that inhabit the area. You know - sharks, lionfish, poisonous jellyfish. :-) j/k. No, really there were tons of great things to learn about!! We will share this one fact with you - Marlin, Nemo's dad would actually have become a woman if Nemo's mom had really died. Handy, huh?
With three Irish people aboard (the divemaster too), I can say that we haven't laughed so hard in ages. Now I know where my dad's story telling comes from.
It just became more and more apparent that we made an excellent choice as we got to see some of the other dive operations going out. We didn't know this till after we were already out there, but the Santa Maria got to wander about
sailing the great barrier
this photo represents 4 countries... the reef where the larger boats couldn't get to. It was perfect that there were only a few of us and we had free reign to explore where we chose. It was the first time that either of us dove without a Divemaster and we think we make good dive buddies. 😊
The pictures are great! We'll try to put them up shortly!! But now we have to go and get our car, learn how to drive on the left side of the road, and then head south. We'll be in touch soon!
matt & patsy
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