Last Day on the Nimrod

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Last day aboard the ship, better make it a good one, right? I planned to dive all that I could, hopefully with a chance to see any last things I hadn’t yet seen. In all, I feel like I did see what I came here for. And by the end of today, there wasn’t really anything within reason that I had a yearn to see. The last dive of the day was the best one, and I knew that I’d rather end on this good note than give one more a try and tire myself out completely.
The last dive was at Steve’s Bommie, basically another tower that rose from 90 feet below the water all the way up to the surface, minus a couple feet. The “bommie” was named after Steve, a local free diver who died at the Cod Hole. This was his favorite spot. The second we went under the surface, I could see why. The water was brimming with enormous barracuda, probably 30 of them, all at least 3 to 4 feet long. I thought that they may be stalking me and my two dive buddies, then I realized that we most likely had nothing to do with anything. My premonition was confirmed as I received the shark sign, basically a hand over the top of your head to imitate a shark dorsal fin. The shark was coming pretty close, and wasn’t really intimidated like the rest of the white tipped reefers we’d seen around the great barrier reef. As we rounded the bend, I noticed a shark taking a nap inside of the the caves along the bommie. Wanna wake him up? I don’t think so!
Along the bommie, there was a group of lionfish, like the ones you see in nice asian restaurants, something I’d never seen before. I also had the chance to see a rock fish. Basically, it looks like a really gross rock. But it has big round eyes and a mouth that you can make out based on the fact that you see the eyes. Otherwise, and in fact, I didn’t even know it was a fish until we got out of the water and the dive master we were diving with said, “did you see the rock fish?” Underwater, I was making the signs that basically meant,” Yes, I see what you are pointing at, but what the ef is it?”
Another notable sighting was a woebegone- like garrison keeler’s lake woebegone, only I didn’t know that it was an actual, real animal. Basically, a cross between a leopard, a shark, and a ray. It had great desert camoflauge skin and was hiding pretty well under some of the coral, but it was unmistakable.
In all, the perfect finale to a beautiful week at sea. Yes, the waves were rough, the wind was out in force, and I wound up sharing my room when I thought I’d have my own, but the water was clearer now than usual, I didn’t get sick from the waves, and my roommate turned out to be a good friend that I’ll keep in touch with even after we arrive at the docks in Cairns tomorrow.
We packed up most of our gear, ate some dinner and then the waves got going. They were big. Mark and me sat up on the mid deck for a bit chatting. We almost got knocked off of the ship a few times, our lounge chairs were not tied down to the boat and one time when we rocked hard, Mark almost wound up going back down the stairs to the first level.
Probably not the best place to chill, we went down and chatted there until we were sure that we were tired enough that the antigravity chamber would not be an obstacle to our sleep.

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