First Look At the Nimrod

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Happy 4th o Jew-Lie

My USA shebang went off with quite a day. Started out as casual as the day before, waking up to a nice view of the city and the ocean, then a nice walk through the park and around town.
I arrived at the dive shop early just to stop in and say hi to the people who had been taking care of my trip.
“Hey there, so you know what room you’re in right?” they said to me- I was thinking they knew because I was the special guy they had to cancel out of their last trip.
“Yep, top deck starboard,” I exclaimed with a smile.
“You don’t mind sharing it?”
“What?!!? That wasn’t the deal.”
That’s right. Twice, explorer ventures effed up my reservation. Whatever, I was here to enjoy and relax, I wouldn’t let them get the better of me.
I returned at the meeting time to find that we had a full house on the boat, and the great news as far as I was concerned, lots of young-looking people. So far so good. And when I introduced myself in Japanese to the Japanese people, I was their instant favorite.
“Oh, you speak a Japanese velly good.” I can only imagine what everyone’s first impression of me was. From the encounter I had with the dive office, they were trying their best to make me happy. Since I was being so rough on them, I decided that when I returned it would be best to bring them some flowers- don’t want them spiking my dive tank with helium.
So, this was me, arriving with flowers for the secretary, speaking Japanese to those people, and just overall psyched to be on my way to the reef!
The flight to Cooktown was eventful. I can explain it best in short phrases, I think.
Small plane. Very small. Very fast. Flew low passes through the rainforest. Monkey’s waving hello. Did a reef flyby too. Not as bumpy or death-defying as the rainforest shoot, but enough for me to think my life may be ending short. Landing was smooth as silk. Glad to be down.
Spent the remainder of the time in Cooktown where we meet up with our ship, the Nimrod Explorer.Name sucks, but the boat is pretty cool even considering its cock-eyed shape, twin hull, reef motif design.
Even met a cool guy named Mark, who is in the US Coast Guard. We walked the town, which was two bars long, and sat for a drink until dinner was called on the ship.
As it turns out, my roommate was pretty cool too. Arnold, from Austria. Hahah, nothing like the gubnah, but that’s a good thing in my case. Arnold is part of the james cook university, and he is a marine biologist studying the interaction between dwarf minke whales and divers. We spent a lot of the night laying in bed and talking until we fell asleep. Not love at first sight, Cerecita, but he is definitely one chill dude.

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Photos

Who You Callin' Nimrod
This was my view from the back of the boat while we were looking around for the minke whales...

Comments

[BobbyFree]

Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right. Here I am....
Thanks for the heads up on Explorer Ventures. Glad you kept a good attitude but that was completely uncool of them to trip twice like that. 'Used to work in the industry. They know what they are doing when they do it (most of the time). They do it because in certain situations they believe you won't cancel and the more they pack in, the more $$$ they make. But you had the last smile- AH-nuld and all. Bobby