Diving the Great Barrier Reef Day II

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Day two on the boat I woke up early, around 5:00 to watch the sunrise. That happened around 6:20, so I was definitely plenty early. Sleeping on a boat is an experience in and of itself. The gentle swaying, and every so often a not so gentle sway that knocks you into the wall. It is easy to wake up early on boats. My quarters were nice, not as nice as my solo room with shower like I had in French Polynesia, but it was fine. So anyway, between the time when I woke up and the sun came up, I had time to make a tea and set a chair up on the sun deck. John from Sacramento joined me up there and we talked while the sun peaked out above the clouds. He was going to do the early morning dive so he had to run off. I elected to skip so that I could dive the next site, the Caves. They tell you to wait at least 24 hours after multiple dives, but you can get away with 12 hours if you need to. Nitrogen leaving your body feels like growing pains, you feel it in your joints and in your teeth. None too pleasant.



Once the first group was finished diving we were ready for breakfast. At this point I have had a chance to meet virtually everyone on the boat, the conversations are all fun and interesting. I won’t bore you with unnecessary details, but the group is just very dynamic and it lends to good conversation. On the boat were two Germans, a guide from Belgium, an Argentinean, a Korean, one from Japan, several Australians and Kiwis, one from Scotland, one French woman, and then Americans from Seattle, Orlando, DC, Charleston, Sacramento, and then me from Nebraska. Where else are you going to find that kind of diversity? All bound by diving. It is pretty incredible when you think about it.



Breakfast was cleared and we were briefed on the Caves dive site. It is called the Caves because there is a cave swim through. My dive buddies were Cole, an Aussie, and Flint, who is from Seattle. I was so tired of just taking on and off gear at this point, some how the wetsuit always seemed a bit smaller every time that I went to put it on. But in the water everything changes, I relax, my breathing slows, and the world is tranquil. The dive started off with seeing a sea turtle right away, so we went after him along a 24 meter reef wall. We dropped down to 18 meters and bounced back up when we saw another white tip reef shark. As we followed the wall around we saw so many different species of fish and coral, another white tip shark, another turtle. The dive was incredible, and it got even better when we rounded a reef wall and ran into a school of huge hump head parrot fish. This is the largest breed of parrot fish and these things were over four feet long, someone said that they counted 37 of them! I captured a great photo of Flint with them. As the hump heads swam off we made our way back towards the mooring line and saw another white tip. We did too much to be able to make it through the caves, I had less than one bar remaining. So we finished off our dive swimming around the reef and blowing rings of air in the water. Once I hit 50 I headed back to the boat and took off my gear for the last time.



After a quick shower and drying out on the sun deck lunch was served. There was a dive after that I didn’t participate in, I was able to end on a pretty epic dive so I was perfectly content with that. We were asked to settle are tabs and pack up and have our baggage ready to transfer. As we waited for the boat we all sat around on the sun deck or down below talking and sharing different travel stories. I exchanged email addresses with several different divers, and promised to add them on Facebook or send pictures. It took a couple of hours for the other boat to pull up and us to switch over, once we were on the Sea Quest it took about an hour and a half to make it back to Cairns.



My flight left that night at 11:00 pm, so I just decided to get dropped off at the same hotel I had stayed at, sounded better than spending six hours at the airport. Flint offered to let me shower at his room and meet up with a few others for dinner. (Once again, travelers are just the best people.) I was able to find a cold shower where I was dropped off, no towel, but a shower felt good. I left my bag and walked off to find the hotel where him and Maggie were staying. We decided that Thai sounded good so we walked towards the water to find a place. Kathrin was staying close, but she was stuck with nine partiers in a hostel, Flint ran back and let her move in with him for the night. One of the dive instructors met us there as well, it took a while for everyone to get there, but Maggie and I shared a drink and stories until they made it. Three Americans, a German and a New Zealander cheers’d and ate Thai in Cairns. Pretty incredible. My shuttle was picking me up at 8:00 so I had to duck out early, I paid my tab and said my see you again soons to the group and hustled off to catch my shuttle to the airport to catch my flight to Auckland, NZ.

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