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Published: September 19th 2009
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The Yongala - Australia's Best Dive!
At the start of this trip we knew we wanted to do 3 dives, one on the Great Barrier Reef (check), one in the Whitsunday Islands and one on this shipwreck called The Yongala.
The Yongala boat sunk in 1911 in a cyclone with 200 knot winds off the Townsville, QLD shore. The boat didn't have radios yet and was going to be fitted with them upon their arrival into Cairns. It sunk with all 121 passengers, a famous race horse named Moonshine and a prize bull. It wasn't found until the 40's and no one dived it until the 50's. Now it's like a living, colorful reef at 90 feet below the surface, TONS of marine life and sights, but I digress...
After getting picked up from our hostel before the 8 o'clock hour, we got our gear fitted in a parking lot, threw it all into plastic crates, and got on the boat to start the 3+ hour journey to the middle of the ocean to the Yongala. This boat was no Silverswift, we already had our doubts. Two rows of benches surrounding the gear was all there was to
sit on, plus a little floor space up top where the captain sat. We stopped at Magnetic Island to pick up a few more divers and off we went.
The ocean was SO choppy. Wind from 20-25 knots (30 mph) with waves that were about 12ft with some some so big (like 20ft), the captain had to cut the motor so we wouldn't nosedive off of the wave. It was intense, long and stressful. Erin took a dramamine for motion sickness and slept with her head on Jessa's leg for about 2 hours, since it was the only way for her not to get sea sick. Jessa has a stomach of steel, so she was fine and enjoying the wavy ride. At least 5 people got sick over the side of the boat...it was so rough.
Once we FINALLY reached the site (the crew kept saying we were NEARLY there but half hour later we were still not there... we think they were just trying to keep everyone's spirits up), we were both struggling with the motion sickness and suited up faster than we ever have and practically sprinted off the boat and into the water to get
rid of the feeling. Once in the water and with air in our vests those giant waves were nooooo problem. We felt great and could already see big fish and sea snakes below us!! Erin was dying to see sharks and Jessa was dying to see some manta rays and both our wishes were granted! We descended 22m (74ft) on the first dive and swam around the amazingly colorful wreck for 40 mins.
There were tons and tons of fish, turtles and corals of all colors, it was like we were kids in a candy shop with all the fun things to look at. Right towards the end of our dive, we saw the massive Queensland Grouper which was about 7 feet long and the width of a big tree. SO cool, we snapped a few pics and away he swam. We saw a moray eel also, they are crazy looking animals. We had to ascend with a few decompression safety stops and we were totally geeked about how awesome our dive was...then we had to get back on the boat. Ugh.
They served up a huge lunch and while Jessa enjoyed her meal, Erin layed on the
top deck in the sun with two other people who felt sick and tried to keep it together. The boat was rocking so violently even the crew were feeling it. After our hour surface interval we got ready to go back in, again getting our stuff on in record time so we could get the hell off of the boat and into the water to stop the seasick feeling.
This time we went down to 27m (90 ft) and the first thing we saw was....a HUGE spotted bat ray! This thing was like 8 feet in diameter, so graceful underwater. It swam right at Erin giving her a great photo op and then turned and swam away. Reviewing the video later we noticed a shark swimming beneath, which we missed seeing at the time because we were so entranced with the ray. The grouper made an appearance once again and the guide pointed out a few sharks on the bottom of the boat...that was so exciting. The currant had really picked up, so we had to swim really hard the entire time to see everything and to stay down at depth. The colors never got old, but visibility wasn't
very good, about 15-20 feet. Apparently a sea snake swam up onto Erin's vest to taste her, or kiss her or just hang out, but she never noticed until the guides told her later (Shannon this is basically your worst nightmare coming true lol). Um, creepy. They are basically snakes, scales, teeth and all, but have the tail like a moray eel. At our 5m safety stop a giant school of barracudas sat with us, which was the perfect end to the coolest dive of the trip this far.
Back on the boat, the captain hightailed it out of there and started back for Townsville. Going with the waves on the way back was much easier for everyone. They passed around lots of snacks, more dramamine, water and tea. At the end of the trip, even though it was super rough, we really loved the crew and the boat. They were so helpful and funny and really passionate about diving and making sure you were safe and having a good time.
The boat ride took it's toll on us and we decided to stay in Townsville another night. Erin couldn't eat thanks to the seasickness and neither of
us could muster enough energy to go out on the town, so again we were lulled off to sleep by the club's bass.
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Sandy Waddell
non-member comment
You are killing me!
Hi girls, I am glad you wrote this well after the fact. It seriously scares me all this snake and shark talk.