Great Barrier Reef S.C.U.B.A. Adventure

Wow the past 5 days have been nothing short of magical! Haha
First I had 2 days of classroom work and pool training. My group started out with 5 people but one guy failed the medical physical because he had low lung volume or something and another girl couldn't get up the courage to drop to the bottom of the pool (15ft) and breathe from the scuba tank. So my class ended up being 3 strong! Derryn, my 1st scuba partner, who is a young pilot with Qantas on a forced week vacation do to cut backs. And the lovely Carolina, my 2nd dive partner after derryns wife met us on day2 on the boat. 18 or 19 y/o german just starting her 9 month or so travelling and working around Australia. And there was our instructor Morgan and an assistant Ryan, who were very fun and because of the small group we got great training from them, skill tests like mask removal and replacement, regulator mouthpiece removal and recovery, out of air buddy breathing, BCD (vest,hoses,tank) removal and replacement... all things that could accidently happen underwater 50ft down so must be confident can be fixed safely because going straight to the surface could give you the "bends" or kill you. We finished our skill tests underwater so fast we had plenty of extra air to play/practice at the end of the day.
The third day we headed out to sea! Boarded the Sunkist which was the companies day trip boat and transfered us to the Kangaroo Explorer! The livesboard vessel I lived on for 3 days! Although it wasn't in the best shape, the food and equipment not state of the art... I honestly couldn't imagine having a better experience!!! The weather was perfect, visability in the water was unbelievable! Seriously amazing and unforgettable!
After we checked into our rooms, had a quick bite to eat, we had a pre-dive brief for the 1st of 4 required dives we needed to make to become open water certified, given info like what skills we were going to be testing and a map of the reef. Before putting on all the equipment we were tested on snorkelling skills only wearing our wetsuits, fins and masks... Giving us our first glimps of the reef! Oh and the water was so warm, at least 26C on ever dive. This site was West Timor (I'm hoping I can find all our sites on google earth when I get back, I think I heard we were like 50 kms off shore so there's nice point of reference when we moved to boat.) we hopped back on the boat, geared up, buddy checks, then jumped back in for a 30 minute dive down to 12 meters. A little exploring but basically we were just tested on skills, we actually got all of them in this first dive so the remaining dives became guided fun dives (need to be with instructor till certified, always with a buddy). Found out I am a heavier breather than everyone else I always was running low before anyone else... Required by law to return with 50 bar remaining, which rarely happened for me. After the boat moved to a new site we all prepared for the next dive, another brief then suited up! This site was called club 10, this dive also was to 12 m for about 25 minutes. But this time is was all exploring! The colors were so vivid, the blue of the water was unreal and the coral, plants and fish had incredible colors! Highlights included a black lion fish, quite a few "nemo" clown fish hiding in aenonome (sp?), a blue spotted stingray and a couple huge triggerfish... Plus tons more but too many to know names. That ended day1 on the boat and the best intro to the GBR I could have asked for.
Next day we were awoken @ 5:30 and briefed and in water before sunrise so we could watch it just before decent... One of those bucketlist worthy experiences!!! And we had the camera guy following us around all morning so we did fun things like a james bond entry into the water... A front flip in off the back of the boat, surprised none of us lost a mask or something. This dive site was at three sisters @ Milne reef. It was a 18meter dive for 27 minutes making a few laps around the 3rd sister. Highlights were seeing my 1st green sea turtle (nearly pet it but swam away), literally millions of fish all shapes and sizes!!, my fav was a little bed of aenonome with about 3 different types if clown fish (nemos). After breakfast and a rest we jumped back in this time being video taped the whole time underwater. Did a couple funny things for the camera like we could take off our mask and put on sunglasses or take out our reg and pretend to drink a beer, the assistant Ryan wore extra weights and tried to walk along the ground. And since this dive completed our course requirments we all were also presented with our certification cards underwater for the camera! Highlights were my 1st white tip reef shark! Over a meter in length, parrot fish munching on the coral, more stingrays, a purple flat worm the guide picked up and dropped so we could see it swim which was very interesting and cool, they tried to get a puffer fish to blow up but didn't and i even played with a nemo fish till it bit my finger! Caught on tape! This dive was down to 15 meters for 35 minutes, the last 5min I actually was breathing off the guides tank because I got down to 25 bar (50 minimum by law, oops, but my buddy derryn did too).
At this point we were certified which meant we could go dive just with a buddy... Which meant I lost my buddy derryn for his wife but I got Caroline for my replacement... I think we both got an upgrade ;-) at least better looking haha did I mention Carolina was smoking hot haha after lunch and a brief we jumped back in, still at the three sisters site, not exactly sure where we went, was planning on the 1st sister but think it might have been the 2nd... But we had fun getting lost, following other groups and were very excited then when we did head back we found a mooring line, to bad it was the front of the boat which meant I was way confused, but hey we found our way back to the boat on our 1st dive together and alone. My 6th dive might have been my most interesting and gave me the most anxiety... My first night dive! The full moon didn't offer much help 10 meters down so all we had to rely on were our flashlights. It where up being great, maybe the most interesting, as you shined your light over the coral you could see all the eyes of little critters, mostly shrimp like things, I found a puffer fish, saw lots of blue spotted stingrays, the red bass were using our lights to help spot little fish to catch, best if all we saw a shark (scary eye reflections) and a turtle that I caught up to and pet. After a shower and a couple beers I couldn't be bothered with the fun up on the moon deck, playing cards and more drinking, looked at the stars fir a while and promptly went to bed. Up again @5:30 for the sunrise out on the water... Just me and Carolina... Couldn't have been more romantic.... Too bad she had no interest in me :-/ but it didn't matter cause it was so freaking beautiful! One of a few reasons to get up that early and put on a cold damp wetsuit and jump in the ocean (which was actually warmer than the air temp) at the three sisters still, same dive as previous morning at 3rd sister, this time as we decentrd Carolina pointed out a sleeping shark just below us on the ground, was itwaiting fir breakfast?!?!!! Haha I found the perfect angle which had the sunrise colors shining down through about a million fish overhead.... Hard to describe how awesome of a sight! Dive 8 Carolina and I attempted to not get lost with success and I think I'd have to say it was my favorite dive!!! Saw a couple turtles (maybe same one circling back round) but we both gave it a big back rub that they love they close their eyes and stop swimming away, followed one turtle around for a few minutes as our personal guide, played with Christmas tree worms which look like a multi color christmas tree sticking out of a hole in the coral and if u reach for it they retract and hide in their little hole, and I'm pretty sure we saw at least 2 if not 3 different white tip sharks! The biggest of them was our closest encounter, as we turned a corner of reef it was just there eye level with us, I swear Carolina tried to jump back behind me but I was there ready to punch it right in the face if it touched my girl! Haha and during our safety stop (@5m for 3min) I played with more nemos trying to get them to bite my finger:-) so awesome! Only part that was bad was the tiny jelly fish that were stinging me on my legs and hands. Our last dive (my #9) was at a site called manyaray bay, with hope of seeing a manta ray! They can be huge! But no one saw any. I guided Carolina and I around fir the most part with the other dives so I told her I was going to follow this time, it was a fairly shallow site so lots of light and all the colors popped (deeper the reds and oranges don't make it so everything looks a little blue monotone)saw a couple big bright blue starfish, huge giant clams (2-3ft) with bright colored lips, and played with more nemos, Christmas tree worms and the clams. Best part was since it was mostly a shallow dive my air lasted much longer, we actually stopped early because we were getting tired.
So that was it, my trip to and living on the great barrier reef for 3 days. Again I can't imagine it being anymore amazing, the conditions were perfect!
Last night everyone that left the boat headed down to the woolshed in cairns for a bit of free beer and pizza, goldfish racing and dancing on the tables!!!! I left about midnight since I'm currently on a 11 hr greyhound bus ride that left 9am to airlie beach where im going to meet up with Tine again, hopefully dinner and a nice walk down the beach then its off on my next adventure aboard the Habibi sail boat for 3 days!


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