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October 2, 2009 - Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef
What an amazing adventure! We were up at 5 am this morning because we needed to leave by 6:30 to drive to Cairns (we are staying a little way up the coast at Trinity Beach). Well, it was hard getting going. I won't mention any names, but one of us pretty much had to be pulled out of bed because she just couldn't wake up...must have been the motion sickness pills! Anyway, after a few false starts that included being slow moving, me being unable to find the room keys that had the remote for the garage and Daniel being unable to locate the dive papers, we actually left at 6:50. We got to Cairns and parked where we thought we were supposed to....only to find we were literally a mile from the boat...Fortunately, we had planned an extra hour into our travel this morning, so we were still on the boat in plenty of time.
This is a nice boat...here's a photo:
I just want to say that this experience was so, so, so very different than our experience in Myrtle Beach! And if you come to Cairns to dive, I highly recommend Tusa
First we got checked in and found a seat. We ended up at a table with two girls from San Francisco who were here in Cairns for a few days. Turns out one of them, Karen, actually lived in the same building Daniel lived in the last time he worked in San Francisco! Isn't that Incredible!
After we were checked in, we were encouraged to have a cookie and coffee or tea or water. This was morning tea. We were also warned that the trip out to the reef was going to be a bit bumpy and we should take some medicine if we had a history of being sea sick or if we had never been out on the ocean before. They offered either ginger tablets for free or two motion sickness pills for 1.00. I had taken another motion sickness pill before leaving the apartment, but decided that adding ginger to the mix would be a good idea. Especially since we were moving and I was already feeling a little queasy and we hadn't gotten out to the bumpy part yet.
I kept my eye on the barf bags (they didn't tell us to throw up over the sides) and concentrated on relaxing. I tried not to watch as several other people on the ship grabbed bags and headed to the back deck... I was terrified that I would end up suffering through the whole day, but the ginger kicked in and my stomach calmed down and after 90 minutes, we were at our first reef stop.
We had brought our own equipment, but they provided booties, flippers, snorkels and masks if you needed them. They also provided us with short wetsuits which add to buoyancy as well as give warmth. Also, on the way out to the reef, they told us what to expect and they briefed the divers and the snorkelers in separate groups. Once we were anchored at the reef, we were let loose. We got into our wetsuits, defogged our masks and then prepared to enter the water. The staff put our flippers on right before we got in. They had noodles for those who didn't feel like they were strong swimmers. I used the noodle and the wetsuit on my first time in because I was a bit concerned. I hadn't really swam in the ocean before.
We could see so many fish and the coral was beautiful. We were at the first reef for probably 90 minutes or more. I goofed because I saw several people back on ship and thought it was time to go in, but once I got out and settled, we ended up being there another 45-60 minutes. I didn't take the underwater camera on the first go around because I wasn't sure how it was all going to go. It took Jack a little while to get comfortable, but then he seemed to enjoy it. There was more of a current at our first stop and we didn't see as much, but still we were happy. Katrina was like a fish in water. She was having a blast! When we got out of the water, the staff helped us by removing our flippers. The whole time we were in the water, staff was keeping an eye out. It was just an amazing experience all the way around.
Next was the buffet lunch and a Reef lesson where we learned about some things we had seen and would be seeing at the next stop. Then we moved off to Blue Lagoon. This site was beautiful. The water was calmer here and there was so much more to see. I left the noodle behind this time and had a lovely time just snorkeling around and watching the fish go about their business. Still didn't take any pictures, wish I had. I didn't take the camera this time because I hadn't seen that much the first time out. I will do better when we go again on Sunday. Katrina didn't wear her wetsuit the second time and did fine (several other people didn't wear the wet suits either, the weather was pretty warm). I stayed out the hole 75 minutes this time and wasn't ready to go in when our time was up. It was awesome!
Then, we had afternoon tea (cakes and drinks) and headed back to dock. Then we had to walk the mile back to the car and drive home. I was so tired that I couldn't even do dishes... I went to bed at 8 and by 8:05 I was asleep.
