Ever since I can remember it has been a dream of mine to scuba dive the GBR. Not quite sure where it came from, but after getting scuba certified in 2010 I knew I had to go at some point in my life. And fortunately I have a husband that helps me make my dreams a reality :). Coming to Cairns to scuba dive was a major reason for this trip and I am SO excited to have knocked this one off the list!
We woke up at 6:30 to catch our bus at 7 am from our hotel. I won't lie, we were more than a little nervous when we were picked up by a one armed man... to go scuba diving... in a place where sharks are so prevalent...
While our driver, Paul, never told us how he lost his arm, when asked if he liked to scuba dive, his response was "I used to."
We just used a little imagine to fill in the blanks...
Paul dropped us off at the dock around 8 where we picked up our tickets and boarded our boat, the Silverswift. Noted as one of the fastest in the GBR for day trips, the boat is capable of getting to and from the reef in about 90 minutes, whereas most boats in the area take 2 1/2 hours for the same route. The difference in time provides enough time for 3 dives in one day, as opposed to 2. Hooray!
We boarded the boat, filled out some waivers, anddddd then got separated. Since I am a certified diver and Jon is not, we were separated into our diving groups - the certified divers who could dive 3 times, and the intro divers who could dive twice. Not gonna lie, I was tempted to go with the intro divers to go over the basics (since it has been FIVE YEARS since I first dove), but when I was told my diving partner would be our instructor, I figured I'd be fine :-p.
It took us about 90 minutes to get out there. And the water was ROUGH. We had purchased seasickness tablets when we'd gotten on board and I'd taken them right away, but it couldn't stop the insane waves from taking over. I started off lying down inside before realizing I needed to go outside for the fresh air. I moved out to the deck and was given ice chips to chew on while Jon downed his seasickness tablets and joined me outside. The whole time I was convinced I was going to get sick, but narrowly avoided it...that is, until the boat stopped. My dive instructor, Charles, came over and told me I needed to gear up for our dive and I could barely move. I finally got to my feet and wandered over to my tank...only to get sick right as I sat down. Womp womp. Fortunately I'd been given a bag and made it all in the bag, so everything was fine. I actually felt much better after that as I got ready to go out! Ooooohhhhh boy.
So here's a recap of our dives:
Swimming with my turtle friend!
Jon:
Scuba diving for the first time was a pretty surreal experience. First, we were taught how to use our equipment and then we were broken up into groups of four to go diving with a master diver. Our master diver was named Yuta and he was responsible for putting our equipment on, checking to make sure all of our equipment was in order, and guiding us under water throughout our two dives. As soon as we arrived at the first site we were told to put our equipment on and jump in. Once we jumped in we practiced breathing under water through our regulators. It might not seem like a big deal but breathing under water is so unnatural (because it is normally impossible!) that it was hard to get used to. Once everyone in the group was in the water we were given a series of "skills" to complete before we could dive down to a max depth of 12 meters (about 40 feet). After getting through the first two skills I had a mini panic attack and had to surface before the instructor helped me calm down, complete the third task, and dive down to a depth of about 25 feet. Once I was down under the water and breathing slowly, it was easy to relax and just look around the peaceful coral reef. The colors of the coral and fish were amazing.
Turtle!
Overall, we saw a sea turtle eating coral, a sting ray, and a ton of different fish (both small and large). After my 2nd dive there was still time to snorkel so I went back into the water and I am glad I did. As I was floating at the top of the ocean I saw a white-tipped reef shark about 40 feet down - he was about 8 feet long and just cruising along. Since the shark was pretty far away and wasn't paying any attention to what was above him it was not as scary as you would think. After about 10 seconds he disappeared into the blue of the ocean and was gone. Overall, scuba diving at the Great Barrer Reef was an awesome experience and I am glad I did it. I am not sure whether I loved it enough to get certified myself, but it was an experience I will never forget.
We ate lunch between the second and third dive - chicken stir fry, rice, sushi, prawns, fruit, salad, etc. etc. After the third dive we got back on the boat to head back to port. Around 3 we took off and (THANK HEAVEN) I immediately fell asleep on the deck of the boat and didn't feel the rocking the whole way back! Huzzah! At 4 I woke up and my team of 5 reviewed the fish and marine life we'd seen and filled out our dive logs and got them stamped. We arrived back at port around 5 pm, purchased some goodies at the dive shop (a t-shirt for me and a new bathing suit for Jon) and got a taxi back to our hotel.
After showering, 2 loads of laundry, lots of TV, Mexican food ordered in, and LOTS of blogging, it's now midnight and time for bed.All in all it was a pretty spectacular day. Looking forward to exploring Cairns tomorrow :)
Jess' highlight of the day: crossing a big item off my bucket list - scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef!
Jon's highlight of the day: seeing a turtle and a shark while scuba diving and snorkeling
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