Finding Nemo

We did it, we are now certified divers.  Laura's course was much harder than mine, but we will get to that in a bit.  The seas were much calmer today, although there was still a bit of a swell, so we headed out on an hour boat ride to Egg Rock.  This small island (rock) is in the green zone on the great barrier reef, which means no fishing or collecting of any sort.  It is quite a gem in these parts and we were fortunate to get out there.  Our first anchorage was in a current between a few smaller rocks. We were rocking and rolling pretty good on the boat Laura and I were both feeling the effects when we went into the water.

We started with a surface compass navigation, then descended to the reef, where the effects of the waves disappeared.  After practicing a few more skills we were able to look around a bit.  There was a cave in the wall of the rock, and just inside we found a Wobbegong shark.  It was quite docile and we were able to scratch its back. Back on the surface things were not getting any smoother.  Laura was turning green. Fortunately the skipper moved the boat to the other side of the island, where it was a bit calmer.  We spent two hours between dives; the only thing that lifted Laura's head was the sighting of two turtles off the starboard side.  Although she thought about jumping ship and swimming to the island, she decided to go down for the last dive, just to get off the bloody ship.  When we were all ready to go Laura scooted down from the bow, into her wetsuit and scuba gear and off the boat into the water.

This was to be our best dive of the weekend.  The water was much clearer, up to 10 meters visibility, and after finally getting the feel of SCUBA diving we were able to relax and enjoy the dive.  We finished a few skills to complete the course and then spent 20 min cruising around the reef.  The coral was beautiful with vibrant colors and large patches of anemones with clown fish darting about.  We saw a variety of larger fish including coral trout and a large wrasse (without its normal shark accompaniment.)

Once we were all out of the water we quickly stowed the gear and the boat headed back to shore.  We were near slack tide and the water had really smoothed out, so it was a smooth quick ride home.  Needless to say Laura was very happy to be back on the mainland.

Sea Snakes

Finally after months of waiting out the weather we made it out on to the Great Barrier Reef to finish our SCUBA diving course.  We started the book work back in December and dove in the pool in early January, but the combination of a heavy rainy season, a cyclone, and strong winds had made the open water portion of our dive impossible until this weekend.  We woke up early Saturday morning and went down to the dive shop to pick up our equipment and load the ute (pickup) with air cylinders.  Everyone meet at Rosslyn Bay marina and we packed the equipment on the boat.  Today we were headed to Outer Rock, which is part of the Keppel group of islands. 

The ride out was a bit rough, but we anchored on the leeward side of the island, in a calm cove, where the waves were small.  The first dive of the day was to get us used to being under the water again.  Our dive instructor (Robert) along with another instructor and seven of us students jumped into the water and went for a tour.  The area was primarily stag horn coral and there were numerous small fish darting about.  The highlight of the dive was an Olive sea snake which Robert grabbed and held by its mid-section.  We all took a feel of its skin, which felt just like any other snakes.  Once back on the boat we were informed that it is one of the top 5 most venomous snakes in the world.  Lucky for us they are very docile and will not bite unless aggravated.  

The second dive consisted of mostly skills, we practiced clearing our masks, controlling buoyancy, sharing air and ascending.  By the time we returned to the marina, unloaded the boat, washed the equipment, and went through a dive debrief we were exhausted and ready to head home to bed.

Our SCUBA pool session

We woke up early on Sunday to attend our first active lesson after completing all of our bookwork. We were fitted with masks, snorkel, fins and wetsuits, along with all of our other SCUBA equipment. After driving to the Southside Pool, we spent the day learning how to properly put together our equipment, how to make ourselves buoyant in the water, how to take our equipment off and put it back on in the water. It was a full day and by the end we felt like drowned rats, but after learning the skills they weren’t too hard to practice over again. Our water logged bodies felt recovered finally after a hot shower, dry clothes and a cold James Squire Amber Ale.