Into the Coral Sea (Mar. 20/09 - Coral Sea, Australia)

With half the day to kill before being picked up for the dive trip, we slept in to catch up on our sleep, then had a fabulously normal bowl of cereal for breakfast before heading out. It's amazing how you come to miss the day to day things like that when you're away from home for so long! It was the first time we've had milk since November!

We had a couple errands to run, including finding a Lonely Planet for our drive down the coast and buying a new swimsuit for me since I've actually lost enough weight on this trip that mine no longer fits! Love it when that happens. A van picked us up mid afternoon and took us to the dive shop to sign our lives away and then we headed to the dock. I recognized the boat instantly, a beautiful 100ft monohull named "Taka". It's a large, well laid out boat, with an open sundeck up top, a covered main aft deck, indoor lounge/eating area, spacious dive deck, and cabins everywhere in between. We have a nice little room on the upper deck near the bow, with bunk beds and an ensuite bathroom. The whole boat seems to be well built and carefully designed, as the almost full boat of 25 divers and a dozen crew doesn't make it seem the least bit crowded. We got some dive gear and the lowdown on what to expect for the trip, then pushed off from the dock and were on our way out of the harbour, northbound. The sun set behind the eastern hills as we cruised parallel to the coast, bound for the Ribbon Reefs that fringe the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef. We'll travel most of the way up overnight, dive at the famous "Cod Hole" site tomorrow, and then cross the open sea to Osprey Reef before diving our way back to Cairns over the next couple days. These are some of the richest dive sites in the world that we have heard so much about in dive publications and nature shows, so it's going to be quite a treat to see it all for ourselves!