Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Underwater nirvana (Mar. 23/09 - Great Barrier Reef, Coral Sea, Australia)

It was another sleepless night, as we rode out the relentless raging sea and nonstop wind all the way back from Osprey to the Great Barrier Reef. We were warned that it could be a rough night, and that was definitely an understatement. There were times when you could feel the boat being launched off a huge wave, then freefall and crash down on the other side so hard that it made the entire hull vibrate. Getting up to use the washroom was extremely hazardous, as one moment you would have a firm grip on something, and the next moment you're being slammed up against the door on the other side of the cabin. I just had to lie there, telling myself that this boat was made for this stuff, and the captain had done it a hundred times before. We were still moving when the morning wake-up call came, but once breakfast and the morning briefing were underway, we had moored up at Clam Gardens, on the inside of Ribbon Reef #5.

The visibility wasn't very good this morning, but there was still lots to look at. Complex gardens of hard corals were dotted with an abundance of giant clams and large quantities of reef fish. The site is apparently home to two resident Australian Great Cuttlefish, but we weren't able to spot them. There's nothing quite like an early morning dive to wake you up in the morning, especially when you know that's all you'll be doing for the rest of the day!

Steve's Bommie is on of the well known dive sites on the Great Barrier Reef, and for good reason - it's beautiful! A pinnacle similar to Pixie's Pinnacle on the first day, we started near its base at 80 feet and spiralled our way up. Big schools of little fusiliers dashed in and out, pursued by hunting trevally. Corals and fish life became more plentiful as we shallowed up, and above 30 feet we saw pretty anemones swaying in the current with their resident anemonefish, a leafy scorpionfish hid on some coral, and a thick cloud of orange and purple anthias dashed about the reef. A grey reef shark and a couple white tipped sand sharks made a close pass to see what we were up to before disappearing into the blue. It was one of those spots where we could've stayed down all day!


Dolphins rode our bow wave for a while en route to our next site, a pretty reef with the odd name of "2 2/3", which is located 2/3 of the way between Ribbon Reefs #2 and 3. It was a gorgeous site, with lots of critters hiding out in the sand and lots of healthy corals in between. A big triggerfish was busy munching on dead coral (though it looked like he was strategically picking the pieces up and arranging them!). Later on, we found a large cuttlefish hovering in the branches of a staghorn coral, and then a second smaller one just before we reached the maximum dive time and had to ascend.


With a few hours after the dive that staff had termed "siesta time", most people did just that to catch up on sleep lost from the last two nights. We zonked out right away and didn't wake up until almost four hours later! Unfortunately, we slept through the dive briefing, which meant having to skip the night dive (at a site called "The Beer Gardens"). Ken wasn't feeling too well anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to miss it. After dinner, we were shown the final chunk of video footage Steff took, which captured both the beautiful scenes of the reef and individual critters, as well as the fun shots of people having a good time on the boat and underwater. Too bad the price tag was so high, because it would have been great to take a copy home!

Onwards, we set sail south for Troppo's Reef, which meant a couple hours of rocky sailing outside the reef before going back in and anchoring for a calm and peaceful night at our destination for tomorrow morning's final dives.

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