Day 136 – Great Barrier Reef

June 22nd, 2019

I was so excited and nervous about our dive trip I barely slept the night before (not that we ever slept that good in the car anyway).  I was nervous that I would forget something or not know what to do since we are new divers, and this will be our first dive outside of the PADI open water course.  I was also nervous I would get too cold.  The morning finally came, and we got up early to get to the dock for our 7:30am check in time.  We boarded the boat where they served us breakfast and went over some general safety rules.  It took a little over an hour on the boat to get us out to the Reef Experience boat which was the one we were going to stay on for the night.  Once we got there, we could see the reef under the water and the colors of the water were very pretty.  We boarded the Reef Experience boat and were warmly welcomed by the crew. 

We were given our room (and Brendan asked if they had an upgraded room available which they did, and they upgraded us for free!). 

We got changed and immediately got in the water for some snorkel time before lunch and our scuba dive briefing. 

After getting our gear we discovered they had hot water, and I was given the tip to fill my wetsuit with hot water before getting in, and that was really nice.  We jumped in off the back of the boat and I was immediately relieved the water was warm.  It was around 70 degrees F and I didn’t get cold snorkeling.  The water was much warmer than where we snorkeled a few days before in the Whitsundays.  We had to swim a bit out to the reef and the water was a little rough.  At first, I wasn’t sure how great it was going to be until we reached the reef and it was jaw dropping!  The variety of fish and coral we saw just off the boat was insane.  It was immediately the best snorkeling I have ever done, and I feel extremely fortunate to have had some amazing snorkel experiences in my life so far.  We saw turtles and giant clams, and beautiful neon fish. The mountains of coral were endless and very amazing. 

Once we got back to the boat and out of the wetsuit, it was SOOO cool to be able to jump into warm water (either from the outdoor showerhead, the on-board hot tub, or the shower in your room).  They also had a 24/7 tea and hot chocolate station so you could start warming yourself up again right away.  By then it was lunch time and we were served a great lunch.  We got our scuba dive briefing and I was again relieved they went over the basic stuff about equipment which was a good refresher for me.  They also gave the option to complete our ‘advanced open water certification’ during the trip. 

We paid for guided dives feeling it would be worth it to have an experienced diver leading us and knows the area well.  They said if we wanted to do the advanced course they would credit the money we paid for the guided dives towards the cost of the course.  We decided to go ahead and do the course since it was not much extra money and the advanced certification would allow us to do more variety of dives in the future.  So excited for the first dive, we got geared up and into the water.  There were five of us diving with our guide and doing the advanced course. 

After we all gave the ‘okay’ signal, we were ready to descend and begin to go under.  As I descended and got to the first point, I needed to equalize my ears.  I tried and nothing happened.  I tried again and my ears did not equalize.  I had an ‘oh shi**’ thought go through my head about how devastating it would be if we came all this way and spent all this money to dive the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and I couldn’t do it because of my ears. 

I had no problems at all with my ears when we did our open water certification in Panama, and then I remembered the terrible cold I had a few weeks ago.  Although I thought I was completely over my cold I realized it still must be affecting my ears.  As I watched all the others descend below me the guide looks up and questions if I’m ok.  I had to signal “I’m having problems with my ears” as I keep trying to equalize.  Finally, it worked, and I was able to relieve the pressure and descend another meter or so.  It took a while to equalize again, and I was thankful the guide and group seemed patient.  I got to about 5 meters (16 feet) and was having a hard time going down any further.  The guide signaled it’s okay and to swim at this level and we set out on the dive. 

As the dive continued it seemed to get easier to equalize my ears, but I never got more than about 7 meters in depth.  The good thing was we didn’t need to be any deeper to experience what this part of the reef had to offer.  It was stunning.  We swam through huge mounds of coral on either side with so many fish all around.  It was like flying through a magical botanical garden from another world.  I can’t really express in words how amazing it was, almost visually overloading.  The GBR exceeded my expectations completely. 

We finished the dive and came back to the boat for a short period before it was time to dive again.  The worst part for me was getting out of the water as I would freeze with the wind.  I was so thankful for the hot water on the boat and that I wasn’t too cold while in the water.  The minutes getting in and out were tough (it is winter in Australia after all- outside temps in the mid 70’s). 

We had another briefing to prepare for the first dive in our advanced course which was fish and coral recognition.  We had an assignment to identify 10 fish and 5 types of coral.  We took underwater fish charts and note pads down with us.  This was another super fun, amazing dive.  We saw our first reef shark and several turtles.  I again struggled with my ears a bit and had to go super slow to equalize with time. 

After this dive, we had another short break before getting back in for our first night dive.  I was TIRED at this point.  Already being in the water 3 times, and now getting back into the cold wetsuit I was not super enthused going into this dive.  As soon as we jumped in with our torch there were tons of BIG fish swimming all around us.  They would use our light to hunt the smaller fish.  It was a trip seeing them go after those small fish so aggressively.  There are also a lot of sharks out at night and that was kind of crazy for me.  We were told that reef sharks are not aggressive towards divers, but it still felt weird knowing they were all around.  We saw sleeping turtles and the fish that were close to us.  Visibility was definitely limited, and I thought it was pretty eerie. 

As part of our course we had to demonstrate a couple skills on this dive such as lost buddy procedure at night and finding the boat.  I was happy once this dive was done and we could get into dry clothes.  It was a big day of diving and we were ready for dinner.  They served roasted duck with a pumpkin, pesto gnocchi.  It was the first time I ever had duck and I was impressed with how fancy the food was on a dive boat.  Dessert was even better which was a warm bread pudding with berries and ice cream. 

After dinner we had another briefing and instruction on our 6:30am sunrise dive the next day.  This was going to be the deep dive of the course and I was nervous about it since my ears were giving me problems all day and I never got deeper than 7 meters.  After our instruction and casual conversation with other divers and the crew, we went to bed to get ready for our early morning wakeup. The bed was SUPER comfortable, and I was so ready for it after sleeping in the car for the previous seven nights.