The Great Barrier Reef

February 25, 2012

                It’s almost the end of February! Just thought I’d point that out.

                So there isn’t a whole lot to talk about, I’ve been getting ready to take over for Kerwin as Head Stage Staff at the end of this contract which is pretty exciting.  The Circumnavigation Part 1 is going fairly well, we’ve had decent entertainment and the crowds have been enjoying themselves I think. We have a group of Country Western fanatics on board and so we’ve had a decent amount of extra work to do, because they have little bands that play all over the ship, which sucks on the one hand but it’s also not so bad since we get paid extra.

                The main thing I should talk about is going to see the Great Barrier Reef the other day!! Are you ready? Be excited.

                So we got off in Port Douglas, which is towards the Northeastern corner of Australia (obviously) around 11:00am with the mission to find a company to take us out to the Great Barrier Reef because the ship’s tour was full. We got onto the pier and started walking and quickly found out that many of the local tours were also full or only had one or two spots left (there were four of us). One company told us that some staff members (from the ship) had reserved seven spots on one tour and asked if we were part of the seven and we were SO tempted to say yes, but, of course we couldn’t lie like that. So, as we began to feel more and more disheartened, and as guests piled up in a line behind us started to feel the same way, the woman was kind enough to call another company (that we hadn’t even seen advertised anywhere) and asked if they had room to take around 12 people out to the reef on their yacht. They said that they’d do a tour for us and to be at their pier at 12:45. YES!!

                So, the four of us got a quick (but delicious) lunch and then walked over to pick up the boat! Now, it wasn’t a yacht like you might think when you hear “yacht”—it wasn’t this huge slick white boat with all the trimmings—but it was an almost traditional sailboat that was built in the 1920s and used to be used as a minesweeper for the Australian military. Pretty neat! So we all piled in, greeted by a cooler of ice cold water and complimentary cookies/brownies, and settled in for the hour ride out to the reef. On the way there the Skipper, aka the Captain, and his wife and the other woman working for them briefed us on the area, the snorkeling, and got us all geared up to jump in!

                When we got out to our snorkeling area we had the option to climb down the ladder into the ocean or to jump in, well, you better believe we all jumped in! Once in the water, we swam with our guide to where the coral was between a half meter away from the surface down to a few meters away, depending. It was so breathtaking, even though the water wasn’t as clear as it probably could have been. You could still make out the colors of the fish and the coral—sadly this area’s coral didn’t have some of the more vibrant colors that you hear about, but, I think the environment has a lot to do with that. At one point, I came up to the surface to dump out some seawater that had leaked in to my snorkel and then I put my face back in and as I was taking photos a Reef Shark came out of nowhere and swam beneath me a couple meters. After the initial shock of “OMG THAT’S A SHARK”         I was so excited and managed to get a decent picture and a less decent video of him (or her, I guess). The guide said that it was pretty rare to see a shark because in these waters they tend to stay away since they’re shy and they have kind of figured out that a lot of people swim around.  So that was pretty neat, and then we were swimming back towards the boat in water that was a bit deeper and our guide was surprised that nobody had seen a turtle since they were apparently usually pretty active in this area. As she was saying that, I stuck my face in the water and saw this big round shape swimming a few meters beneath me and after a moment I realized “OMG THAT’S A TURTLE!” and I didn’t get a photo but I got a video which I will take a still of and then make that into a photo. It was pretty hard to see him but it was still really really awesome.

                Overall, I am definitely very happy with my experience and we’re so lucky that the woman called this little company because I think that honestly, it was better than anything we could have gotten anywhere else.

                I think I’m going to leave you all with that. I’m sorry to make you jealous! But, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I’d see the things I’ve seen in the last months, so, maybe you will someday, too!

Love to you all

Xoxox

B