Driving the coast of Queensland presented a few problems and some opportunities. I’d decided early on to try to scuba dive on the Barrier Reef. It’s the biggest reef in the world and famous for a lot of reasons. It’s the longest reef in the world. It’s renowned for the colors. And the story is that it’s dying off (bleaching) at a fast rate.
It’s been an extremely long time since I did a scuba dive. At times, watching some of the scuba classes in Santa Fe, I thought about taking a refresher course but just never did it. When I made contact with a dive shop to dive here in Australia, they said I’d have to take a half day refresher…no surprise. Since scheduling and time was important, I took my refresher on Wednesday, 3 October so I could dive the next day. The refresher was pretty good, in a special pool that they have at the dive shop for teaching. I got in a half day with a couple of young kids who were getting certified so we had a kind of funny, mixed class. But, I did have some trouble maintaining neutral buoyancy. I really didn’t have enough weight. I’d forgotten how tough it can be when you can’t get down without having to work at it. No photos of the class but overall I was pretty pleased with it.
Thursday, we had to meet at 8:00 at the pier. Not a problem, (or as they asy down here; "No dramas") there is plenty of paid parking in the area. The boat is a pretty nice catamaran with a nice cabin and a couple of outdoor decks.
The weather was a little windy in the morning so the sea was just a bit rough. They had anti-nausea pills for sale and I decided to go for it even though I’ve sailed in lots worse weather. But once you get started…it’s all over. Taking a pill once you are seasick just doesn’t work. I picked a seat and ended up with a couple of newlyweds from New York.
I don’t know how many people were on the boat. Probably close to 75 passengers and a pretty significant crew. The passengers were in 3 different groups: Certified Divers, Divers doing a “resort” dive (these guys aren’t certified and are pretty restricted), and Snorkelers. I guess that there were about 30 certified divers so they split us into 4 groups, each one with a divemaster to lead the dive. They called them dive guides. I think the non-certified divers were about 4 to an instructor. Overall, it was well run and pretty smooth. Getting that many people in the water took a bit of logistics.
Once we got in, I had a bit of trouble. My weight belt kept slipping and even though I’d increased the number of weights, I had a hard time controlling my buoyancy. But after a while I got it.
It’s a spectacular reef. We didn’t go very deep. I think I stayed above 16 meters. The advantage of shallow dives is that there’s a lot more light so you can see more. But, because I had a lot of trouble at the beginning I used a lot of air. Usually when we’ve gone diving I surface with more air in my tank that the rest of the crew. But in this case I ran out early. So the divemaster made another diver who was low on air and me surface early. The rest of them must have gotten 10-15 minutes more.
The real bummer is that I had a lot of trouble with my left ear as I was surfacing. And when I got on the deck I thought I might have broken an eardrum. It wouldn’t be terribly surprising because I’ve done it before. So I talked to the chief dive guy and to my divemaster and decided not to do the second dive in the afternoon. Everyone was very helpful and sympathetic. Interestingly, the chief guy, Mario, is from Mendoza, Argentina so we talked a little about Argentina when he had a little spare time. I was disappointed that I couldn’t do the second dive. And that I had so much trouble with buoyancy. But I didn’t want to risk an ear infection or something that would really mess up the rest of my travels. They served a nice lunch and I had time to just sit around and enjoy the day. So, although a little disappointed, it wasn't a loss.
OK, that’s the story. But I will say that the coral is fantastic. Since the Barrier Reef is so large, obviously they aren’t going to take you to an area that’s dying off. And of all of the dives I’ve done, I think that we saw the biggest variety of small fish on the reef. We didn’t see anything very big. They said there was a possibility of reef sharks, manta rays, octopi, etc. But we didn’t see anything like that. There was a professional photographer who took pictures of everyone. Normally I wouldn’t buy the photos but in this case I decided to do it. Even though I was uneasy at the time he took my photos and so I look like shit. But he also includes a bunch of pictures that he took on the reef that day. Obviously, with a flash and a good camera he get’s pictures that are lots better than anything I would have taken.
That's the main story for this event. In the end. I was kind of disappointed but really glad I did it. And there’s a chance that I’ll be in this area again and can take another crack at it.