Today was snorkel and scuba diving day! I would be scuba diving for the first time. I was a little nervous about it but my shipmates were very encouraging. Many had been scuba diving all over the world. As one of my shipmates put it, “you can’t come to the Great Barrier Reef and NOT scuba dive. Most people do their first dive in a swimming pool – how amazing is it that you will be doing yours at one of the most amazing dive sites in the world!” He’s right. And it was.
Because of the risk posed by the very serious jelly fish they have in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef we are each issued “stinger suits” which are like spandex jump suits – not really wet suits. We are not to go in the water without them. The Irukandji jellyfish is so small that you really can’t see them and their sting can be quite painful and if you don’t get medical attention can be quite serious and then of course they have the lethal box jellyfish. Thankfully I never saw any jellyfish and no mishaps occurred on our trip.
There were 3 of us who had never dived before so our instructor, Terry, the guy to the right of me in the picture - a Frenchman with a very Jacques Cousteau vibe, gave us our instruction starting on the beach in standing water. He reassured us that pretty much any problem could be solved under water – lose your mask, I’ll show you how to put it back on and get the water out, lose your breathing mouthpiece, I’ll show you how to find it and put it back in. See a shark? No worries, we’ll chase it. Except for that last part I did feel pretty confident. Before I knew it we were off. The reef is amazing. The water was clear and the colors and fish were everywhere. The fish were so curious they would come right up to you, in your face – all colors, all shapes, all sizes. So many of them! Coral, clown fish, anemones, sea cucumbers, starfish, so many things to look at, so beautiful. I bought a cheap underwater disposable camera and quickly found that I couldn’t tell what I was taking pictures of underwater so I just snapped away. I hope they come out well.
As it turns out they didn't come out so well, but here they are. I am disappointed that the vibrant colors and amazing coral didn't come out on film but I'll always have the memories...
We stayed down about 40 minutes and went about 18 meters deep – roughly 54 feet? not sure. Anyway, it was great. Saw no sharks or jellyfish – nothing lethal, that I was aware of (yeah!) - saw tons of beautiful coral and fish. Fantastic adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment