Great Barrier Reef

It was kinda windyyyyy

The best weather out of the 3 days...it got bad later though!

Yea I dove in that...

The adventures in Cairns continue...

I spent a couple days of this trip in class getting PADI certified as a Scuba Diver! Once the in class session ended we took a 80 yatch out into the Coral Sea to the Outer Great Barrier Reef!!! Now unfortunately the weather was far less than perfect. In fact, we had torrential rain, wind at ~30 knots and waves 3 metres high (~10ft)...needless to say majority of the passengers got sea sick...Mom and I did okay I guess because we are used to boating, but I'm not gonna lie at times I did feel a bit queasy. Anyway so after a long 3 hour ride to our first reef we suited up in our gear and prepared for our first Open Water training dive... I was sooo excited! I mean really how many people can say they got trained to dive on the GBR!!!

Well after the completion of my 5 training dives I was exhausted, but thrilled with all the creatures I had seen! I found all the Finding Nemo characters!!! :) Now...let me remind you that above the surface was aweful weather sooo under the surface had strong currents, surges and extremely poor visability. Reguardless it was all very amazing and unlike any reef I have ever seen!

Now it was time for my dive Buddy and I to venture on our own for 2 dives! My dive Buddy was an awesome Aussie guy from Perth, he's actually moving to Baltimore July 2012! Small world! Anyway soooo my buddy and I were giving free range of the reef! We saw a few Green Sea Turtles, a Hawksbill Sea Turtle, Humphead Wrasse, White Spotted Puffer, White-Tipped Sharks, Barracuda, Giant Clams (like the size of a european car), Anemonefish (Nemo and his close relatives), Triggerfish, Butterfish, Surgeornfish and heaps more! It was great!!! (My Buddy knocked my regulator out of my mouth like 5 times though! Not too exciting when you 60ish feet underwater!)

We were offered a deal to do our Adventure Diver certification at a 1/3 of the regular cost...This allows you to go 30 metres (100ft) instead of 18 metres (60ft) and do night diving. Both my Buddy and I decided to take the course...That night we were to embark on our first night dive and in the morning a deep dive!

At night time we were served dinner...once we were finished we put our rubbish in the bin and rinsed our plates by hose off the side of the boat. This attracted lot of fish! A group of us traveled to the upper deck because someone said they spotted a shark! Sure enough a white-tipped reef shark was chasing fish around...we watched for a bit when suddenly he bolted at a fish! By the time he got to it 3 other white-tips attacked the same fish! It was awesome!!! About 10 minutes later I geared up and jumped in with the sharks!

The night dive was unique in a scary kinda way. It was funny you all stay soooo close because you don't want to be left behind or eaten by something! It was pretty cool even though the visibility was poor from the weather.

Finally we in the morning we did the deep dive! It was amazing so how without even realizing I was at 100ft underwater! We did a few cool experiments with the pressure and color specturm changes. The dive instructor asked us what fruit he was holding on a slate...we all guess Apple or Orange (even though it was vibrant orange colored)...turns out it was a tomato (red is the first color lost underwater). He also held out a flashlight and asked what color it was...everyone guess yellow because it was clear as day bright yellow! It was really neon green! The last thing he did was show us a bottle of water he brought down...it was crushed! And after the dive showed us it again at the surface it nearly exploded from the pressure!

The dives were awesome and an amazing experience! And at the end the dive instructors told us that the conditions we dove in were in thier top 5 worst! Basically I could have surfed on the GBR, but now I'm prepared to dive in anything now! I loved every second of it! And to top it off on the ride back to the port we spotted whales!