Diving on the Great Barrier Reef
Well for the last 3 days I have been spending my time on a boat.
Now before we get to far ahead of myself I should tell you that I signed up for a dive course in which we spend 2 days in a pool and then 3 days out on the ocean diving on the great barrier reef. I was looking at doing this ever since I went diving at Busselton. Anyway we did the 2 days playing around in a pool and learning how not to kill ourselves in the open ocean, then we headed out on a boat (aptly nicknamed the "Upchuck Express" for reasons I shouldn't have to explain) we then transferred onto the bigger, nicer 3 story boat where we would be staying. Anyway we went for 2 dives that day and I have to admit my first day on the great barrier wasn't a glowing start. I suited up, checked all of my gear (as the last thing you need is to realize that you forgot to fill up the air tank before you jumped into the water, it is really embarrassing to have to climb back out after jumping in for only 12 seconds) well after I jumped in and swam over to my instructor I felt a stinging sensation across my knuckles. I started to look for the jelly fish and when I spun around I got another sting on my knuckles, but I still couldn't see it, that is when I spotted 1 thin blue strip cross my facemask and I realized it must be tangled in my gear. 
I asked the instructor (Jayne) to have a look for it. Originally she couldn't see it, but then she spotted it, said an appropriate word to mirror my feelings and directed me back to the boat. I should mention that we wear "Stinger suites" which are like wet suits but built to protect us from jelly fish, which is why when it was tangled around me, I only got stung on my hands where the suit wasn't covering my skin. I should also mention that jelly fish stings don't burn as long as the stings are covered in salt water. Which is why when I hit the boat and brought my hands out of the ocean into the rain where they were hit by the cold fresh water I actually shuddered as my hands felt like they were suddenly on fire. The people on the dive deck got the stinger off of me (it turned out to be a blue bottle jelly fish) and sprayed my hands with vinegar to neutralize the stinging sensation. I then continued the dive where we dove, and swam around on the bottom for a while. The objective of the fist dive in the ocean is to just get you used to breathing under water, and swimming with all of the gear. The second dive we started doing some of the skills we learned about in the pool 2 days earlier. After we finished the skills we continued on just swimming around on the coral where we spotted a big barracuda (fish) a moray eel, and 3 sea turtles. At the surface we practiced taking off the scuba gear and then putting it back on (where we disappointed Jayne by having no floundering, panicking or even splashing, something that always happens on this part of the course, she made a comment about missing out on her required entertainment for the day) which is actually a lot 
easier than it sounds. We called an end to the day where we returned to the boat and had supper. We didn't go out on the night dive that night as it would have costed us 60 bucks (For a certified guide to go with us as we were not yet certified divers). That night we got put into our rooms (we got a room each, with a double bed. Oh what a wonderful room, but there was a catch we were on the main floor and that night was refueling night. What happened on refueling night is that once every four weeks the boat drives back into Cairns in the middle of the night, refuels, and re-stocks with all non perishable foods that will be required over the next month. This is usually done around 1 in the morning, and the boat has to be back at the dive site by 5:30 for the 6:00 o’clock dive. 
Well our floor is where they pile all of the stuff before unpacking it on the return trip out. Well that is why throughout the night I heard "Peas", "Corn", "Sugar", along with a whole assortment of other items including frozen chickens. I was still awake on the trip in as I wanted to see the lights of Cairns from the ocean, but I had to admit I wasn't completely able to tune out all of the noise from the loading, but I was only asleep for a little while before I was shook wide awake by a quite voice asking "Where is the beer?" As it would later turn out, it didn't come in on the order and our dive party boat had just become a dry dive boat. Well the next morning at 6 I woke up on my own (the boat was still moving, which meant we were running late). The crew looked exhausted, none of them really slept at all, some had about 2 hours of sleep, including our dive instructor Jayne. This is when we started the, well, acting part. They film you early in the morning, waking up, having a cup of tea, suiting up and jumping in the water. The camera guy asks you how you feel, if you are excited for the dive and that kind of crap. Chris was able to muster enough energy and fake enthusiasm, I who got about 3 hours of sleep that night couldn't muster anything more than a week lipped hi. I could only look at my tea and hope that once I hit the water the cold would blast some feeling back into my sleeping head. We suited up, jumped in (I doing a front flip into the water, which is easier to do than you would think) where we did some more dive skills before returning to breakfast. I came in with a desperate need for a good meal and discovered a very depressing and disappointing breakfast. It consisted of baked beans in tomato sauce, canned spaghetti and oatmeal. I looked at this meal in disbelief recalling the fine supper that was cooked the night before and wondering if I was just having a bad dream. The chef seeing me standing there with a look of shock said that due to the fact he got on board 5 hours ago and had spent most of the night packing stuff away, therefore breakfast was a bit weaker than usual. I nearly cried, and started making my way to the fruit where I loaded up as I couldn't make myself eat tinned spaghetti for breakfast. I had to eat fast as we had to be back in the water by 8 for our last training dive and where the camera man comes with us and issues us our cards under water. Well we suited up, got in the water went for a swim, they issued us our cards and we had to show a lot of enthusiasm and do underwater summersaults, pretend to drink a can of beer, put on sunglasses, and a whole bunch of other crap in order to make the movie better. We also made up these slates and wrote something smart on them. I put down "Ok, who stole my submarine?" along with something philosophical. We swam around a bit more, saw a lion fish (very poisonous) along wit a very big barracuda (over a meter long) before coming back up. We took the 11:00 dive off to relax a bit, had lunch (A great improvement over breakfast) before we met the movie guy at 12:30 so he could show us the movie he had made. We watched it, and it was a good movie, and I was planning on buying it before he showed me the price. What happens is that he sends the movie off to get put onto a DVD and copy write it. They then mails you the DVD in the mail 3 weeks later. The DVD costs 75 bucks a copy, and you can't make any copies of it. I said 75 was way to much for it and I made a note of writing down as much about what happened on this trip so that I wouldn't need a DVD in the future. The camera guy actually looked shocked when we said we weren't going to buy one. Even when I looked at it later, it felt real gimmicky for the amount of money they asked. I am glad I held onto that slate for a couple of hours after the dive so I could take some pictures of it with me on the boat for free. Anyway at 3:00 we moved dive sites, and what the dive crew do during these moves is toss in their fishing lines to see if they can troll for some fish while we move, and one of them caught a yellow fin tuna, a rather big on to. Upon arrival we got ready for the 4:00 dive, our first dive as certified divers, and our first dive without a guide. We geared up, dived in and gave it a go. We went to the reef, swam around, and with the biggest shock of the day, successfully navigated back to the boat under water and popped up just beside the dive deck. But that wasn't all, I finally got my reef shark, my first solo dive and I saw the reef shark that I so desperately wanted on Ningaloo. I even did an underwater dance of true sheer enjoyment. We had supper (a very fine meal full of vegetables and many other fine foods). We then prepared for the highlight of the day, the night dive. Now the night dive is a completely different world when compared to the day, now the nocturnal animals come out, including the reef sharks. But that is another blog for another day, as I don't want to kill you guys with one huge blog. See everyone next time.
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