Dive Trip

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Dive Boat - June 20-25 

I landed in Cairns at 10 am after a hell flight from Perth-Brisbane-Cairns. I checked into Mike Ball and found out I was only allowed one bag on the boat. Of course since I packed up my room and flew here, nothing was in any sort of packed order. I unpacked and replaced one bag with all of my dive gear and select clothes. 

I walked around Cairns until 4 when we all met up for dinner. There is a nice boardwalk around the lagoon. Other than that though, there's not much to do. Everything is based around the water. The dive boat has 29 people on it plus eight staff. It is a 100 foot boat called the Spoilsport. I am in cabin 6 on the port side. Nice room with my own bathroom/shower. 

We got on board and I pretty much went to bed after the safety and dive procedure talks. The first day we dove four times - Challenger Bay, Two Towers twice, and Challenger Bay again. We saw crocodile needlefish, sea snakes, squirrel fish, lion fish, anemone fish, clown fish, and minke whales on the first dive. The two towers dive, my buddy and I misused the compass and ended up miles away from the boat. We had to be picked up by the rescue boat cause no air and no snorkel are a great combination when you aren't a mile away from the boat. However, when we got lost we ran into a mum and calf minke whale set which was the first set to be seen in this area ever. The second time here was better and didn't get lost. The night dive was terrifying cause the predatory dish would be behind you and as soon as you flashed the light on a dish it was eaten. My buddy and I did dives of 62-69 minutes every time. 

We ended up snorkeling with 9 minke whales on the first day. They are magnificent. They are maybe 6m long and 7 tons. They are quite inquisitive and thus com within touching distance of you. They stayed with us all day for 9 hours which is rare I guess. We had nose breaches, ballerina spins, belly presentations, and noises. The minke specialist thinks that the GBR is a place where they come to mate. Not much is known about them; they don't know where they migrate, where they eat, why they are in the GBR, and why they don't eat in the GBR. This trip has had a lot of firsts I guess 

The second day we dove four times at Pixie Pinnacle and Lighthouse Bombie. The lighthouse Bombie wasn't fantastic. The visibility was maybe 6 feet. It was also a shallow dive. The current was brutal as well. The first dive, we saw lion fish, nudibreg, coral, barracuda, purple fish, blue fish, giant four foot blue starfish, red flashing file clam, and tons of angel fish. The second dive we saw eels, mantis shrimp, nudibreg, white top sharks, bull rays, coral, clownfish, bullhead parrot fish. The night dive was entertaining. My buddy and I got lost again and missed the site but found the boat again. I honestly didn't see much on that dive. Over the day we averaged a dive length of 66 minutes on 3200 PSI. 

We got extraordinarily lucky and had a pod of 39 whales over the course of the day. The best times to see the whales is the last week of June and the first week of July. The whale specialist told us all about the whales and how little they know about them after 10 years of research. We had whales literally pop up for air a foot away from you. It was incredible. 

The third day we dove the Cod Hole. Swimming was impossible-as the current was intensive and going to wrong way from the reef. I fought the current the entire time. This area is known for its giant potato cod which a five foot monstrous looking cod. There was nothing interesting on this dive that we hadn't seen for the last couple if days. Minke whales showed up in the arvo. I sun tanned and did the required no diving within 24 hours before a flight thing. 

Food has been incredible the entire time. 6 am wake up are not my favorite thing. I tend to go to bed at 9 here. The rocking because of waves didn't bother me. I showered after every dive cause a 3mm wetsuit and 26C water didn't mix too well. The sun shined all weekend. Cold wetsuits are the worst part of the morning. I spent more time in the water than on the boat. it took. Couple of hours to be able to do stairs and walk on a constantly moving boat but I feel like I will have sea legs when I get back on land. 
 
AFN