Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Reefer Madness

Day three of our scuba diving trip is just beginning, with the Pro-Dive II's inhabitants slowly stumbling out of bed for their morning briefing. We've had a great two days of diving, Tyler and I having the option of doing eight dives thus far with three more coming up today. We're about 60km off the coast of Cairns, we can see the hazy city lights in the distance in the night-time.

There is a crew of about eight twenty-somethings, all quite energetic and eager to get along with every batch of new passengers that come out. We've been blessed with fairly decent weather, a few hours of sunshine each day. The dives come in rapid succession, just as you're gathering your wits, its time to go dive again. After awhile, its a blur between life on the boat and life under it.

We've seen a plethora of marine life, two different kinds of turtles - one as big as a table - white tipped sharks, moray eel, trigger fish, bat fish and a whole lot more. Visibility has been good, our dives all being quite easy and relaxing. We're rarely going deeper than 60ft / 20m.

The boat has a smattering of German, Canadian, UK, Dutch and American divers, with the average age being about 30 or so. A bit older of group than I had expected. We've had a good time getting to know them all. It took three days, but I think I've got all the names down.

No seasickness evident as of yet from any of the passengers or crew, the quality of the food may be a testament to that. Everyone seems very into their photography kits, with most everyone having a camera with underwater casing. We've had the opportunity to rent cameras here but have passed - I'm not a real big fan of adding another distraction on what is already a situation requiring full concentration. Another device to fumble and fiddle with won't help my experience any. So, regrettably, no underwater pics for this post.

Back to Cairns this evening for a day of decompression before heading home to Sydney for Australia Day.

posted by ncawthon at 1:53 PM