The Great Barrier Reef

With another sunny day in Cairns, it was time to go to the Great Barrier Reef.  Large enough to be clearly visible from space, we were going to see one of the natural wonders of the world.  Ramona and Angie found a great tour that included a day's sail with snorkeling or scuba.  It would be a nice opportunity to see the reef - up close and personal!

We met the boat, the SeaStar, at the wharf in Cairns.  The friendly crew brought aboard and quickly got us underway.

Cairns receded into the distance quickly, and we were off into the Coral Sea.  Oddly enough, it was only the second sea I'd been to (the first being the Sea of Japan).

With smooth seas, it was a pleasant hours' sail to the reef.  Our first stop, Michaelmas Cay - was our first opportunity of the day to snorkel.  Since it was still jellyfish season, we had to cover ourselves - head to toe - in stinger suits.

I chose to rent a digital camera, hoping I'd end up with at least a few pictures.  Once outfitted, the crew gave us more safety instructions as we approached Michaelmas Cay.  This was the beach side of a small island on what was called the "Inner Reef", closer to the Australian side of the Great Barrier Reef. It was essentially a protected wildlife reserve, as turtles used parts of the beach to spawn, and birds covered the grassy portions.  We were directed to stay just on the center of the beach, for those who weren't taking a dive.

The crew ferried us to the island and began to unload us on the beach.  Nearly all the guests were going snorkeling here, so I was sure it was going to be a bit crowded underwater.  Once we hit the beach, we were broken up in to groups and headed out.  At first, most of what we saw were living coral - forests of color, swaying in the current.  Tiny fish darted in and out of them, snacking up on even smaller fish or plankton.  The shallow waters allowed plenty of sunlight, so we could easily see the sandy bottom, small fish darting just under the surface and every detail of the reef.  It was very breathtaking.  I tried my hand at taking as many pictures with the underwater camera as a could, hoping they'd all turn out.  I won't be posting any of them here, as I'll need to clean them up with the GIMP (open-source Photoshop equivalent).

Forty-five minutes in the water seemed to evaporate in minutes, and we were called back onto the boat.  The crew was hard at work, getting lunch ready and preparing to get under way.  Now that we were out of the water, the wind quickly made things a lot colder.  Fortunately, hot tea and coffee was available, which warmed things up considerably.  We ate lunch and talked about the many things we'd seen underwater.  A short while later, we were underway to our second stop, Hastings Reef.

Hastings Reef was on the "Outer Reef", closer to the open ocean.  It was only twenty minutes away, and would show us different wildlife than what we'd seen earlier.  Once we arrived, we donned our stinger suits and got ready to dive.  Since the water was colder, many of us donned wetsuits over the stinger suits, to help ward off the cold.  Fortunately, the water wasn't nearly as cold, so the extra layers weren't as necessary.

Once underwater, it wasn't long before we saw a sea turtle, poking its head in between the reef.  I took several pictures, hoping some of them will turn out (they'll most likely be posted to Flickr).  As we moved along the reef, the currents here were much, much stronger, making swimming between the reefs a challenge.  On several occasions, the current pulled me over the reef or forced me to swim through shallow water over a portion of it, to get back to deeper water.  I'm not a strong swimmer, by any means, so this tired me out pretty quickly.  So much, in fact, that I managed to drop the digital camera I'd rented.


I was worn out and headed back to the boat.  It wasn't too long before other divers were back in as well.  Thankfully, one of the crew retrieved the camera, so I was able to get the pictures and video I shot.

Part of the reef visit included a glass-bottom boat tour.  One of the crew helped us aboard a 20' skiff, and motored a few dozen yards from the Seastar.  He took us over a portion of the reef, so that we could see the reef walls, coral and other sea creatures below.  We could see nearly all of types of coral described earlier on our tour, as well as hear a little bit about the preservation projects underway to help keep this natural wildlife sanctuary pristine for generations to come.

Before long, we were back aboard the SeaStar and getting underway for Syndey harbor.  The trip out was about 90 minutes, and the return trip was expected to be the same.  However, once we got under way, the wind and waves seem to be against us, making things VERY bumpy.  We were seated on an open deck at the rear of the boat; the wind whipped the sea spray around the deck and drenched all of the passengers seated there.  Even from where were seated, we got dripped on fairly often.  Yet, the water wasn't nearly as bad as the jostling we received as the boat crashed through the waves.  Angie was clearly not enjoying the trip back, but was trooper to the very end!  Our roller coaster ride jostled more than a few of the other passengers, but no one seemed to suffer any serious crashes.  When we finally approached the shoreline, I think everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

After we pulled into the harbor, we disembarked at the marina and made our way back to our hotel.  As this was our last night in Cairns, we packed up and made ready to travel to our next destination - Auckland, New Zealand!