Vacation moment #3

Spending the night on the Great Barrier Reef

When we first got to Cairns, we went to a dive shop to set up our dive trip. We were able to get the last 6 spaces on a live-aboard boat, the OceanQuest, through a group called the Deep Sea Divers Den. Highly recommended, if you are ever in the area. http://www.diversden.com.au/

We were picked up at 8 am on Tuesday and 2 hours later we were under-way, away from Cairns harbor and on our way out to the reef. It took about an hour to get to the reef, ad it was a cool ride. I just love being on the water.

I had signed up for snorkeling - my first time ever. I have to be honest - I was a bit nevous. Deep water is one of my fears, and since I don't spend that much time in the ocean, it was a bit intimidating. The others were all open to the idea of diving, in fact, we had 3 certified divers (well, Jey was sick, so she couldn't dive, but Daddy and Phat Pantz dove to their hearts' content) with us, but I was content to snorkel. It was a big enough deal for me to actually get off the back of the boat into water that deep. I didn't really share my fear of deep water and open ocean with anyone that day, and I didn't want to be too much of a wuss, so I just went for it. It freaked me out for the first couple of minutes though. But, after stopping myself from hyperventilating, I definitely enjoyed it.

The reef was pretty amazing, lots and lots of fishes - I even saw a couple of sharks. (Hard to maintain my breathing when I saw them, but I just swam the opposite direction...) Now that I know I can snorkel and not die of fright, I'm excited to try it again. I'll be in Hawaii in February as I transit to CA for 2 weeks, I'm definitely getting in the water there!

When you are on a live-aboard boat, your schedule is alternating blocks of 1; preparing to dive/snorkel, 2: diving/snorkeling, 3: debriefing from diving/snorkeling, 4: lounging on board, 5: eating, 6: repeat. About 4 times a day. It was great! On our second morning on the boat, the Hoov did an introductory dive with one of the dive instructors, who lives in Cairns and our last day on the boat happened to be the end of his work week... (See vacation moment #3a).

Spending that much time on a boat (and we were only on for one night) - when we were back on land, we could all still feel the swaying of the boat. One of my favorite parts of being on the boat was that we had to be barefoot the whole time. What a way to live! If only my view every morning was of endless ocean, and my only plan for the day was to decide whether to get in the water or lounge on the boat. I love vacation!




Vacation Moment #3a: The holiday hook-up. Umm... no need to go into detail here... :) It wasn't on the boat though.