Diving The Outer Great Barrier Reef

Sunday, July 10 2005 @ 01:27 PDT

Contributed by: kingboyk

Reef Fish Preamble/Arrival in Cairns
Classroom & Pool Day 1
Classroom & Pool Day 2
Liveaboard Trip
Liveaboard Trip - The Dives

Between the 6th and 8th of June I dived the Great Barrier Reef on a liveaboard trip. This is my report.

Diving Report

Nearly Didn't Make It

If you've read my reports on the classroom and pool training, you'll know I didn't enjoy them at all.

I was very tired after day 2, and after doing various jobs (shopping, internet, laundry, packing my bags) I didn't get to bed until nearly midnight. I was due to be picked up at 6:15am, so I set my alarm for 5.

I woke in the morning after a surpisingly long sleep, and checked my watch. 6:21 am! Yikes! I grabbed my stuff, stripped the bed, and raced down the stairs. Unsurprisingly by the time I was at the rendezvous point there was no sign of the minibus. I waited and waited and, given my lack of enjoyment of the course until now, I actually decided I would do nothing. If they didn't come by 7:30 I'd go back to the hostel and forget all about it. Well, Mark, the other group's instructor, duly rolled up sporting a big smile. It may sound crazy but I was disappointed when I saw the minibus approach.

Providence had decided I would take the trip and there was no backing out now (well, there was - if things didn't improve I knew I could just snorkel if I wanted to. As it turns out, I snorkelled not once).

The Prodive office and the marina were both very close to my hostel so in fact being late was no big deal at all. They'd given us plenty of time to get aboard - presumably I wasn't the first to sleep late and nor will I be the last. We boarded MV Scubapro III, a new and impressive vessel, and were allocated cabins. I was a little disappointed not to have a window, but it didn't matter too much as over the next 3 days I'd spend all my time diving, eating, being briefed or sleeping.

Picture: Nemo

In At The Deep End

It was a 4 hour journey out to the reef. I sat outside to try and avoid sea sickness. The trip was a lot smoother than at the Whitsundays, and I was fine. I've never been seasick before but we'd all been advised to take medication, which I did. I didn't bother on the way back.

Once we'd arrived at the reef it was pretty much straight into the water. I suspected this - my instructor was much better out at sea. He lightened up a bit, was in his element, and I grew to like him. It turns out that he, Steve, is ex-Navy and I think that explains his teaching style - very different to Mark's lightheartedness and wacky jokes. They both have excellent pedigrees, Steve being Navy trained and Mark an Olympics standard sportsman.

Steve's thorough training in the pool really paid off for me. It made being in the ocean a little less daunting and, more importantly, I had to use some of the skills for real almost immediately.

Diving Log

My diving log details my dives and what I saw. I've put it on a seperate page - dive log.

Picture: Another Stephen Kennedy Original

It's a lovely morning, let's go diving

This was my call at unholy hours of the morning. Looking back, I miss their enthusiasm and professionalism. That was not my feeling at the time, as I reluctantly dragged myself out bed.

Terra Firma

I slept weird on the first night back. I kept thinking of regulators and BCDs, and it was strange to be back on dry land.

Conclusion

The Prodive guys did a great job with me. Instead of waking up in hospital (or not waking up at all), on my first day back in Cairns I was browsing the dive brochures and lamenting not having enough time to take another trip. While I was doing this, I had a chat with one of the travel agents. She congratulated me on getting certified, and gave me some advice about standby rates. When I told her I'd qualified with Prodive she said 'ah, the best'. Apparently they have very high standards when recruiting their instructors, and their trips are considered high quality. A similar thing happened when I mentioned diving later in the internet shop which doubled as a travel agent.

I certainly couldn't fault the trip. The safety standards were high, the food was very professionally prepared, and the vessel was a beauty. However, they never wasted an opportunity to try and sell us something, and the sales line used to entice me to sign up for the adventure course add-on was a bit questionable. I'd planned to write more on that but I think I won't spoil my report of a memorable trip.

Picture: Hey look, there's some fish!

Original Publication Date: Wednesday, June 29 2005 @ 01:48 PM EDT.

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