Day 1: Taka Dive, The Great Barrier Reef

After much cost consideration, Gin & I decided to go for the 5 day live aboard a boat with Taka Dive. I wasn't sure until the last minute if we should do it because it was costing us about $2500 to do the live aboard and getting our advanced dive course.

The final decision rested on the feedback our friend, Fred (whom we had met in New Zealand) was going to give us because he was already on the boat with Taka doing the live aboard. When he finished the live aboard, he told us how amazing it was and showed us the pictures. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that we were going to do the live aboard after Fred showed us the pictures and the stories he told us.

Another factor that came into the decision making was that because of global warming, the rate at which we're going, the great barrier reef will no longer exist within the next 10-15 years. Even a few degrees increase in the water tempreature would mean that the corals would die. This meant that the largest living organism on earth will no longer exist. This also meant that the only living organism you can see from the moon with naked eyes will no longer exist. This also meant that one of the seven natural wonders of the world would not exist. Anyways, the point is well made. So this cleared any doubts that we had about the 5 day live aboard with Taka Dive.

The great barrier reef is about 2500 kilometers long which goes roughly the length from Cooktown all the way down to Fraser Islands. I figured if the great barrier reef wouldn't exist, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself to have lost the opportunity to dive there.

We left the harbour on friday, September 12th at about 5pm. The night before we left, I met up with Fred and his girlfriend Mirela to celebrate their 5 day live aboard with Taka. Their group was really fun and I was a little worried if our group was going to be just as cool. The fun of live aboard, besides the diving, is the people on board the boat.

The first night was literally about eating dinner and then sleeping. It was an overnight trip to cod hole which is on the outer reef on the northern tip of the great barrier reef. We got introduced to our dive instructor, Troy, who already gave us homework for the first night on the boat. We had to read two chapters by next day and answer all the questions on the back of each chapter. God I hate homework :)... I suppose what goes around comes around.

Besides Gin & I there were 3 guys doing their advanced course as well. Alan, Xavier (Xavi, pronounced Chubby) and Franchesco. All three of them were from Barcelona, Spain. We were the only suckers who had to stay awake late until we finished all our work while other people on board went to sleep. There were a total of 17 people in our entire group plus the crew on board the boat.