Day 4: Taka Dive, The Great Barrier Reef

Next morning (day 3) the first dive was at the clam gardens. Very appropriate name for the dive site because there were several giant clams measuring upto 2 meters in length. The neat thing about the clams was that if you put your hand or even a finger on the edge of the clam, it would close rapidly. They'd open up again after a few minutes once they feel the danger has passed. I only did that once because I didn't feel like harrasing them as they are living creatures as well. We also spotted bump headed parrot fish. This dive was also our first encounter of a sting ray. We also saw gobies and christmas tree worm. Again an excellent dive.

The next dive was at Steve's Bommie named after a diver/adventurer who passed away in a motorcycle accident in 1989. His friends laid the placque on the bommie to pay a hommage to this seafarer. This dive we had to complete the "underwater naturalist" portion of the advanced course. We had to spot 3 vertibrates, 3 invertibrates, 5 different types of corals (soft corals, hard corals) and 1 symbiotic relation. This dive was an excellent opportunity to spot stone fish. We saw 3 stone fish. We also saw clown fish, pufferfish and numerous other (we don't know their names.) I also spotted a baby "nemo" and when I tried to show it to Ginnie, I couldn't see it again. It was tiny!

Dive 11, 3rd dive of day 3 was at reef 2 and 2/3 named solely beacause it laid 2/3 of distance between reef 2 and 3. Trent asked a mathematical question when we were on the sun deck to see who could answer what the name of the dive site was based on it's location. Ginnie was quick to get the name before anyone could answer. Anyways, this dive we did our navigation for advanced course. We were all given our own underwater compass and taught how to use it. It was a very simple test which didn't even really require the use of the compass because the visibility was amazing. Once the exercise was over, we went off to see trumpt fish and schools of sweetlips (diagonal banded).

Gin opted out of the last dive. It was a night dive at the Beer Garden. After the dibacle of the first night dive, I couldn't believe I was going for a second night dive. Anyways, Alan and Franchesco also opted out of the night dive. This situation lends itself for Xavi and I to be dive buddies. We were hoping to see a turtle sleeping under a ledge or see something very unique as Trent had so enthusiastically mentioned for the first night dive. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. We neither saw a turtle nor we saw anything unique. We only saw one white tipped reef shark at close proximity and that was it for the night dive. Two pretty uneventful night dives later, Gin, Alan, Xavi, Francheso and I all agreed unanimously that night dives weren't quite as exciting.

Day 3: Taka Dive, The Great Barrier Reef

The dive on our first day was awesome, but not so much the boat ride to Osprey reef. Trent did warn us about a possible rough ride because we were going past the outer edge of the reef into deep open sea where the depth was about 1000 meters. It was an over night boat ride to reach Osprey reef and boy it was a rough ride. After falling asleep in the bed, somewhere around 11 pm we woke up because we were being literally lifted off the bed and being slammed again on the bed. Sometimes it got so bad that it felt like a freefall. Thank goodness for Trent's warning, I had taken my sea sickness pills. I was actually scared because it felt as if the boat was going to possibly sink the way it was riding the big waves. When I went to use the restroom which was all the way in the back of the boat, I could not stand there for long because I was simply terrified. The water was getting in and out in the back of the boat and it was absolutely terrifying. I quickly made my way stumbling along the way into the lower decks where we had our room. It was extremely hard going back to sleep with the crazy ride.

Next morning everyone was talking about the scary night where everyone only slept for a few hour and some couldn't sleep at all. Aparently, it was a rough night of everyone. Anyways, finally we were at Osprey reef (North Horn). This dive site was what I was most excited about. This is where the sharks were :). After the usual morning routine and dive briefing, we went for our first dive of day 2. I was really excited to see the sharks. After swimming around for a while, I was getting a bit antsy not being able to see any sharks around. Just before Gin & I were finishing our dive, we spotted a white tip shark directly under us. Finally, I was happy! It wasn't as exciting as I had expected it would be, but I was just glad that I at least saw one shark.

The second dive of day 2 was the dive most people were waiting for (at North Horn again). The shark feed. I was totally psyched about the shark feed. This is what I came to dive for at Osprey Reef with Taka Dive. At the usual dive briefing, we all jumped in the water and sat on the dead corals forming a semi circle. Trent was the one who had the frozen tuna heads that were chained together in a barrel. When they lowered the barrel, the sharks had already started coming around the barrel. There were already about 10 sharks (white tip, black tip, grey sharks, and oceanic silver what Gin calls the "big mammas") around along with potato cod fishes and loads of other fishes. As soon as Trent opened the barrel, it was a feeding frenzy. The sharks started doing all the work trying to rip apart the frozen tuna heads that were tied to the thick metal chain. You can hear the tearing and ripping of the flesh even under water as the sharks used all their strength to release the tuna heads from the chain. They were swimming and swirming around in a whirlwind about 10 feet away from us. There were times when some of them would get very close to us, only 2 to 3 feet from us. The last tuna head left was the most interesting one. After a white tip successfully ripped the tuna head out of the chain, it lost it's grip and the tuna head slipped out of it's mount. A potato cod came out of no where and grabbed the tuna head in it's mouth. The potato cod was trying to swim away with it's prized tuna head followed by a trail of sharks behind it. There was one scary moment when that potato cod swam directly towards Gin & I. It almost swam right into me. I had to dodge the potato cod swimming towards my head followed by heaps of sharks. When the potato cod made a sudden turn barely missing my head by inches, one of the sharks chasing the potato cod slammed right into Gin's shins. The shark couldn't turn quite as fast as the potato cod. After that nervous moment, the sharks simply backed away and continued it's chase of the potato cod. It was an awesome moment. Trent, the trip director, who was a couple of feet away from us saw what happened and told us later that over the years they've been doing the shark feed, nothing like that ever happened before. It was an amazing experience and I'm glad that both Gin and I weren't hurt in the process. We wished that Chriso would've captured that moment on video. Unfortunately, soon as the last tuna head was off the chain, he stopped filming. Having it on film, we could've relived that moment over and over again. I guess we'll just have to relive that moment by visiting our memories of it. Once the shark feed was over, we continued our dive and saw the sharks gradually dispersing. It certainly was the highlight of diving at the great barrier reef.

After the shark feed, everyone on board was raving about it. None of us had ever experienced anything like that before. Everyone was going through an adrenaline rush after the dive. Who could blame them!

No one thought that anything could live upto the shark feed dive. So the crew decided to go to a dive site that they had never been before. The dive site was called "Mystery wall". I suppose it was a mystery because no one including the crew had dove there before. It turned out to be one of my favorite dive sites. Gin decided to opt out of this dive because it was getting really tiring. Instead I went diving with Stephen who lived in London but was originally from Germany. His fiance Yani had also decided not to go for the dive. We were accompanied by dive master Daniel whom Gin & I thought as a very good resource for diving. He was a dive master, but always gave us feedback about how to improve. He always made sure we had enough air to get back to the surface with a safety stop at 5 meters for 3 minutes. Anyhow the dive was unique to me in the sense that we passed through an opening which I've never done before. It was kind of like a cave, but wasn't an actual cave. It was also a dive site with excellent visibility. As usual I ran out of air much faster than Stephen did, so I went back on the boat while Stephen continued his dive with Daniel.

The last dive of day 2 was one of the best dives of the trip. The dive site was called "The Entrance" because there was an actual cave entrance which we could swim through. We were accompaniced by an instructor from Japan, Tomo. She was excellent at spotting everything and also an excellent navigator. I was a little nervous about going through the cave because of two reasons. First, I couldn't see where we would swim out of since the exit wasn't in sight. Second, caves get a bit tricky because they're narrow and there is a possibility of one of the equipments to get stuck. Luckily everything went smoothly and we had an awesome dive. Tomo tried showing us the garden eel, but our untrained eyes couldn't spot it. There were lots of other fishes around as usual and the coral was just beautiful. We also spotted barracudas and sea squirts. There was no night dives scheduled and in a way I was happy about it. This meant that we had a lot of time just hanging out with other people from our trip. We go and sit on the sun deck and talk about the dives and chillax.

Day 2: Taka Dive, The Great Barrier Reef

The real day one was the next morning when we arrived at Cod Hole. The day started at 6:50 am and then 7 am breakfast followed by dive briefing. By 8 am, we were on our first dive at the Cod Hole. The visibility there was absolutely incredible. This was the first time I saw a potato cod fish which was pretty big, about 4 feet long and that one of the small ones. It was a good first dive. It was also my dippest dive yet. We dove up to 30 meters (roughly 100 feet deep). That was one of the 5 required dives in order to get certified as an advanced diver. Deep Dive, Naturalist, Navigation, Night Dive and Peak Performance Bouyancy. It was one down and four more to go before getting certified as an advanced diver.

Our second dive was shortly after lunch. The second dive was an exciting dive because we were going to do a "Cod Feed". Basically, our trip director fed the potato cod fish small fishes under water. Again the visibility was incredible and the cod feed attracted a some big potato cod fishes that were about 5 feet long. On our second dive, we also had to do the peak performance bouyancy test. This required that we swim through a hula-hoop, under water ofcourse, couple of times without touching it. Everyone in our group did it successfully. It was a unique dive because I've never dove with so many fishes and feeding the potato cod fish was extremely exciting.

Next dive was at Pixie's Pinnacle. This dive we saw Flame File Shell which looked as if it was conducting electricity. It was one of the most fascinting things I've ever seen under water. Ofcourse the swimming along other schools of fishes was really exciting. Looking at Angel Fish, Butter Fly fish, Clown Fish, Damsel Fish, Puffer Fish, Lion Fish, and loads of other fishes that I don't know and don't recognize. It was just awesome to be able to swim along all these different types of fishes.

Our last dive of day one was a night dive at the Challenger Bay. Again, this was one of the required dives to get certified. I was nervous and excited at the same time. I was nervous because I was imagining the feeling of walking in a pitch dark room and not knowing what I'd bump into let alone doing this under water. Luckily, it wasn't bad at all. After the dive briefing, we all were given an under water, water proof, flash light. We were also given instructions on how to communicate because communicating underwater during day time is completely different than communicating night time under water. I felt a lot more at ease after the dive briefing. Gin was my dive buddy, so I felt very comfortable getting in the water. Ofcourse, she was nervous as well, but before we jumped in the water, we made sure we were very clear about the signs and signals. The thing I was worried about the most was that Gin & I use the most air under water and always come out of the water before everyone else because we run out of air. This meant that we had to be extremely careful not to run out of air because getting someone's attention during a night dive and calling for help requires more time than usual. Well, I've gotta say that Gin & I were very disappointed after the night dive because of the following reasons. One big reason was that our instructor, Troy, who was suppose to check everyone's air did not do that at all for the entire dive. He was also swimming much faster than anyone else. Because of that when I was running very low on air, I had to swim very fast and all the to the front to get his attention by grabbing his fin and telling him that I was very low on air. Since I had to swim fast and get all the in front of the group to get Troy's attention, I lost track of where Ginnie was. This freaked both of us out. Eventually we found each other. Ginnie was running very low on air as well. Our trip director Trent told us before the dive that you see some really cool things at night that you don't see during day time, but unfortunately, we didn't see anything at all. Maybe it was because of what I mentioned earlier, but Gin & I both felt that the amount of stress and worry we went through it wasn't worth that dive at all. Some other folks in other groups saw a turtle sleeping inside a cave. That might have been worth all the headache, but we didn't see the turtle. Ginnie was sure that she wasn't going to do the next night dive, which was the following night, and I wasn't sure if I was going to do it either.

At the end of the first day of diving, the trip photographer/videographer, Chriso, showed us the pictures he had taken of day one and also showed us the video he had made so far about our trip. It was really cool to see ourselves in the video even though it was only for a few seconds. After dinner we were exhaused and ready for bed. It is very tiring doing 4 dives a day. Trent used to say, "all you have to do is eat, sleep & dive." Now I know what he meant by that because you have to conserve your energy and after 4 dives all you want to do is eat and go to sleep. Anyways, it was a fun first day and diving out in the great barrier reef was just an amazing feeling.

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.

Wet Cairns & Diving

Now that we escaped from the neverending winter season and arrive in Cairns, the poured for 3 days in a row. People did tell us that Cairns has two seasons: hot & wet or hot & dry. Unfortunately, for the first 3 days we were there, there was no sign of sunshine.

Luckily for Ginnie she signed up for an open water dive course to get her PADI license. Not so lucky for me I was stuck in the Cairns with the bad weather and practically nothing to do.

I couldn't wait for the rain to stop and see some sunshine which didn't happen until Ginnie finished her dive course and we had signed up for 5 day live aboard Taka and go diving.

Since I felt a bit rusty about diving, I decided to join Ginnie on her last day of her dive course and do a refresher. I signed up for 2 dives before we did the live aboard the boat for 5 days. The truth is that I didn't want to be embarrassed before we were started our advanced dive course with Taka. I felt it would make sense to know the basics before we started the advanced course.

Anyhow, it was a bad idea because the boat took about an hour and half to get to the dive site and the sea was very choppy. Since I don't have my sea legs, I was sick the entire time. The boat rocked like it was going out of style. I threw up like 4 times even before we got to the dive site.

I was excited to go and dive with Ginnie though. I was nervous at the same time because I didn't know if I would be able to do the basics of diving. The last time I had dived was in Thailand in 2006 when I got certified for my PADI open water certificate.

Gin's instructor, Chris, was really cool and allowed me to join their group for the dive. The bad part was that the moment I put on the gear, it was obvious that I had forgotten everything about diving. Plus being sick ofcourse didn't help. Thanks to Gin, she helped me with doing the basic "buddy check" and taught me an easy phrase I can remember to do the buddy check. The phrase is, "Blonde Women Really Are Fun", translates to B as in BCD check, W as in weight check, R as in releases chek, A as in air check and F as in final ok.

The crazy thing was that the was before we got in the water. I totally forgot to hold my mask and regulator with one hand and keep the other hand on the weight before jumping off the boat. Once I got in the water, I wasn't using the BCD correctly and Chris got totally frustrated with me trying to put air in the BCD when I wasn't suppose to. The worse part about scuba diving is that you can't communicate well under water. So it's really had to understand when someone is telling you something.

As if that wasn't enough to get me nervous already, once we got to the bottom, I realised that I had gotten nervous along the way and got my self worked up. That meant I was breathing super heavy under the water and couldn't catch my breath. It took me about 3 minutes before I felt comforable again under the water. Fortunately, I did pass the basic skill test of clearing the mask and doing the bouyancy test. Again, once we came back to the surface, I forgot to give the ok signal. Once we got back on the boat, I was throwing up again. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go for my 2nd dive.

When Chris came back on the boat, he was furious that most of the people didn't do what he had expected them to do. He was especially mad at me because I was a certified diver. Ofcourse, he had a good laugh once he found out that I was certified in Thailand. Before, I knew, we were getting ready again to go back in the water. I decided to go as well. Unfortunately, the entire time it was raining and the visibility was pretty poor. There wasn't much you could see underwater because of that, but I figured I was getting practice diving besides the fact that I had paid $150 for those two dives.

The second dive was a much better dive because I felt a lot more comfortable and relaxed. This time I didn't even wait to get back on the boat before getting sick. I threw up soon as we got back to the surface. The night before the dive, Gin & I went to Reef Teach, a 2 hour crash course on marine biology. The marine biologist told us that it's perfectly ok to puke in the sea because it's rarely that the fishes get a warm meal. The funny thing is that she was absolutely right. I was quickly surrounded by fishes and they "took care" of the puke. My apologies if this is TMI. I thought it was pretty funny.

After my last dive, which was Gin's 4th dive, she was a certified open water diver. The entire group got together at night to celebrate. Chris, Johnny, Julian, the Canadian guys, Ada, Fabio, Flavio, Gin & I. It was a lot of fun hanging out at Rattle-N-Hum and then at Rhino Bar. I wish I had taken my camera to capture some of the funny moments.