The Great Barrier Reef is miles and miles in length. It is home to great coral reefs and a massive variety of tropical fish and a few Great White Sharks but many smaller less notorious sharks. Todaythe four of us are going out to two different reehs to snorkel and get to see this unique place. We booked this more than 6 months ago and we were told that was a grat idea as this particular company sells out all the time. Seastar is a small company with a single boat, a power catamaran that holds 35 passengers. We will visit two reefs today. It is overcast, hot and humid but signs of the sun trying to break thru are encouraging. Wind is light and there isn’t any sea chop. Nevertheless, Steve, Fran, and Joan all take motion sickness tablets. One of us looses their breakfast on the way out and almost their lunch on the way back.
It takes about 75 minutes to get out to our first snorkeling spot. This is a sandbar that is also a bird sanctuary. There are hundreds of birds on this tiny sandbar. We prepare to go snorkeling by putting on our form fitting stinger suits to protect us from the jellyfish that may be in the waters.Form fitting anything is not appropriate my my body form.
I am so proud of Joan as there are literally hundreds of birds all flying around on our drop off spot on the sandbar. She bravely stands and poses for a picture as Fran uses her watertight film based disposable camera. The comedy show then ensues as the four of us looking like Blue Whales grounded on the beach, sit on the sand to put on our snorkel mask and fins. We are thwarted in our efforts by the constant swarm of waves gently undermining our position and rolling us over like bowling for legless clowns.
Eventually we find a moment of supreme coordination and are all dressed and out floating in 6 feet of water. The view underneath the surface is spectacular. There is all type of colorful coral. Brain, mushroom, table, and wavy. There are clown fish and little zebra fish. We swim as a pod of humanoids awkwardly slapping the water with our fins as most of our group hasn’t snorkeled before. Our guide gets our attention and there to our left is a large sea turtle. We spend an hour at this reef exploring an area between the sand bar and our boat until the guide says its time to return for lunch.
Fran assists the Guide by holding onto a life preserver and not doing any meaningful kicking to get back to the ship. Everyone is talking about how great that experience was and we continue to chat as we help ourselves to a buffet lunch. Fran is telling us about all the wonderful pictures she took with her camera but said she wasn’t sure where the button was to take the picture. I take a look and point out where the button was and how you advance the film through for the next shot. The look on her face tells me that neither of these were things she had done. But her description of all the pictures she thought she took were great. After lunch we boat over to a second site for our next snorkle in deeper water with way more fish. and very large coral.
The second site is full of large coral up to 20 feet tall and an abundance of fish. Steve, Joan and I go off and explore on our own while Fran catches a ride holding onto the safety life raft pulled by our guide, a small young woman named Chealse. Fran get a the benefit of seeing all the things that Chease sees as she dives below the surface to point out fish and coral while taking all the underwater pictures included here.
Fran as seen by a fish.
What a day! We have all had more exercise today than in the past year. We are exhausted and ready to get out of these wet clothes and get some dinner. Now for the ride back. Ever notice how it always seems to take longer to get back home than it did to get there. And this time, there was no gentle motoring over. It was full speed rocking and rolling and slamming hard over the 2 foot rollers going back. Joan decided to ride on the bow going back only to get soaked when the waves spewed up over the sides onto the bow.
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