Scuba Diving and Snorkeling the Barrier Reef

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. We took the ferry over to Manly Beach, ate some lunch, watched some lifeguard boat races, and then later, drove over to Hillsong for their Saturday night service to hear this U.S. pastor who was speaking. Long story short, but someone who shall remain nameless (ok, Phil) got the campuses mixed up and Erwin McManus wasn't speaking at the Hills campus, but the city campus. Oh well...he's speaking at the Hills campus tonight for their 7:00 pm service so we'll try it again tonight. To continue last weekend's story...

On Saturday morning we walked over to the docks to the boat that would take us to the diving boat that we were staying on for a couple of days. As we're rolling along on the waves (very glad for that Dramamine pill I took earlier) I asked Phil how long it would take to get to the dive boat. I really thought he was kidding when he answered 2 and 1/2 hours. Seriously??!! I was not aware of that. Convenient how that was left out when the whole trip was explained to me... Here's a picture of the boat that took us over.

We got to the dive boat around 11:30 am or so and after a briefing on how things worked and lunch, we had our first water session at 1:30. Here's a picture of the boat that we stayed on with the mountains of Cairns, Australia way in the distance.

Yep...we would dive/snorkel, then the boat would pull the anchor up and we'd go to another area on the Reef and do the same. For those who wanted to (and there were quite a few who did) you could dive/snorkel all 6 water sessions every day: 6:30 am (yeah, whatever), 8:30 am, 10:30 am. 1:30 pm. 3:30 pm. and then the night dive at 6:30 pm. And no...I did not partake of the opportunity 6 times a day. I did snorkel a few times. Mostly on my own since Phil was with an instructor completing dives for his scuba certification. And yes, I also spent quite a bit of time on the top deck sitting in the sun with a book. Finished two of them on the trip. Here's a picture of some snorkelers, so pretend I'm one of them.

Now to be honest...I would be a snorkeler with a pool noodle. You know those tube-like floats that people like to lean on when in a pool? If I'm going to be floating along in the middle of the ocean, I'm not ashamed to admit I want a floatie.

When the boat was not in the middle of a water session, everyone sat around getting to know each other. I've never met so many people from other countries in one place in my life. We met people from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, France, the UK, Brazil, New Zealand, and of course, Australia. And a couple of Americans as well. Would you even believe a recent grad of Bob Jones University?

To be honest, I'd never really given the Barrier Reef much thought. I guess because I never thought I'd ever see it. But the colors underwater are just...unreal. Pink, light blue, purple, golden, white, deep blue, etc....It's beautiful. The fish included. I've never seen so many colors and different sizes and shapes. And yes...my last snorkeling session, I did find Nemo! :)

One night we went out on the top deck to sit and look at the sky. I've never seen so many stars in all my life. And the Milky Way, too. I actually saw it! The stars seemed to go all the way to the horizon. I've never seen them so close. It felt like you could reach out and touch them. I don't remember the actual reference, but some verse in Psalms states that God has numbered the stars. It was amazing to really think about while looking up.

Finally, some pictures of Scuba Phil himself. Here he is with his diving partner, Frank. He did get his certification and really liked diving. Great...I was just thinking that Phil needed another hobby.

And here he is coming up from his last dive. After being hauled out of the water and onto the platform with all of his heavy equipment. By a girl. hee hee.