Water.water everywhere

 Monday 8/7/24

Today we got up very early to drive to Cairns to the reef terminal to board the Silver Swift for a diving and snorkeling adventure on the reef.  So us!

 Paul was keen as he had never seen the reef while i had been there once before on a catamaran from Cairns to Green Island during a cyclone watch. Unsurprisingly, on that trip,  everyone was sick on the way out including the crew with whom you had to fight to get to the toilet. Nice, not. Green Island was lovely and we got pills for the trip back.

But this was a dive and snorkeling tour to the outer reef on a moderately windy day. Nothing unusual so we were pretty confident we would be ok. A small seed of doubt had been planted by a woman we had shared the sky train with. She mentioned everyone on her reef adventure had been sick and apparently this is very common. Buy sea sick pills she recommended. We thought about it but in the end forgot.

A photo of our boat:

that is not us, taken from website

picture of the two of us embarking 

We climbed aboard the double hull boat with 3 levels. Yeah i love stairs.. on a moving boat. There were seats for the scuba divers and seats for the snorkelers. We were kept separate. This cruise was for beginners as well as experienced divers and snorkelers.  Catered to the young and old etc.  Except that you had to be relatively fit or if not, you  had to advise of medical conditions etc so they could keep an eye on you. They seemed as concerned about Paul's blood pressure as they were about my MS.

 The stairs to the change rooms, from normal wear to swimmers. so fun, not.

Before setting off we had to organise our equipment which was supplied including mask and snorkels, flippers (based on shoe size) and a lycra suit (they just kind of looked at you and handed you a suit) to protect against jelly fish etc. Sounded great so far.

We had a chat to a guy who appeared to be a marine biologist and he was english with a lovely accent. On questioning, he said it looked a bit windy where we were going and if we were not experienced boat people or even if we were, he suggested we buy the travel calm pills being sold on the boat. They were also giving out ginger pills for free but he recommended the hard stuff. We listened and bought and took  the real drugs.

The boat started on its way to Gordon Pontoon, the site of the first of our 3 dives/snorkels.  It started to get a bit windy and bumpy and the crew walked around handing out little white sick bags. They said, just in case and there are more if you need them etc. We felt OK having taken the drugs but still a bit unpleasant. 

More so when a group of young people a few metres away from us stated using their sick bags. Lucky they were not too close as that is what can set you off .We thanked the nice english man and the drugs and were fine.

As we neared Gordon Pontoon from which we would be snorkeling, we had to get into our gear. So over our swimmers, the lycra suit which covered you  from head to toes and even had a hood. Unfortunately they were a bit wet which made it difficult to get them on. So easy to get wrong as Paul found when he put his leg in the sleeve. We were unable to take cameras to the wet part of the boat so there are no photos of us in our suits. Thank god.

It is really hard to get wet flippers on when on the edge of the pontoon as waves washed over it.  We did finally.

I enjoyed it and was able to see great coral and beautiful coloured fish. My difficulty was getting the flippers to work with my weak legs. And they suggested i wear a lifejacket which meant i could not dive under. But all in all, it was great and beautiful in the sea water.

Paul had more difficulty with the snorkel.

At the end of the snorkel, we had to remove the very wet lycra suit and the flippers and mask etc and leave them in the wet area for next time. Lucky we had each other..to pull off the lycra suits.

Good news everyone got back on board the boat. They counted and counted at least 3 times. Why? Have you heard of the divers who were left on the reef? Not just once apparently....

And then more boating to Flynn reef where we were going to do lunch and then snorkel. The divers were doing it in the other order so as to give us all room as we were a pretty full boat.

Lunch was ok with one of the 2 hot meals being gluten free plus i could have most of the salads. Morning tea, when other people got cakes and muffins, i got a protein bar. Yay GF.  

photo from front of the boat

crew

you might be able to see floating balls denoting an area in which we could swim. maybe even see the reefs?

more reef

Our second dive at Flynn's reef was harder. First to get the lycra suit on and the flippers etc was really hard as was jumping off. The current was really strong so that people including us were being carried off in the opposite direction to the reef. I swam and swam and swam but made little progress.  We gave up and went back on the boat. Good thing, no one watched or cared so no judgement.  Later we saw the divers had little scooter things to propel them across the water. If only we had had one of those!

It was only a short distance to the final reef and we decided with many others that we had done enough snorkeling and were unlikely to see anything different We were happy not to go through the lycra suit thing again. Hate those things. 

After we were all counted 3 times (bit of a panic when they were one short for a while), an announcement was made that now was the time to take your seasick drugs. We did.

The trip back was not as bumpy but someone close to us used her white bag which made it a bit unpleasant. We survived however.

While on the boat we met a number of young people in Australia working and/or just experiencing lifestyle. They all loved it and were trying to work out ways to stay longer. One way was to work in a rural remote area. And Palm Cove/Cairns counted. They thought that was very funny but good.  

We returned to the hotel while Cocktails and Canapes were still on thank goodness. 

Can't miss them they are free!

And nice opportunity to meet other guests and socialise.

We went to restaurant called Rattle and Hum for dinner. We both had fish but mine was grilled and gf. All pretty nice.

An exhausting day was had by all. And so nice to get back to our room and comfy bed. MAybe tomorrow we will do more rest and relaxation!