January 9 - Australia: Cairns

Jon had a day off today and so I trudged into DSDD on my own - bright and early at 6:30.  Fortunately, we only had 27 customers - as opposed to the max 43 with which we've been deluged for the past few weeks.  So today was an "easy" day, with a smaller crew.

Too hot for a long run:  Jon's run #43

Hmm...I wanted to do a long run today since it was my day off and I'd have all day to recover and I had to get to the parking lot at the Pier anyway to pick up the car.  Have I mentioned that I slept in a bit later than anticipated?  And have we mentioned that Cairns is in the middle of the hottest two weeks or so on record?  Mix those two together and you get circumstances that are not entirely conducive to running for over an hour!  I told myself as I headed out the door that I'd need to go with a route with maximum shade.  So I ended up running from shade-containing oasis to shade-containing oasis...even running on the sidewalk under the awnings in town.  I really don't like running on the sidewalks because of the pedestrians and everything but I was willing to make an exception this once because it was still before 8am and there weren't many people really out yet.  Not even 8am and it was soooo hot and humid!

Well, on a positive note, I did decide to increase my daily run time so I should be running about 6 miles per day - I had to make some sort of bargain with myself for cutting today's run short and that was the best I could come up with!  From now on, long runs while in Cairns will have to be before the sun rises.

Snorkel #1: Norman Reef - Troppo Lounge

The other dive master on board today was Masa (short for Masatoki).  Masa is an hysterical Japanese guy who loves practical jokes and is constantly smiling and laughing.  It's great to work with him because he's full of silly comments and good times.  But he's a Dive Master in Training (remember the "ol' days" in Thailand?) so he can't lead dives or snorkelers yet.

So the snorkelers were mine, which was fine.  The briefing I gave them was actually very funny and they were a pretty friendly group who liked to laugh.  Believe me, it's much more pleasant giving dive and snorkel briefings to passengers who are quick to smile.  Sometimes they just stare at me in misery.

Toward the end of the snorkel, I still hadn't seen anything exciting to show my snorkelers.  I happened to glance up at Masa (who was lookout on the top of the boat) and saw him pointing north and saying "Turtle! Turtle!".  One of the snorkelers and I swam off after it and ended up off the reef and deep in the blue.  But we found it and followed it for a while, until we realized that it was leading us further from the reef.  Since there was nothing to see but blue water, we turned and headed back.  

I gave Masa a big "OK" sign (arms over my head in an "O" symbol) to say 'thank you!' for showing me the turtle.  He responded by doing the YMCA for me on top of the boat.  Silly boy.

Ooops!

After all the passengers were back on board, we released the mooring line so we could move the boat to the second dive site.  Despite Horst and Mark's best intentions with the line, however, it drifted under the boat and was caught onto one of the propellers.  Quickly, Mark threw on a mask and dove in, and Horst immediately put on a tank and mask and went in a few seconds later.  Burkie walked around the upper deck grumbling under his breath as a skipper should.  After a few minutes, Mark and Horst got it all untangled, so we pulled them up onto the duck board and then we were off.

The second snorkel was uneventful and - after a 1/2 hour - I swam back to the boat to help the crew put gear away as passengers came back on board.  This is always a hectic time on the boat because we have to disassemble all the tanks, put away the BCDs and regulators, store the fins, and wash out the boots and wetsuits.  It's especially crazy when the divers return all at once, which sometimes happens.

Back in Cairns 

On the way back into Cairns, we saw some dolphins jumping out of the water far behind the boat.  It's not unusual to see them snorkeling up for air, but I haven't seen them jump like that in years.  So it was lovely to see.

Wednesdays and Saturdays are "fuel-up" days for Sea Quest, which means that we moor up at the Diesel dock and de-board the passengers there.  Burkie decided that we were going to do a bit of extra cleaning today.  He wanted us to "beeswax" the board trip on the boat and wash down the entire galley (kitchen area).

Jon showed up at 5:15, wondering where I was and why we weren't done.  He found me washing the ceiling of the galley, trying to keep the blood from draining out of my arms.  Jon had made reservations for us at "Reef Teach" tonight, which is a class we've wanted to go to for a while now.  Naturally, it figures that the one day I want to get off the boat early is the one day we have to stay late.  We made it out of there at 5:30 and high-tailed it home so I could shower, dress, and run out.  We stopped by McDonald's to pick up some food, and of course the line was incredibly long.  But we made it to Reef Teach by 6:10 - with five minutes to spare!

Reef Teach (http://www.reefteach.com.au/)

Reef Teach is taught by a crazy Irishman named Paddy Colwell.  I've met him a few times when he's brought his "naturalist dive course" students on Sea Quest.  And while I say that he's crazy because of his very charismatic personality, he's also incredibly intelligent and knows more about the reef than anyone I've ever met.  He founded Reef Teach  in 1992 as a way to educate tourists about the reef that they are here to see.  So he tailors his talk to snorkelers and scuba divers.

Did I say this was a "talk"?  No.  Not a talk.  This was a multi-media extravaganza.  Paddy - who I know as a laid-back dive instructor who is fun to hang out with on the boat - turns into a nutty, animated, vivacious, and theatric teacher when he stands up on his podium.  The two and a half hours we spent in his classroom just flew by.  We were entertained and educated at the same time, and the informative slide show gave us some much-needed background to answer questions on the boat.  It was great.

Paddy - on the left - and his assistant, Scott

Did you know that many fish on the reef change sex?  Clown Fish, for example.   They live in sea anemones, one large female fish rules over the smaller male fish.  She controls their food intake so she stays larger than the males.  When she dies, one of the males will eat enough to grow larger than the others and will then change sex to become the ruling female.

Kinky, huh?

So this was how we spent our evening, and very happily too.  Know I know a lot more about the reef and the marine life around it.  And, I was thoroughly entertained too.

REEF TEACH
14 Spence Street Cairns
Queensland 4870. AUSTRALIA
Tel/Fax: (07) 4031 7794
Email:learn@reefteach.com.au