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January 16 - Australia: Cairns

Today is Jon's day off, so I got out of bed and trudged into the office at 6:30.  The passenger manifest showed only 20 people registered, so we had a nice easy day to look forward to.

The morning setup was easy because we only had 15 divers.  Much nicer than the usual 35+!  We had a few Canadians, a few Americans, some Germans, and a French couple.  The French man (Pierre) was going to dive, but his wife (Aline) didn't like the water and wasn't sure she was going to dive.  She also didn't speak English very well, so I muddled through my very poor French with her.  They were incredibly nice, and she let me talk her into snorkeling as long as I went with her.

Snorkel #1: Norman Reef - Troppo Lounge

Aline was definitely nervous before going in, so I got her a "floating noodle" and made sure I was close by when she entered the water.  The four other snorkelers were waiting close by for me to guide them around the reef.  When Aline was in, I had her practice breathing through the snorkel and then had her look down as she breathed.  As I was demonstrating for her, I saw a shark swimming right below us.  I looked up and called to the other snorkelers, "Look down!  There's a shark right below us!!". So Aline got a crash-course in snorkeling because she wanted to see the shark.  

The rest of the snorkel was lovely.  She was still nervous for most of the swim, but - by the end of it - she was swimming on her own.  It was nice to be around someone who was so enthusiastic about seeing the reef and all the fish.  Every once in a while, she would surface to clear her mask and would said "C'est manifique!".  Her mask kept leaking, so I kept trying to adjust it so the water would stay out.  I thought that her hair "les cheveux!" was causing the problem, but I later decided that it was the mask.  Back on the boat - Aline and I agreed that she would go out for the second snorkel ("bien sur!"), but that she needed "une autre mask".  So I switched masks with her and hoped for the best with the second one.

Snorkel #2: Saxon Reef - Reef Magic

The second snorkel was great.  Aline swam by herself, although I stayed next to her the entire time.  The new mask didn't work much better, so I insisted on giving her my mask despite her protests of "Non!  Non!  Ca va!".  She was such a cutie!  I found a turtle and called all the snorkelers (all five of them) over to see it, and we followed it around the shallows for a while.  I love sea turtles!  They're so graceful and elegant.

The rest of the trip was just fine.  I taught a few people how to free dive, and it was fun to watch them improve.  I also brought up a pineapple sea cucumber so the snorkelers could pet it.  The funny thing is that no one wanted to hold it!  They're pretty cool, and have little suction cups on the bottom of them.  All they do is sit on the bottom and clean the sand.  But everyone enjoyed discovering what it felt like.

Pineapple Sea Cucumber

Fuel-Up Day

Sundays and Wednesdays are Fuel Days on SeaQuest.  So we have to go to the fuel dock to drop off the passengers before we load up on Diesel.  On her way out, Aline gave me a very European double-cheek kiss and told me that she'd never forget me.  What a great way to end the day!

We spend about 1/2 hour fueling up while simultaneously cleaning the boat.  Then we usually end up waiting for the fueling to stop before we head back to our own dock.  Even though it doesn't take an extraordinarily longer time than normal, for some reason I really hate Fuel-Up Days.  

The Fueling Dock

Burkie Being Silly (No different from any other day!)

Yesterdays run today:  Jon's run #47

Well, this morning's run was actually supposed to have been yesterday.  Why did I postpone?  Was I tired and just didn't want to get up so early?  Sort of, but my alarm did go off yesterday and I did wake up but as I headed to the bathroom to throw some water on my face I remembered that I had stubbed the ball of my foot on a weight belt the day earlier and could really feel it as I wandered around in the morning.  Being a card-carrying procrastinator I promptly decided to push the run back a day and maybe catch up on some sleep.  There, now I've explained why I ran today instead of yesterday now I just need to explain why I ran at 1pm instead of first thing in the morning.  It's like this:  Letterman is on at 12:30am here and since I didn't have to work today I stayed up last night and watched Letterman so I slept in until 10am and then one thing led to another and I didn't get out for my morning run until after 1:00 in the afternoon. It was hot.  Hot doesn't even begin to describe it.  At midday there isn't an awful lot of shade so the whole run was right out there in the sun (at least I wore sunblock!).  So one event leads to another and consequently what was supposed to be an 8 or 9 mile run suddenly gets scaled back to the usual 6+ miles and even then I was lucky to get that far.  

I also did a bit of research prior to the run and found a marathon in a city that might actually fit into our LA-NY schedule.  It's the Lincoln, Nebraska Marathon and Half-Marathon on May 5, in you guessed it, the middle of that vast stretch of land that people and goods use to get from NY to LA and San Francisco.  I'll have to consult a map to actually figure out where it really is, but it has to be on the way doesn't it?  Consider this one a work in progress.  Now I just need to prep Heidi for the fact that I want to actually try running two marathons next year--NY and I guess the Lincoln marathon.  Of course NY gets priority on my schedule!

Dinner - Mexican Pizzas

Jon broke out the extra pizza dough and bought some Mexican toppings such as refried beans, peppers, onions, tomatoes, salsa, and cheese.  I threw together some avocado and tomatoes for guacamole, and Jon made up the pizzas.  It was SO GOOD that I didn't even care that I burnt the roof of my mouth yet again.  It was worth every bite.  Yummy!

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