January 19 - Australia: Cairns

Why the hell doesn't any other country make bagels?:  Jon's run #48

The run?  It was fine.  But I could really go for a bagel after these runs...

Heidi's Run

I intended to get up and run this morning with Jon.  Well, not with Jon because he's much too fast for me, but I did mean to run when he ran.  Unfortunately, I overslept but did manage to get in a quick 15 minute run.  At least that's something.

Burkie loaned me his CD of a new group called "Killing Heidi", so I downloaded it to MP3 and listened to a few songs on my run.  It's hard to make a statement one way or another since I've only listened to them once, but the songs started to sound the same.  I'll try again tomorrow.

Diving on Reef Quest

Jon had to work today, so I went on ReefQuest to get three more dives added to my log.  The weather was incredibly, incredibly bad and the ocean was really rough.  It rained for most of the trip out to the reef and the wind was really strong.  And - yes - I got sick.  I did it discreetly in the bathroom because I just can't bring myself to use a barf bag.  Nor can I humiliate myself in front of the crew, who were walking around harumping and saying "Swells?  These aren't swells!  You should have seen the time when...." (insert rough sea-going adventure here).

Needless to say, I was happy once we got on the reef and stopped moving.

I dove with one of the instructors - Rob - two of his friends and one of his students.  The student was finishing up her Advanced Open Water and the rest of us were just along for the ride.  Rob is a really nice guy and his friend Ash and I buddied up for the three dives.

Dive #1: Norman Reef - Platetop

Depth: 17 meters

Bottom Time: 32 minutes

Visibility: 5-10 meters

The first dive was in very strong current with little visibility.  Well, visibility was low for the Great Barrier Reef that is.  We've definitely seen worse vis!   Ash and I dove in first while Rob and his student followed along later.  We dove along the wall toward "Sandra's" - another site on Norman.  Our dive was against a pretty strong current.  So after a while of fighting with the current and using up air, we decided to turn around to meet with Rob along the wall.  Rob led us through the rest of the dive.  Nothing too exciting, but we did find Wally.

Well actually, Wally found us.  Wally is a huge Napoleon Maori Wrasse who is kind of like a dog.  He LOVES to be petted and always wants attention.  Only, he's a little particular who gives him this desired attention.  Typically, he can be found next to the videographer.  Wally, you see, is a ham.  One of our videographers - Brett - can't get rid of him whenever Brett goes diving.  They can often be seen wrestling (literally) on the ocean floor.  Wally absolutely adores Brett and gets to be quite cuddly around him.   It's a funny thing to watch.  You just don't think of a big fish as a cuddly-type-thing.   But that's Wally.  Around strangers, however, Wally's a bit standoff-ish until he knows we're not going to mauled.  Whenever I come across him, I'll swim beside him for a while until he lets me pet him.  Then he usually gets distracted by other divers and goes off to find someone else to love him. 

Wally the Napoleon Maori Wrasse - picture from Deep Sea Diver's Den

Dive #2: Norman Reef - Platetop

Depth: 14.6 meters

Bottom Time: 48 minutes

Visibility: 5-10 meters

Ash and I went down for the second dive, but Rob and the rest of the gang didn't.  I'd been teasing Ash about hitting 50 bar when I still had 130 bar left.  So he told me that I would navigate this dive and he would think only about conserving air.  We dove through the shallows and saw a blue-spotted lagoon ray.  Other than that, there were lots of fish and lots of coral.  And Ash did better with his air but I still "won".

Dive #3: Norman Reef - Turtle Bay

Depth: 11.5 meters

Bottom Time: 50 minutes

Visibility: 10 meters

The third dive was very cool, despite the fact it was at Turtle Bay which is less than vibrant.  Rob led our group of five through the shallows after his student did her navigation skills.  We saw two shark and a hawksbilled turtle (which we came across twice).  Then Rob took us to a place on the reef where I'd never been.  We dove above the "usual" reef and ended up in some inner coral gardens.  They were lovely!  Rob told me later that they've bleached out a bit over the past week, but I still liked them.  It was like experiencing a whole new reef!

Our mooring point at Norman was interesting.  All three Deep Sea Diver's Den boats were in swimming distance to one another.  Sea Quest was a few sites away, and Ocean Quest was at the site right next to us.  I couldn't get a picture with both boats in it, but here's one of each:

SeaQuest On Norman Reef

OceanQuest on Norman Reef

Norman Reef

The interesting thing about Norman Reef is that it has some permanent structures on it.  One is a glass-bottomed platform to which one of the companies brings older people who don't want to swim to see the reef.  They come to the reef, have lunch on the platform, and some take the little submarine out for a spin on the reef.  I rarely see the large passenger boat at the platform, but it was there today.

The other permanent structure is a large square platform that I've never seen used before.  Today, however, I realized what its purpose was.  A helicopter came flying around the reef and landed on the platform, letting out some divers for what was obviously a high-priced dive.

The Heli-pad on the Left and the Glass-bottomed Platform on the Right

So the funny thing about the helicopter divers is that - somehow - the seven of them ended up on the duck board of ReefQuest.  Hack, our skipper, decided to have pity on them.  He set up the dinghy to take them back to the helipad instead of making them swim through the rough water.  And despite the fact that seven is probably too many people in the dinghy, he decided to have a go anyway.  Now, Hack is a typical laid-back but all-business Aussie skipper.  He takes everything in stride with good humor, but he doesn't screw around when it comes to the boat.  For example, today he was suffering from a hangover but had no problems on the horrible swells. 

Anyway - the helicopter divers.  So Hack loaded them into the dinghy and zipped it toward the helipad.  On the way there, he hit a huge wave, got completely soaked, and filled the dinghy with water.  Calmly, he looked at his passengers and said, "Folks.  You're going to have to get in the water now."  So the passengers looked around and bent down to put on their fins.  He said, "Nope.  No time for that.  You're going to have to get in NOW."  And he walked down the dinghy and pushed them all overboard without a second thought.  Then he tossed their fins to them.  It was so funny to listen to his story afterward, but I suppose it loses something in translation from Aussie to website.  I just can't help but laugh when I think of these people - who probably paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars for their helicopter dive trip - being pushed overboard from a dinghy by a nutty and hungover skipper. 

The Evening

Back in Cairns, it poured and poured!  Since Jon had to clean SeaQuest, I went home and showered and started to get dinner ready.  Then I went to pick him up at 5:15 at The Pier.

For dinner, we made Green Curry Chicken except with Beef instead of Chicken.  It was pretty good!