January 22 - Australia: Cairns
As expected, they only needed one of us to work today. And since Jon worked yesterday, he got to go home. That actually worked out nicely, because Jon has developed a bit of a sore throat which we assume he caught from hanging out with Masa the other day.
We had a small group on the boat today. Only 11 people, and most of them were snorkelers. Mark the Dive Supervisor decided to take out the Resort Divers to keep his teaching skills up to date. And Tom decided to take out the snorkelers. So I had lookout duty, which was fine because I seemed to be dragging today. Probably because tomorrow is my last day and then I have to hit the books and study scuba stuff. We've been procrastinating for a good month now and I guess it's about time we got our butts in gear.
The water was pretty rough going out to the reefs, and we definitely had some people get sick. I brought along the "Recreational Diving Encyclopedia", with the intention of reading it on the way out there. But the swells were really rough and page one of the Encyclopedia starts with Chemistry, atoms, protons, and the nucleus. So between the boring subject and the queezy ride, the book sat on the shelf in the wheel house for the rest of the day.
It was a lovely day on The Reef, though. The wind was strong and cool, and the visibility was spectacular. The water around Norman Reef was about 10 different shades of blue. I took a picture which didn't do it any justice at all, but here it is anyway:
Snorkelers at Norman Reef
Mercy Dive
Because we only had four divers, they were in and out of the water in no time at all. So we had a lot of time while we waited for the snorkelers to come back on board. Mark - bless his heart - had mercy on me and told me to put on his kit and go for a quick dive while he did lookout. So I squeezed in a quick 20 minute dive around Turtle Bay. I was all by myself, but I didn't mind in the least. It was quiet and peaceful and great. Wally was there, but he stared at me with his big Maori Wrasse eyes and decided that he wasn't feeling very friendly.
Harry, however, was.
Harry is Spangled Emperor with a little nick taken out of his tail. It looks like something took a bite off him once. He's about a foot long, silvery-white, with some pale yellow on his tail. He's also a big tease. He loves to swim right up next to me, but is quick and alert enough to dart out of the way when I reach out to pet him. Then he comes back for more. Just like a man! He toys with my affections and then refuses to make a commitment. So you see, girls? Life underwater is no different from above! So much for the "other fish in the sea" metaphor.
Saxon Reef
After Norman Reef, we headed to Saxon Reef to a site called "Caves" which I've never been to. Not that it mattered because it wasn't likely I would get another dive in. But Caves has a bunch of fun swim-throughs for the more experienced divers. Mark dared Tom into snorkeling through one of the swim-throughs that's about 50 meters long. Tom, you see, has a reputation for amazing lung capacity. So when we got to the site, Tom did a "practice swim" by duck-diving down and swimming from one end of the reef to the other without coming up for air. Now that's really impressive, but also very hard. And I suppose it was just hard enough to convince him that he couldn't do the 50 meter cave dive. Mark was going to set up some spare tanks for him in case of emergency, but Tom decided it wasn't worth the trouble because he knew it couldn't be done.
So much for today's dare-devil entertainment.
While I was doing lookout at Saxon, Burkie was on the phone in the wheel house for a while. Then he came out and told me that Sea Quest has been chartered for the next three days. It seems that the "Franklin Islander" has broken down, and the company wants to charter Sea Quest as a replacement for a while. Now I don't know how Vic (the DSDD manager) made the business decision that this is a more profitable move, but I suppose it makes sense.
See, the Franklin Islander will be bringing their own crew. This means that - instead of tomorrow being my last day - today is!
Me as lookout on my very last day on SeaQuest
Crazy Birds on Saxon Reef
Back in Cairns, we cleaned up the boat and Vic brought out the Franklin Islander crew so he could show them around the boat. Jon picked me up at The Pier and we went home and ate Chili Burritos for dinner. He still has a sore throat, so it's good that we're both off tomorrow.
Mark's House
Mark had told me he would loan me any books he could for our IDC course. So I drove to his house around 8:00. He and his wife, Dawn, live in a lovely suburb outside of Cairns. They have a five-month-old named Jay, and I hung out and chatted with them for a while. It was so great for him to loan me his books, because then we won't have to buy them all and lug them around for the rest of our trip. It's going to cost us enough money for the books we MUST buy, so these loaners are really nice to have.