December 25 - Australia: Cairns

MERRY CHRISSIE!!!! (Australian for "Merry Christmas")

Our first day of work with Deep Sea Diver's Den (DSDD).  Very exciting!

We reported to the dive shop at 6:30 and introduced ourselves to the rest of the Sea Quest crew.  We were all in our uniforms: white collared "Sea Quest Crew" polo shirts, navy shorts, and tennis shoes and socks.  We took one of the DSDD buses to The Pier and went to the boat to meet the rest of the crew.  

The Sea Quest Crew

Here's the low-down:

Burkie: the Sea Quest skipper.  A hilarious Australian who gave us a great overview of the boat.

Horst: the Dive Supervisor and basically, our boss.  He's from Germany but has lived in Cairns for 6 years.

Cliff: Dive Instructor for the resort courses.  From the UK, and a very cool guy.

Andy: one of our fellow instructors-in-training.  Tall guy from Finland, and pretty quiet.

Tom: Dive instructor and guide.

Hiroki:  Japanese Dive Instructor

Timoko: Japanese Dive Instructor

Adam: videographer

Sea Quest - the boat

So the story with the Sea Quest is that it's DSDD's "up-scale" dive boat.  The people on this boat pay about twice as much as the divers on the Reef Quest, which is the boat we were on two days ago.  Reef Quest is marketed toward the backpacker crowd, and our boat is marketed toward people who want more service, attention and hand-holding.  Today, the boat will be almost full to capacity with 30 divers/snorkelers.  

Here's what we do as part of our "Four Star Service":

1. Greet the passengers as they come on board.  (Make sure to smile and say good-morning!)
2. Walk them into the cabin area and show them where to store their day bags
3. Bring them out to the deck and size them for gear, and then set the gear up for them.
4. Show them the tea, coffee, and water, and chat with them if there's time.
5. When it's time to dive, they sit on the edge of the boat and we bring them their BCD, tanks, and flippers and help them put all of it on before they enter the water.
6. When they come out of the water, help them remove their gear and put it away for them.
7. At the end of the trip, back at the docks, line up and wish the passengers a good day.

So it all sounds a bit regimented, but the crew is actually really fun and the trip itself was really laid-back.  Half of the passengers were Japanese, which means that Hiroki and Timoko took care of them.  

"What's that Island?"  Oh.  That's Australia!

Jon went down for the first dive and I took a family of Australians out for a snorkel.

The Snorkel - Norman Reef

The family was really nice, and had all snorkeled before so we had no problems.  While I've always said that I would never enjoy snorkeling after have dived all these years, I was actually pleasantly surprised.  The reef was beautiful and the fish were everywhere!  Since most of the marine life hang out near the surface, a snorkel on the reef is just as good as a dive on the reef.  The family looked like they were having a great time, and I got to practice my free diving and give my lung capacity a workout.  Halfway through the snorkel trip we saw a BEAUTIFUL turtle!  It was so lovely and graceful and we just hung out above it and watched for a while.

Most of the family had gone back to the boat by 12:00 or so, except for one of the teenage boys and myself.  That's when we ran into Wally.  Wally is a HUGE Maory Wrasse about 3-4 feet long and very, very friendly.  His lips are the size of the palm of your hand, and we know this because he loves to be petted.  We saw him playing with some divers below the boat, and we did some free dives down below to pet him ourselves.  It was very cool.  

Definitely a nice trip.  And I have to remind myself - I'm getting paid to do this?

We were back on the boat by 12:15, which was just in time for lunch to be served.  Of course, we crew members hung back until the passengers were fed.  We had sandwiches and a few different pasta/potato/lettuce salads.  I had worked up such an appetite, though, that I could have eaten peanut butter and jelly and been happy.

Heidi's Dive #1: Saxon Reef

Depth: 13 meters

Bottom Time: 44 minutes

Visibility: 20 meters

For the second trip, Jon took the snorkel family out and I followed Tom's group around the reef.  He had five divers and I tagged along in the back.  Nothing really exciting to see on this dive, but it was nice to go under for a little while.  We did see some trevelli, and there were just schools and schools of fish swimming around the wall we were on.  I really need to get a "Reef Fish Guide" so I can start to identify all these fish.  I suppose it's like bird-watching, but underwater.

The two hour trip back to Cairns was pretty quiet.  Everyone kind of crashed because of the early start and the full day.  

The Downstairs Cabin

Part of the Upstairs Deck

After we'd lined up and said good-bye to the passengers, it was time to clean the boat.  Since today is Christmas, Burkie and Horst decided we would only do a "partial" cleaning, which consisted of washing down the decks and the bathrooms only.  Usually, I guess they do a lot more.  I took the vacuum cleaner and cleaned the wheel-house and the cabin area.

After Burkie finished hosing down the deck, he told me that we needed to do a "Bitsy Check".  I wish now that I hadn't asked, but I wanted to know what that was.  A Bitsy Check consists of going around the desk and picking up the "bits" that the hose didn't clean off.  The general rule of thumb is "if you can see it, then the passengers can see it."  So it's gotta go.  Of course, this is AFTER the deck's been hosed down, so all the "bits" are wet and icky.  I told Burkie that I didn't like this job at all.

Mexican Dinner

After we got back home, Jon and I shuffled into the house - completely sweaty and smelly.  He went up to shower and start laundry, and I worked on getting dinner in the oven.  This Chicken Enchilada Casserole is one of our favorites from home, and is something we found in a Cooking Light magazine years ago.  I happened to do some quick searches on the 'Net and found the exact recipe on a Yahoo group page and I've copied it here if you're interested.  It's a great recipe because it can be fixed ahead of time and thrown into the oven for an hour before dinner.  It was just as good as we remembered.

We followed it up with Apple Pie which was just as yummy as yesterday!

Then - and I'm not kidding - we were in bed and asleep by 9:45.