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December 27 - Australia: Cairns

Up early on my day off:  Jon's run #35

So it's my day off and what do I do?  Do I sleep in and enjoy the fact that I don't have to get up before 6am?  No, I wake up with Heidi and go for a run.  Heidi's starting to wonder if I might be a bit crazy right about now.  Maybe she's right!

I decided as I headed out that I was going to use my morning runs as a way to get more familiar with Cairns so I headed in the general direction of the diveshop to explore that area a bit.  Not too much to write about except for the Animal Welfare shop that I passed.  The shop is a run-down looking place with peeling paint, sort of looking like an old mom & pop gas shop you'd find on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere back home.  Anyway, what is animal welfare?  I couldn't help but picture little kittens and puppies with food stamps stuck to their little paws as they beg for treats.  Little soup kitchens for the cats and dogs, maybe even for wayward wallabies and 'roos.  I never did figure out what the shop was but the look on Heidi's face as I tried to tell her about the kittens with food stamps makes me think that perhaps this is not what the shop is for!

Jon had the day off, and spent the day running errands.  I worked all day, switching duties with another Dive Master named Dave.  Dave is Scottish and is an absolute riot.  For the first dive, he took the snorkelers out and I was lookout.

Lookout Duty

Basically, lookout duty means that I stand on the top deck of the boat with a wide-brimmed hat, binoculars, and a florescent vest so everyone in the water can see me if necessary.  It's my job to ensure that the snorkelers are swimming OK, and that every diver who surfaces gives me the "OK" sign.  If someone's in trouble, I have to sound the alarm and begin whatever rescue procedures are necessary.  We also have a dinghy on the boat, so if a diver or snorkeler is caught in tough current we can send someone out to pick them up.

Now all this sounds very responsible and impressive.  What lookout duty really means is that I stand on the top deck and fry my buns off.  I'm not kidding.  It's incredibly hot up there!!  And the highest SPF in the word isn't going to keep the sun from beating down and through my shirt.  So I spent as much time in the shade as possible.  But once the divers started to come up, I needed to be on the edge of the boat exchanging "OK" signs.  And between the 10-odd groups of divers, the overall "ascent time" stretches 30-45 minutes.  Yikes.  That's damn hot.

So when Dave came and asked me to guide the snorkelers on the second dive, I jumped at the chance!

Snorkel Guide

I took a cumbersome 12 people out for the second snorkel trip.  Everyone was pretty self-sufficient except for an old lady who I had to tow around the reef.  She was German and spoke German to me the entire time because my name is Heidi.  I understood "grosse fish" meaning "big fish", but to everything else I just smiled and nodded.  Her German family decided to stretch themselves across the entire reef, making it a bit difficult for me to manage their whereabouts and therefore their safety, but there's only so much I can do.  I mean, these people are paying to snorkel, and we're not going to tell them that they have to stay within 10 feet of me at all times.  That's ridiculous.  So when 2:00 came about, I had to do some power swimming from one end of the reef to the other to call everyone back in.  But that's what they're paying me the big bucks for, right? 

Back in Cairns

Again, we scrubbed down the entire boat - including the outside this time.  Then Burkie, Horst, Rob, Dave and I sat and had a beer or two.  Some American couple tipped the crew and - apparently - tips go right into the beer kitty.  Very cool!  It was nice to sit on the clean and quiet boat and chill out for a bit.

After 5:00, I went into The Pier which is the mall next to the docks.  This is where Jon and I decided to meet up.  He was sitting on a bench waiting patiently and was surprised that we had worked so late to clean the boat.  Of course, I had to tell him the truth: that the last 20 minutes was beer time.

Dinner was the last bit of leftover turkey.  Jon had bought some gravy from the store so we could have it with our turkey, but it turns out that it was REALLY bad.  So we just had turkey sandwiches instead.

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