Day 12

Day 12

By putting our names on the board, and by signing up for the deep dive course, we'd let ourselves in for a terrible thong. All too soon it was 5.45 shiptime, and they were knocking on the door to prepare us for the 6am briefing. Although this was early, I was glad for the time difference. As horrible as 6.45 was, if I'd changed my body clock to QLD time, I'd be in a much worse state psychologically. As it was, with dreary eyes I made my way to the briefing, running to get a cup of tea as soon as it was done. The tea filled me sufficient energy, and I was still standing waiting for Doug to finish faffing. Once the group had assembled, Pam showed us the objects we'd be taking down, a bottle of red juice, a tomato, some eggs, and a colour card. Reading the book last night, some instructors took a simple puzzle, or combination lock too, for you to be timed at on the surface and this time compared with how you performed the same task under 25m of water. Pam clearly realised this wouldn't be a fair test at 6am, or chose not to do this, and without further ado we descended in the water. The clear water allowed you to see for a long way, and the fishes around were different to those seen at night or during the day. It was a phenomenal feeling to be down there so early looking around and worth the early hour. Yes, you heard me. Worth the silly am time. Without even noticing, we've stormed through the 18m mark, and were still going. Eventually we stopped, and grouped around. The first task was to check each others depth gauges to see the difference the depth  had on the equipment. Mine read 24.3, the person next to me read 24.4. There was a difference, excellent. Next, Pam removed something small and brown from the bag. It's surface looked furry, like a peach skin. Surely this couldn't be the tomato? I was expecting it to be crushed but not to that tiny size! Before it made it far put the bag, a silvery shape darted in and ate it, the fish were very happy we were learning down here. The next item to come out of the bag was... The tomato! Still looking very tomatoes like, the colour seemed very off. Still distinguishable as tomato coloured, the red shade was darker and less vibrant. Again, silver fishes darted in, shredding the tomato in Pam's hand. Bits of flesh went everywhere, but not before I'd had a chance to see that its skin was sitting slightly wrinked instead of taught. Next, Pam cracked an egg to show us how it would hold its form. Before the shell was even moving apart, the fish were in, slurping up the egg as if it were a banquet breakfast. The next one pal crack into the bag then tried to lift the bag out the way, unfortunately a corner of the bag caught it and the egg was all scrambled. Before attempting the final egg, all the fish were pushed away. Their bodies feeling firm and their scales unexpectedly soft. We tried again, this time seeing the egg hold its shape before we couldn't hold them off any longer and the fish feasted on egg number 3. Now we looked at the bottle. The pressure had crushed the plastic something rotten, and the half filled liquid now only took up a centimeter or 2 at the bottom. It seemed more purple than before. The colour change is due to the way water absorbs frequency of light, the effect of appears worse the deeper you go, and red is the first colour effected, followed by Orange and yellow, eventually leaving just blue. Experiments over, it was time to head to the top slowly, making sure to abide by the safety stop as we went up. Coming out of the water, I felt awake me refreshed. It was a amazing way to wake up, and I was more than ready for what the rest of the day would bring. More tea especially helped with that and I'd even managed to dive towards a shark (luckily it didn't see me) without blowing away all my air.

We had a while before the next dive, long enough to fill up on breakfast and enjoy the sunlight before once again downing equipment to delve down. This time, the boat supervisor himself took us down. Instead of moving the whole boat out, we all piled into the tender to head back to Shark Mountain where we'd been this morning. This time we rolled off the tender, the typical diver move you see in films and tv, where the diver is sitting on the edge of a boat and just rolls backwards into the water. Finally done it! The reef was different again and we were guided round until we ran out of air whereby we were taken up to the tender. Doug by this point had perfected his air usage and without having to panic breathe for sharks still had a staggering amount left when his air level was checked. So much so his air gauge was tapped a few times to confirm it was working properly, and managed to get an extra 5 minutes on the bottom from this. Once again we'd blitzed past the 18m mark without really noticing, and our experience was racking up. After this it was time to start thinking about packing. The final dive was at 11 and we all headed out again on the tender to meander along a bunch of different dive sites back to the main boat, all the way along the reef. A staggering 45 minutes later and Doug and I still had plenty of air remaining having swam at depths we didn't even reach on our training. We both had come along way with our diving experience, and Doug was especially taken with the whole lifestyle, and was starting to question his future with it. Back on board, there was time for a quick shower before checking out, and then lunch. It had come to an end far too quickly and before long we were being transferred to the day boat for a turbulent ride back to Cairns.

As we sailed away, we looked fondly on the reef. It was everything people had made it out to be and more. No wonder people spend so much coming out here to five, its another expensive hobby I can see thing up a good chunk of my time.

Back in Cairns we checked into a hostel, the right one this time and checked the car was still there. I'd managed to call a mechanic who'd be able to service the cat tomorrow if his staff turned up and so we've have to call in the morning to check.

Both very tired from the excitement of the last few days we headed to the bar for a few well deserved beers. Dinner was provided with the room and was nothing special, but filled a hole before I was yawning my head off. There was a one man band playing, expertly using electronic drum pedalsx, a beatbox to record himself to harmonize, and a guitar in hand. His hands mouth and feet were a blue of motion and he played some excellent covers, and had a cracking sense of humour especially as he was competing with girls in bikini playing American football to compete with - both males and females were turning an gawking at the tv screens. Before his set could even finish I was done. Joint aches and head throbs, the signs if decompression sickness had started to hit me and my ears were blocked and painful. I was tired and headed to bed, my head bot even on the pillow as I fell asleep, my body already missing the gentle rocking of the boat.