NEWS # 060
Hi everyone!
Monday. I set off in search of supplies as I'm off on my trip to the reef
today. Film and batteries for my camera, new boardies and a towel. I also
continue to update my mail.
We all meet at the marina around 8.00 pm and board our boat, Aquarius III.
We have a right motley crew, Seb and his crazy girlfriend, Anna and Ursula,
Michal and Avi, Ken, Alon, Rowan, Steve, Wes and Lulu and me. As we have an
odd number, I get a cabin to myself. I later find out that the bed is very
comfortable and as I'm in the centre of the boat I don't suffer from either
the rocking of the boat or the engine noise. Perfect!
Our instructor for the week, briefs Seb and I, as we are doing our Advanced
Open Water and the rest of the guys, all doing the Open Water, get their
briefing. At about 10.00pm Paul, the skipper, arrives and we set off for the
reef. We stop motoring at about 4.00am and I awake around 7.00am. We have breakfast straight away and by 8.00am are ready for our first dive.
We set up our kit and check each other's.We are at Keeper Reef and our
instructor dives with us, to make sure that we are comfortable in the water.
The reef teems with life though the coral is in poor condition. There are
many Crown of Thorns Starfish, which feed on the reef. We have no problems
and our instructor seems pleased with our performance.
After a brief rest, we are back in the water again, at 11.00am, this time on
our own, without our instructor. We seem to make a good team and head off
around the coral bommies together. Our navigation skills need honing though,
as we surface several hundred metres from the boat. It's a long swim back
and we promise to do better in the future.
After lunch, we prepare for our third dive of the day, this time a required
dive, for our Advanced Qualification. We do a Naturalist Dive and have to
identify several types of vertebrates (such as fish), invertebrates (such as
sea slugs) and plants (such as algae).
It is harder than we imagined and we see many fish which do not appear on
the coloured fish charts we have. Eventually we have all those required and
we ascend to the boat.
Our last dive of the day is with our instructor again. This time it's at
night. It's spooky to descend into the blackness, though we are surprised how
light it actually is below the surface. The face of the reef is very
different at night, with few fish, that we'd seen during the day, in evidence.
We swim away from the boat until the only light we can see is that of the
moon and our torches. We then have to navigate a heading using our compasses
and return to the same place. A little challenging but we manage. We both
feel a little aprehensive in the darkness and are not unhappy when we return
to the safety of the boat!
Exhausted after our long day, we crash out after dinner.
Seeya,
Halesy