On the Reef!

The primary reason for choosing Cairns as the last stop on the vacation comes down to this: the Great Barrier Reef. Today was our day to actually experience it.

After researching a number of different boat services, we decided to go with a company called Sunlovers. They have a really big boat which allows us to make the 40 km trip relatively quickly while handling the open seas with a little less rumble. Also, they have a large pontoon platform out on the reef that the boat docks to so there’s a lot of room and options for us once out on the reef.

We were definitely pleased with Sunlovers! Though the high winds continued again today keeping the passengers scrambling for the railings (and the crew handing out personal disposable bags), a dose of Dramamine and a keen eye on the horizon kept the Kaufman Crew from turning green!

The pontoon was as large as we had hoped for, giving plenty of room to spread our stuff out. As part of Barrett’s 12th birthday, we gave him an introductory scuba dive, on which I joined him as well. While Sara, Zachary, and Christa went to get their snorkel gear, Barrett and I got geared up with wet suits, weight belts, and the rest of the scuba gear.

It took a couple minutes for Zachary and Christa to warm up, so to speak, to the relatively cold water on the reef, but once they started seeing the enormous numbers of exotic looking fish, they were hooked!

The crew gave Barrett and me about a 20-30 minute overview of basic theory about water pressure, important hand signals, and some key diving skills before we actually headed into the water to practice. Barrett was engaged and confident the entire time. The three skills they taught included:

• Clearing water from our mask while underwater
• Taking the mouthpiece out of our mouth, then “clearing it” when putting it back in
• Throwing the mouthpiece over our shoulder (as if it got knocked out by a passing turtle and we couldn’t see where it went), retrieving it, then clearing it while putting it back in.

There was lady in her mid-50’s or so who joined us in the introductory dive. She was struggling to get through the skills, which delayed our departure from the practice pool. When we finally began descending down to the reef floor, she decided to back out. Though Barrett and I didn’t mind waiting for her (too much), we did pass a YAHOO! glance to each other was we knew this would get things going.

And going they did! It’s impossible to describe what we saw as our instructor James took us around Moore reef. The vibrant colors and unique shapes of the coral and fish were simply stunning. We were able to run our fingers through some soft coral and rub inside the “mouth” of giant clams and feel them start to close down on us. We were able to swim alongside and even touch some really big fish. We saw Nemo-looking clown fish hiding in their anemones. It was 30 minutes of pure awe that we will never forget.

We all downed some of the very good buffet lunch then did a lot of snorkeling together. The clear water provided a great view of the rich diversity of sea life without having to don the scuba gear. There was a semi-submersible ship that the kids enjoyed riding in that gave a unique view of the reef.

Near the end of the day they had a crew member give a short marine presentation in the underwater theater (think a mini-theater with windows looking out to the underwater life next to it). Then they did a fish feeding from above the theater which provided a remarkable feeding frenzy in the windows in front of us.

We could have easily enjoyed another hour on the reef but all good things must come to an end. The trip back has some rocky moments on the open seas but generally speaking it was more calm. Christa and Zachary slept through part of the trip. This was putting a big exclamation point on our time in Australia.

Once back in Cairns we went to dinner at the Red Ochre Grill, known for it’s modern Australian menu. Before the night was done we had dined on kangaroo, emu, and crocodile. This was truly a memorable last day in Australia!