I've always dreamed about being a mermaid. Maybe it's just my innate southern Californianess but since I can remember I've love Ariel, I love the cute merman on the disney original, the 13th year, and most of all i have always had a love of the ocean. I can honestly say that my dream was fulfilled while on the great barrier reef these past few days.
It's all begun when the enthusiastically gorgeous Aussie instructors picked us up at our camp site! We loaded up and headed out to sea! To say it was a rocky ride would be the biggest understatements in the history of the world! Man oh man we were cruising through a scene from the perfect storm! Yet the workers said it was only a normal day!
We suited up for our first dive that was luckily a guided dive so one of those cute accented instructors lead us down! Too bad we couldn't hear his sweet voice down there! Haha anyways, on our first dive we saw a shark!! Yes a real life shark! It was nuts and not even scary at all! They traveled in a pack of 3 so we watched as three of those bad boys swam right next to us! Besides the beauty beyond belief of the reef, that was the highlight of our first dive!
Once we got back on the boat, lunch was served!! The fruit was my favorite part of the meal! The pineapple! Ah! Died a little! Then before my big lunch could digest, we were off on our second dive! This dive and all other dives on the trip were now "buddy dives." where you go down with a buddy and are totally and completely on your own. Our buddy turned foursome was me, Kenny, Cassie, and Tarah! So we go down and see all types of the most unique fish...then turtles!! We swam with crush! It was so awesome! We took all types of awesome videos of Tarah's go pro with our turtley friend! We saw all over the reef, up and around massive coral and homes to millions of creatures! We were all running low on air so it was time to head back. When exiting water, unfortunately tarah lost her gopro. It was such a bummer, we tried everything we could to find it but it wasn't to be found.
Next we transferred to our "liveaboat" named the "Taka!" To our happy surprise, all of the cutest instructors came over with us and we were greeted by even more foreign hotties! We got settled into our rooms and Kendall, cassie and tarah were my roomies for the night! They were exactly like cruise rooms but just a little smaller, if you can even imagine that!
And again, before we even could relax, we were suiting up again for another dive in a new location! By now, we were totally confident in ourselves 60ft under the water! It was such a blast to feel completely comfortable with the process and to just enjoy the dive. We swam all through the reef, along side with giant schools of fish! There are million of "nemos" in their sea anemones too! It was so cute! There were a few exactly like the movie with a bigger fish and a little baby fish! I was living the real life finding nemo! After an over satisfying dive we headed back on the ship! We then played "never have I ever," which I was the first to get out of! So, of course was time to make convo with the workers! They were so awesome! I honestly want to get a work visa, move to cairns and be a scuba instructor on this boat! They live such a care free adventurous life ah I just love it!
After some casual convo and more fun games, it was time for the long awaited night dive! When we were being briefed of the dive and the line that got me was "now is when all the cute fish and turtles go to sleep...and all the predators come out to play!!" we were told to keep an eye out for the green eyes, which meant hungry sharks! We suited up and given flash lights, for our only view of things would be because of the flash lights or "torches" they called them! The workers said that the moon was to be our guide! We jumped into the black, white capped waters and begun our journey! In the complete and utter darkness we were in small groups being led by an instructor. There were the biggest fish I had ever seen swimming alongside of us and if you shined the light on a normal fish, the big guy would swim right to it and eat it for a snack! We were only allowed to kill one or two fish! At one point he had us turn out our light and look up at the moons reflection of the water. It was such a frighteningly neat sight! We were at the bottom of the ocean, in the dark of night, exploring God's masterpiece! Then the green eyes started to appear more often. Same goes to the shark that if you shined your light on any food, the shark would gobble it right up! It was nuts!
After a failed attempt at a shower (rinse of warm fresh water), dinner was served!! Fluffy rolls, broccoli and cauliflower cheesey casserole, rice, pork carrot and gravy stew thingy and some delicious salad was demolished in a matter of a few minutes! After freezing during the night dive, this hot delicious food was incredible! Unfortunately for a few of our group members got sea sick right about now and I was so sad for them that they couldn't shovel down seconds and thirds of the dinner! We chatted with the instructors for a little then headed off to our rooms to get some sleep. I felt like a baby getting rocked to sleep and it was lovely! I didn't feel sick in the slightest and I was so grateful for that!
We woke up to the smell of a delicious meal made by the French cook again! And after eating an assortment of breakfast goodies, it was time for another dive!
This was my most favorite and most scariest dive of the trip! We assembled our gear and headed off at the new location! "reverse profiling" is a huge no no, so what the means is your first dive of the day has to be your deepest and with every dive you can not go deeper than your last dive. So we were told that this dive had to be our deepest for the day! So our foursome group happily obliged! Deep into the reef we went! We would come to a "drop off" of coral and just dive straight down, just inches from the reef totally like a fish! The reef was the brightest and the fish were the most playful! I literally felt like a mermaid during this dive! However, unlike merpeople, I was running out of air. Due to a previous laugh attack, I was almost out of air and the rest of the foursome had plenty and I didn't want to make them come down early so I told them I was leaving and swam away alone. After a minute I realized this wasn't a smart idea. Now I was past the reef and all around me was nothing but the deep blue sea. I saw no scuba friends, no fish, no nothing! And you can't surface quickly when scuba diving because if you do, your blood wont be able to release the nitrogen in your blood quick enough and serious issues occur when nitrogen get trapped in your blood. So a "safety stop" is required during every dive which means you have to stop at 5 meters for like 5 minutes and wait for your blood to equalize. But, desperate times calls for desperate measures! So I swam to the surface to locate the boat to know which direction I needed to swim towards. I saw the boat not very close but not too far and went down 5 meters to attempt my safety stop while swimming as fast as possible in the direction of the boat. After using up all my air, I knew I had to be right near the boat. I surface and look out to nothing but the ocean, frantically do a spin around and spot an itty bitty boat out in the distance. I self inflated my BCD to act as a life jacket and had to make the decision; do I pull out my neon orange safety sausage and have a boat come get me and totally embarrass myself in front of the adorable workers? Or do I be a total b.a. and swim like Ashton in the Guardian? Obviously my pride made me tighten my mask (mind you, the snorkel was no use considering the insanely ridiculous waves) and start my long haul back to the boat. I swam with all I had in me, for I knew that I was all alone and anything could come eat me for lunch at anytime. After what felt like ages, I reached the rear of the boat right when the other girlies made it back! I was safe and so happy to be on the boat...until the mean head man of the ship looked at my air gauge and banned me from the next dive in the rudest way possible. I was so annoyed by that! Cut me some sympathy mister! I guess this was my third time coming in short of air and supposedly "Queensland law states I must come in with at least 50 bar in my tank" and 0 bar was just cutting it too close, so I was not allowed to dive the last dive...I'm sorry I just wanted to be done there as long as possible!! And that was what made me the most sad. Then, in my about to cry moment after receiving zero sympathy and not being able to go on my last dive...Matt (the instructor I had the biggest crush on) grabbed my shoulders, looked me in the eyes and said in his sweet accent "don't worry sweetie, don't let him ruin your day! He is a stink to everyone! Don't let it ruin day, hon." Mood was automatically changed!
On the bright side, I got to hang out with the instructors while everyone was gone! During this time was when I really got to hear their stories how they got there considering the majority of them were countries all over the globes! I loved asking them questions and secretly devising a plan in my head how I could follow in their footsteps. The funniest thing of my life also occurred at this time, an innocent that sends tarah and I to tears and to the bathroom to pee cause we are laughing so hard. Snorkel, rescue boat, wetsuit, hot shower is all I need to say or can even type for that matter that will out me in hysterics!
All in all, I will forever remember the most incredible two days on the great barrier reef! I was a freaking mermaid and cherished every moment under the water! Thanks to deep sea divers den, I now have to be a scuba instructor in Australia!
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