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A Three Day Great Barrier Reef Excursion
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We set off on the Scuba Pro II, a 78 foot diving boat commissioned in Feb. of 2002. We are diving with the folks from Pro-Dive in Cairns, Queensland and they are really great! Our Capt. (Heinz) seems very skillful, and has been diving since like the late 1960's. The crew seem to be mostly divers (quite a few are DiveMasters I think) and are all very friendly. Logans instructor, Jury (like Jerry), has been very nice to him and is a great guy in general.
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Our cook Jo has made us some really delicious food high in fruits and veggies to keep us from getting too heavy to dive four times a day. On the 4th of July she made us Chicken Satay, which here is made by stewing chopped chicken in a peanut sauce with veggies. The photo right shows Jo giving the leftovers to the Red Sea Bass Groupers that are always hanging out under the boat.
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There are about thirty of these guys at 18 to 24 inches long each going nuts over the food. These fish on the reef always seem hungry. We are not allowed to take food underwater for them, too dangerous, you would literally get mobbed by hundreds of fish.
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Our routine has been wake up at 6:00 AM, get a cuppa (coffee), dive briefing on the top deck at 6:20 AM, into the water at 6:45 to 7:00 AM, out at 7:45 AM or so, Breakfast. Logan would then have class (for his advanced openwater certification) and I had time to relax or work on my dive log. At about 9:50 or so another dive briefing, into the water by about 10:15 to 10:30 for the 2nd dive, then out by about 11:30 then Lunch. Another three hours or so of free time (Logan in class part of this) and then the afternoon dive briefing at about 3:00 PM and into the water for the third dive at 3:30 or so and out around 4:15 to 4:30 then dinner. Another 3 hours break and then the night dive around 7:30 and back out by 8:45 or so, then dessert. By 9:30 we were usually asleep.
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My Buddy on the early dives was Brooke (left); later we were joined by Irene (right).
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Brooke is finishing an international studies program at Univ. of New South Wales in Sydney for her degree from Scripts University in Ca. She is starting with the Teach America program this fall and hopes to work in an L.A. inner city school while she does her Masters on Childrens Policy Issues. Irene lives in Canberra and is an Electrical Engineer working on the systems that control Neutron bombardment rates of the fuel rods in Nuclear Power plants here in Australia. Both were wonderful diving buddys and great people. Logan dove with me the first dive, then started with his advanced class and all his class dives were with a guy from the States named Denver who was here in Australia for the MachineTeach conference on Artificial Intellegence. He also made friends with another 15 year old guy from California named Trent and dove with him a few times at the end. Trent and his mom Danette were also a lot of fun to talk to and great people. Trent is very serious about going into Marine Biology and hopes to attend the University in Cairns; he is very bright and I don't doubt he will do well there.
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4th of July Sunset Over the Barrier Reef
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Another beautiful sunset over the Coral Sea. The weather has averaged about 77 Deg. F during the day and 70 Deg. F at night but during the day the sun is very hot since we are not too far from the equator (about 7 degrees south lattitude). The water temperature is about 74 Deg. F and it keeps the air temperature pretty close to the figure during day and night. The wind generally blows at around 10 knots too so it is nice and breezy during the day and a little chilly at on deck. The first day was only partly sunny, but the next two were both clear and sunny.
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Most of the photos taken on this trip were from underwater diving cameras that made paper prints. When I return I will scan them and add them to this page. Stay tuned, should be here by July 10 or 11.
Cheers!
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