Deep deep down
Heard today about Outer Edge dive trips, which operates out of Port Douglas, just north of Cairns. Apparently, a couple of months ago they forgot to do a head count and left two American on the reef! I didn't find out if they were found again. Anyway, on with the diary...
Up early again today, and by 8.45 we were 28.5m below the surface, doing our deep diving training. This is as part of the course that will make me an Advanced Open Water diver, as certified by PADI (My first certification was with Scuba Schools International). The whole time we were down a huge maori wrasse called "Wally" was swimming in amongst us as we were doing our various skills. As you can see from the photo below, Wally's a big boy:
One of the crew was also down there with a video camera, getting us to do stupid stuff like "drink" out of a beer can. He gave me a banana to eatr, but just as I was peeling it, a fish darted in a and nicked it off me! The next dive was a pleasure dive, where Stu and I swam through a small coral tunnel, just about big enough to get through. Then we did a search and recovery dive - finding a spoon and a weight belt, which we had to raise to the surface using a lift bag. Made a bit of a shambles of it, but we sraped through. We also had a night dive - I had an initial problem equalising the pressure in my ears, but it was ok eventually. A great dive followed - it was much better going out just as a pair, and we'd hired brighter lights. We saw a bumpheaded parrot fish, and a turtle that was chilling out under a coral overhang. Wicked! Also saw another shark.