|
Woke up at 6:30, grabbed some coffee and pre-breakfast. The boat had moved to Cod Wall where we decided to do breakfast before the first dive. The divers were split into 2 groups, and we went down to 140ft to see "Bill the Fan", world's largest gorgonian fan. We saw a couple of sharks on the way down. After properly paying homage to the giant fan (about 15 feet tall) we came back up the wall, and saw lots of fish including some parrotfish and a few clown fish. We swam through some channels where we saw a little gray puffer and a big porcupinefish fish; Rick loves them . We did two safety stops because of the depth. Some of the divers were doing nitrox and advanced underwater courses.
|
|||||||
 Marcel and Asia |
|  Paying homage to the giant fan |  | ||||
| We did one more dive on this site. We swam along the wall for a while, then ascended and swam through the channels back to the boat. We saw a moray eel trying (not very well) to hide. Then a feather star 'attacked' Rick, his leg was covered with pieces of it. | |||||||
 |  |  |  | ||||
| We had pizza for lunch and then the boat moved to Scuba Zoo. We were given a special dive briefing, due to the potential danger involved with this dive. All of the divers jumped in together, then swam down to the tops of the shark cages. There were sharks circling all around, they knew what was coming. A garbage can of fish was brought down on a line, which made the sharks go a bit crazy. The can was pulled around in front of us, with sharks bonking us with their fins at times. One grabbed Randy's strobe a bit, Rick crouched down to stay as low as possible. The can was moved back to the middle and opened up, which resulted in a feeding FRENZY. The sharks dispersed quickly once food was gone. | |||||||
 |
|  |  | ||||
| Then we all swam around and looked for shark teeth; Jasper found a couple. Back on boat they dumped chum and fish guts in the water, which drew a crowd of sharks. Danny threw fish parts in with a rope connected and pulled a shark up almost to the deck. It was hanging on as it dangled on the line. Finally it's teeth cut through the rope and it dropped into the water. What an exciting site! | |||||||
 |  |  |  | ||||
| Then the boat moved to Flinders Cay, where most divers went on a (very wet) skiff to a small bit of land and watched some birds. We stayed behind with Andre and chatted with Warick (the chef) and Greg (the captain). Then everyone returned, very wet. Kurt dumped some cold water on Danny who was on the deck below, then Danny got him back. | |||||||
 |  |  |  | ||||
| Dinner was grilled prawns, chicken and mackerel. Then we had pavlova for dessert, an Australian delicacy, made with whipped eggs and sugar, which was way too sweet to eat! We all joked around table, then we were off to bed. We had a very rough crossing back to Great Barrier Reef, which made it tough sleeping. We were under way from 10pm to 3:30am. | |||||||
|  Us watching the sun set |  Us with Deborah and Margaret |
|||||
