Let’s get up early and go snorkeling! Today we need to be in the Port Douglas Marina – about a 5 minute drive away – by 9 am to catch a boat to take us out to the northern edge of the Great Barrier Reef. After doing some research several months ago I had selected Quicksilver to take us to the Outer Barrier Reef. Previously I have been to the Great Barrier Reef with Karen, out of Cairns, however as we are about 1 hour north by car, this will be a different portion of the Great Barrier Reef.
For those who do not know about the Great Barrier Reef – it is the world’s largest coral reef system, located off the coast of Queensland, Australia, and is visible from space. It is composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands, spanning approximately 2,300 kilometers and covering an area of about 344,400 square kilometers. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1981, it is the planet’s largest single structure made by billions of tiny organisms called coral polyps (living organisms) which form over 400 types of hard and soft coral, and it also supports an immense diversity of marine creatures such as sea sponges, anemones, worms, and mollusks and marine life such as the endangered dugong (“sea cow”) and six of the seven species of marine turtles.
For all the companies that provide “tours” to the Great Barrier Reef, they must have a permanent dock or “pontoon” installed near to the reef they visit so they are not constantly anchoring and destroying the ocean bed each day. This is also way more environmentally friendly and protects the UNESCO site. There are also only a limited number of companies that can provide trips to the Great Barrier Reef and in the fee you pay to the company, there is included a conservation fee paid to a fund that protects the reef activities. Today, we will be going to Agincourt Reef, which is called a jewel-like ribbon reef on the very edge of the north edge of the Great Barrier Reef.
After a filling breakfast at the hotel, we were on our way! All decked out in our swimwear with various things like knitting and Mr. Dass’s book to keep me company on the 90 minute ride out to the reef and back. Check-in was very simple and we then waited for permission to get onto the boat. I was a bit concerned about getting onto the boat as it was so high up in the water! However once they allowed us onto the dock, I saw a ramp all the way up onto the boat and I was MUCH relieved! They did said that the boat was accessible!
We were greeted when we got onto the boat and lead to a table where I could park my walker and sit comfortably. Very soon afterwards a family with a young kid who was screaming moved into the section of 4 seats behind us, so we quickly moved to the other accessible table on the other side of the boat! The other lucky thing about this sailing is that the boat was only about 1/4 full. Normally they take 200 people to the reef each day and today there were just less than 50 people.
The ride to the reef was very smooth – so smooth that I got a bit sleepy and lay down for a nap on the 2 chairs beside me! Good thing we had beach towels from the hotel for a pillow! Andrew in the meantime watched a video about Marine Life that the Marine Biologist onboard the boat was putting on upstairs and no accessible to me.
A LOT has changed since I last took a cruise to the Great Barrier Reef – while I cannot remember if we are using the same company, I did have a fairly bizarre experience on the boat – the head lifeguard came to visit me about my “medical conditions” and to see if it was safe for me to snorkel! First I was a little taken aback, however I filled out the form and he came back to “interview” me. He asked things like how long it has been since I have snorkeled (3 weeks), what medication I take and then based on what I filled out told me that I had to wear a red life preserver when in the water and a red tipped snorkel. I also had to swim within the penned area! He did know that I would be swimming with Andrew though. Did not make a difference. Oh well, those are the rules! NONE of this applied when Karen and I went snorkeling previously! They probably would not have let her into the water the way they were dealing with me!
Once we arrived at the pontoon, everything sprung into action – staff donned their various gear and then people got off as they were pretty excited to start snorkeling or scuba diving. There are all sorts of things that are offered – mostly an upgrade – such as being able to scuba, rent underwater cameras, snorkel with the Marine Biologist, have pictures taken by the photographer, take a helicopter ride – those are some that I remember.
While it is best to visit the Great Barrier Reef for visibility and calm seas are typically from May to October, I was aware that it was November and some nasty weather had just taken place in Northern Australia. The sea was a bit choppy at the pontoon in my impression for snorkeling however we are here lets jump in! We got off the ship and I found a fairly steep ramp down to the snorkeling/scuba deck which was awesome! There was a sign about getting a Lycra suit which puzzled me and I saw a bunch of people wearing what I thought were wet suits. Nope, they are Lycra suits just like the green men at the Canucks games wear but these are black! You have to put one of these on to go snorkeling due to the stingers in the water at this time of year! Great – like I needed something heavy on me to drag me down! So off we went to get our Lycra suites which were basically head to toe – including a hat and mittens attached to the long sleeves for the hands and the feet just had straps as one is supposed to wear flippers. I do not wear flippers as they will hurt my muscles in my leg and affect my back – been there and do not need to do that again! I also have fairly powerful swimming legs when they want to work!
Now we look like aliens, we got our snorkel gear and I got my red PFD and red tipped snorkel and Andrew chose to get a PDF for himself too and we were ready to go! Now I did have to go down some stairs to get into the WARM water – however it was fairly easy with rails and then benches you can sit on in the water to get used to it and then a lower platform to step onto to swim from. Very easy to do and we were off! I snorkeled around a bit and saw some lovely brain coral, some very large fish and lots of white spiny coral with a few tufts of blue coral thrown in for fun! However I was battling both my PDF riding up around my ears making it hard to swim and the wave action. This was just not too enjoyable! Time to reset and retry! I then got out with the assistance of the lifeguard and optimized my gear and Andrew and I then tried again but to no avail. I kept on getting pushed into the ropes that were the barrier that I was to swim around – so I left Andrew out swimming and enjoying himself and I went back to take some pictures and hang out on the deck! Here are some pictures that I took –
After all that snorkeling we sure built up an appetite! Lunch was served back on the boat and that is also where we changed out of our swimming gear and back into some dry cloths! The lunch was wonderful – I got a chicken sandwich plus some GF cookies and a vegetable / egg frittata thing and they also told me that the Indian chicken dish on the buffet was gluten free – which I paired with the white rice for an extra treat! I then relaxed, read and knit while Andrew went and climbed down into the Underwater Explorer to check out what he could see! Being a bit claustrophobic at times and the stairway was VERY steep, I passed on that adventure! Here is what Andrew captured!
The temperature outside was about 38 degrees today – which is down from the 45 degrees with humidity we hit yesterday, so when we returned to the hotel, we were happy to have Air Conditioning in our room! The water at the Great Barrier Reef was so nice and warm considering it was still the same body of water that flows into Vancouver too! We then relaxed for the evening, Andrew had some cold beverages and as we had both a big breakfast and a fairly good lunch, we just had snacks for dinner before calling it a night!
Here is a panorama picture from the balcony of our hotel room as the sun fell.
Not sure what trouble we are going to get into tomorrow however I am sure we will get up to something! Check out what we end up doing!