The day that we had been waiting years for had finally arrived. We were going to go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef. I had been told that I would need to shave my mustache, so that my mask would fit securely, so I pulled my plug in electric razor out of the bag. I put it into the outlet and crossed my fingers that it would work. If you’ve never plugged a 120V electric razor into a 230V outlet, it basically doubles the power of the razor. The blades were moving twice as fast and the handle was vibrating so much that I thought that I would drop it. I thought that I’d look pretty funny with the Abe Lincoln beard for the rest of the trip, so I went ahead and trimmed it to the skin and then went over it with a regular razor. I wasn’t sure how I’d look clean shaven again, but I didn’t think that I looked too bad.
I got into my trunks and a nice shirt and after packing a few snacks, the charged Gopro, and extra batteries, we headed out the door. We stopped off at the Hides continental breakfast, which has cereal, pastries, hard boiled eggs, and coffee. The pier was only about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. We would walk passed Fogerty Park and from there see a sign marking the Reef Fleet Plaza. As soon as we saw all the boats lined up, I started to worry that we wouldn’t find the correct one, but after asking the crew of the first boat that we saw, they said that all of the boat tour agencies were located in the large building behind us.
As soon as we opened the door to the building, the energy of anxious snorkelers surrounded us. It was as loud and busy as an airport check-in during the holidays, with everyone checking in at the same time. We found the podium for Passions of Paradise, the tour company that we booked with, and began our check in with John. John was originally from Colorado, but had moved to Australia and even developed a bit of an Australian accent. He was a little over 6ft and slightly stocky, with curly hair and a beard. I mentioned to him that I had shaved my beard, so that the mask fit better and he told me that all you have to do is shave a little bit at the top and put vaseline under your nose and the mask fits perfectly. We got our names on the list and our tickets, we walked down to the end of the pier, to a left and there was our boat tied up and ready.
The boat that we boarded was a carbon neutral, sailing catamaran, that would take us on two hours from shore out over two different spots on the reef (Milne and Moore). As soon as we stepped aboard, it felt like we were walking into a party. There was music playing and a bar, a spread of fruit and coffee laid out for breakfast and table where you could relax along the way. We were provided some paperwork and waivers that we would have to fill out, in order to release the company from liability. So we started filling out the paperwork and waited for a crew member to go over our forms with us.
I went through the checklist without really reading the fine print. Am I pregnancy? No. Do I have a heart condition? No. Do I have fainting spells? No. Then we came to the question, Do you take any prescription medication? Not really aware that my honesty would be detrimental at this moment, I checked, “Yes”. The crew member came over and reviewed our waivers. We had paid an addition $70 per person to participate in an introductory scuba dive. He went through the questions and then stopped. “Now Christopher, it says here that you are taking prescription medication. What are you taking?” Now, I had recently started taking a medication for anxiety, because I was having trouble concentrating at work. So I told him that I was taking medication for anxiety. “I’m sorry, Chris. If you are taking any medication, you won’t be able to participate in the scuba diving. When you go under the watch 10-20 meters your blood thins out and the medication is 4 times as strong. It would be like if you drank 1 beer, it would be like drinking 4.” I was paralyzed. I asked him if I could have a different waiver, but he said, “I’m sorry, if you checked yes to any of these boxes, you can’t go scuba diving.” He went on to tell me that if I got off the boat now, that I could go to a doctor and reschedule for the next day. If the doctor said that I was cleared to go scuba diving, then they would allow me to go, but if I stayed on the boat, I would be limited to only going snorkeling.
I was crushed. I had talked about scuba diving for months. It was one of my bucket list items. Even though, I was, in fact, terrified of going deep under the water, I felt like I needed to face my fear, if nothing else, but for the sake of saying that I did it. I pleaded with Elizabeth to go scuba diving. We had already paid for it and she was cleared to go, but she felt so bad that I couldn’t go, that she told me that she was only going to be snorkeling with me.
As we got closer to launch, a person with a headset microphone made an announcement. A young woman, told us about our trip ahead, and then mentioned that if we haven’t taken any sea sickness medication, that now was the time to take it. They were selling extra strength tablets at the bar for $4, so I picked some for Elizabeth and I. I had gotten sea sick on the last boat that I had taken from Dana Point to Catalina Island and I was miserable. I wasn’t going to let that happen again.
After the ship, took off, we were basically free for the next two hours until we made it out to the reef location. We had some coffee and breakfast and then sort of just hung out and walked around the boat. It was a beautiful clear day out with only a few clouds in the sky. The temperature was just perfect, and the ocean breeze was refreshing as it blew against your face, while standing on the bow of the boat. I spent a fair amount of time taking video of myself with the islands in the background. While Elizabeth stayed indoors. Lots of our fellow passengers were laying out on the deck sunbathing or having a drink to pass the time.
As we started to get closer to the reef location, we were instructed to go to the back of the boat to pick up a stinger suit, a mask and snorkel, and a pair of flippers. A crew member came over to our table to talk to Elizabeth about going on a scuba dive. There was a moment that I thought that she might actually go through with it, but in the end, she told the crew member that she might not. With about 10 minutes to go, everyone was getting suited up in their stinger suits and the adrenaline began to start pumping. While I was a little bummed that I wouldn’t be able to actually go scuba diving, I was excited that I was going to be able to maybe “Find Nemo”. The crew members taught us distress signals, just in case we started to struggle, but I was super confident that everything would go extremely well. We sat on the deck and talked about whether we would see a turtle or a shark, then when the time came, we all lined up toward the back of the boat and hopped in.
At first, the water was a little chilly, but it didn’t take too long to get used to it. I wasn’t really used to swimming with flippers and I found that I was swimming a lot further that I was expecting in really short amount of time. It was really easy to get lost looking at all the different types of coral and following all the little fish the would swim with in inches of our mask. I was really trying hard to do my best impression of a Jacques Cousteau underwater documentary, but I spent a lot of time shaking the camera when I was trying to swim. Elizabeth, of course, was a natural in the water, there where times that I thought that I lost her and then she would pop her head up 30 feet away. I would freak out a little, but she was always very calm.
For years, people have said that “The Great Barrier Reef is dead”, and that was really one of the driving forces behind the trip. I needed to see it for myself, before there was nothing left. And while there was some coral that didn’t look as bright and vibrant as others, there was still a large population of fish thriving. Something that would happen occasionally, was I would swim too close to coral that was shallow and I would struggle to get away. I would be excited that I could get really cool footage of the coral and fish, but then flop around, because the coral was sharp and I didn’t want to get cut. Our snorkel session was a little less than an hour, before we all got called in.
As soon as we came in and got changed, it was already time for the lunch buffet that had been prepared. I didn’t catch what the meat options were, but on the vegetarian side, I was able to get some salad, mac and cheese, penne pasta, potato salad, and a roll. It was a tasty way to carb up for the next dive and satisfy the appetite that we worked up, while we were out snorkeling.
Less than an hour later, we were back in the water at our second location. This dive felt like the water was significantly deeper and I was having a really hard time not feeling anxious and swallowing water. I had do some work to practice breathing before we had arrived at the destination, but I still struggled to breathe through my mouth.
We were actually able to spot a few clown fish on this session, so we can always say that we “Found Nemo” swimming in his anemone. There was much more fish all around in this second location and there were spots where you could look deep in the water and see fish 20 and 30 feet below.
The voyage back was much more mellow, we both got a drink and I ended up feeling so tired from all the swimming that I decided to take a nap. Meanwhile, John from the check in was giving a lecture about the reef and how global warming is having a negative affect on reefs around the world. I woke up about halfway through the lecture and was pretty impressed that even though I was sleeping, they were educating us. Before we made it back to shore, we purchased a photo that one of their on-board photographers took of us.
Getting off the boat, we were giddy. The crew were all lined up and gave us hand shakes on our way out and you really felt like on some level, these guys where your friends. Everyone was really laid back, and I guess that beyond being in a beautiful place, they all love what they are doing and it shows in the way that they treat the passengers. Everyone on the crew seemed like they wanted to be there and even the guy that told me that I wasn’t allowed to scuba, seemed to look like he was having fun any time that I saw him. The experience made us feel like we HAD to move to Australia somehow, so that we could find a way to do it again.