Asia Adventure 2012: Great Barrier Reef Liveaboard

We were ready and waiting for the Deep Sea Diver’s Den to pick us up at 7:30am, after having checked out of the room and stored our luggage. They were a bit late picking us up.

Once on board our enormous water taxi, SeaQuest, we headed out to the reef. There were 2 decks, each with air-conditioned seating sections, and on the top was also an open air seating section. We sheltered ourselves from the extreme heat on the lower level. The briefing was interesting and for the most part quite comical;

ü If you see anyone fall off the ship, yell “man overboard”.
ü If you fall off the ship be sure to take $20 along for 2 reasons; 1) it will make you easier to spot in the water if you wave $20 around, and 2) that’s the re-entry fee to the boat!
ü Passengers must sign on and off the boat so they can keep a strict head count inventory. They have learned from errors leading to the filming of “Deep Water”.
ü No one is permitted in the water after consuming alcohol.
ü No harassing sea life because some will harass you back and certain ones, although very pretty, are quite deadly, especially when protecting their nursery.
ü Spotter watches over snorkelers and divers to ensure everyone remains within the 100 meter limit of the boat. Whistle means look up and follow instructions… like maybe there’s a large hungry-looking carnivore in the area!

Sailed out on the SeaQuest along with a boatload of divers/snorkelers. We were outfitted with stinger suits that were heavy and ill fitting, rather than the nice full-body blue suits. We managed 2 snorkels and a wonderful lunch before our transfer to the OceanQuest. During the transfer, all passenger belongings are transferred by staff and passengers are only permitted to transfer themselves.

The same rules on SeaQuest applied on OceanQuest, but during the short briefing in the dining room where they served us chocolate covered custard filled cupcakes, there were some additions;

ü Importance of those aboard ship; 1) passengers, 2) captain, 3) cook, and 4) everybody else.
ü Cabins were tiny with two beds smaller than twin size and a tiny washroom with a tub/shower that was approximately 2 feet and a bit wide.
ü Once on board, we noticed a sign saying absolutely no BYOB. Whoops, I suppose the fellow who gave us permission must have been mistaken. So we quietly brought the bottle/evidence back with us.
ü In case of emergency, all cabin doors were to remain unlocked.
ü No wetsuits in the cabin area. No wet swimsuits in the dining hall.
ü On board the OceanQuest we could select our own wetsuit so we switched to the full-body blue suits which didn’t really guard against stings but were much easier to put on.
ü Dive and meals times strictly followed the schedule, which follows the “run a tight ship” philosophy. Meals were very hearty and healthy. Water, tea, and coffee and whole fruit were always available.

The OceanQuest was beautifully decorated with Aborigine artifacts. We got a couple more snorkels in before dinner. The sealife is absolutely amazing out here. The colours span the entire colour wheel and sizes vary as well. The boat is situated in deeper water, so we had to swim out a bit to reach the reef. At first it was rather intimidating and I was trying to keep a 360 watch just in case. But I quickly overcame that obsession whilst watching the tropical fish do their thing.

During the 2^nd snorkel on OceanQuest, it finally happened. We were just minding our own business when a 6 foot white tip reef shark just appeared out of nowhere, checked us out, and having no interest in us whatsoever, continued along its merry way. I completely panicked, coughed, inhaled sea water, choked, and started heading for the boat, insanely thinking I could outswim a shark and more insanely, given that he was completely uninterested and swimming in the opposite direction! Once I came to my senses, I returned.

Dinner consisted of sheppard’s pie, cooked veggies, and salad. Then once the night dive completed, a berry crumble was served for desert and we headed to our cabin where I slept like a baby with the boat gently rocking back and forth. I had a dream in which Greg was devasted and weeping on his knees because he just got word about someone (possibly me) drowning, so I took that as my sign to dispel any crazy notion of scuba-diving out of my head. Or at least it was a very good excuse to be a great big chicken.