It was time to live my dream. So I asked for a leave of absence from work and applied for a loan that took me five years to repay and headed to Australia to dive. Not once did I begrudge a payment – it was the trip of a lifetime, all 2 ½ months I spent Down Under.
This particular trip was to the Outer Coral Sea on the SiBon, a liveaboard run by Fantasy Dive Charters out of Port Douglas. From everything I can tell, that particular boat has either left operations or has been renamed. Too bad as it was well run, the food was tasty, the crew knowledgeable, fun, and professional, and the boat itself was just fine.
As you may have read in the Meet Ann Hoffman section, I’m from Colorado and there are more divers per capita in Colorado than anywhere else in the States. So on this trip there were five of us from my home state – one married couple, two pilots, and me. Since I was by myself and had no dive buddy, I ended up diving with the pilots. About 100 miles off-shore I’m chatting between dives with one of my buddies, asking him how he wound up in Colorado. Turns out he grew up there and, long story short, we went to high school together and once we told each other our full names, realized we had known each other in that previous life – not well, but well enough to recognize names. So be very careful when far from home, you just never know when your past will show up!
Anyway, back to the diving. It was spectacular, stupendous, magnificent, unbelievable…I could go on and on. We first headed out to Bougainvilla Reef, then up to Osprey Reef, over to Cod Hole, and then down through the Ribbon Reefs as we returned to Port Douglas. Made 28 dives in 6 days, although the trip was actually 8 days. We didn’t dive the first and last days, which was difficult as we were all feeling deprived. Yes, we were diving crazy and the crew said they had never had to work so hard keeping the tanks filled. There were 15 divers and we just wanted to dive every chance we had.
We dived Shark Point and were surrounded by sharks too numerous to count, mostly White Tip and Nurse, although there were others, maybe Silver Tips and Gray Whalers, and in the distance we could see some bigger ones that we couldn’t identify, possibly Hammerheads from the shape we could barely see.
Lots of barracuda, grouper and other large fish at that same point. It was also where we went swimming off the boat, clowning around, and making sure that we were out of the water well before dinner time (the sharks’, not ours). We also did a chumming dive there and that was certainly one my more interesting moments. At one point I was within about 30 feet of the feeding frenzy and realized that that was one of my more stupid moves. Got a great picture to remind me that even responsible, experienced divers make bone-headed moves. Whenever I start to think too highly of myself as a diver, I take a look at that photo and it humbles me pretty fast.
When we dived Cod Hole, we found a moray that was amenable to some attention. He let me pet him so I rewarded him with a dead sardine, which made him a happy camper. Of course, it could have been a female, what do I know. We also hung around the huge Potato Cod that give the place its name. They grow to a maximum of about 6.5’ and 220 lbs. One of them came over and settled at my feet so I decided it was definitely a photo op. As I was waiting for one of my dive buddies to take a picture of me feeding the gentle giant, I was holding a sardine and looking around. The local Humphead Maori Wrasse got tired of my dawdling and ripped it from my fingers. And yes, blood really is green in the water. Fortunately, it was a little rip and didn’t cause much damage, although it did mean that I didn’t get the photo I was hoping for. And the cod was more interested in me petting it than in any food so it worked out okay. We also saw huge tridacna clams, maybe 4-5 feet long, with gorgeous mantles and small ones that were not any bigger than your hand.
So over the course of 28 dives, the variety of marine life was amazing. Here’s just a partial list of what we saw in addition to what I’ve already mentioned: about every kind of clownfish you can imagine and lots of anemones, triggerfish in wide variety, humbugs, boxfish, butterfly fish of every imaginable sort, parrotfish, hermit crabs, lobsters, various nudibranchs, pipefish, crinoids of many colors, octopus, coral banded shrimp, lionfish, pencil urchins, and corals and sponges of every type and color. There was soooo much more that we saw. I could go through a book of Coral Sea marine life and probably list 75% of them as seen by us, it was that spectacular.
If you ever get the chance to take such a trip, go for it. You’ll never regret whatever it costs as the gifts of the Sea are plentiful and breathtaking. Besides, you get to dive yourself into exhaustion…and that’s a good thing.
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Diving in Australias' Great Barrier Reef.
As you may have read in the Meet Ann Hoffman section, I’m from Colorado and there are more divers per capita in Colorado than anywhere else in the States. So on this trip there were five of us from my home state – one married couple, two pilots, and me. Since I was by myself and had no dive buddy, I ended up diving with the pilots. About 100 miles off-shore I’m chatting between dives with one of my buddies, asking him how he wound up in Colorado. Turns out he grew up there and, long story short, we went to high school together and once we told each other our full names, realized we had known each other in that previous life – not well, but well enough to recognize names. So be very careful when far from home, you just never know when your past will show up!
Anyway, back to the diving. It was spectacular, stupendous, magnificent, unbelievable…I could go on and on. We first headed out to Bougainvilla Reef, then up to Osprey Reef, over to Cod Hole, and then down through the Ribbon Reefs as we returned to Port Douglas. Made 28 dives in 6 days, although the trip was actually 8 days. We didn’t dive the first and last days, which was difficult as we were all feeling deprived. Yes, we were diving crazy and the crew said they had never had to work so hard keeping the tanks filled. There were 15 divers and we just wanted to dive every chance we had.
Lots of barracuda, grouper and other large fish at that same point. It was also where we went swimming off the boat, clowning around, and making sure that we were out of the water well before dinner time (the sharks’, not ours). We also did a chumming dive there and that was certainly one my more interesting moments. At one point I was within about 30 feet of the feeding frenzy and realized that that was one of my more stupid moves. Got a great picture to remind me that even responsible, experienced divers make bone-headed moves. Whenever I start to think too highly of myself as a diver, I take a look at that photo and it humbles me pretty fast.
When we dived Cod Hole, we found a moray that was amenable to some attention. He let me pet him so I rewarded him with a dead sardine, which made him a happy camper. Of course, it could have been a female, what do I know. We also hung around the huge Potato Cod that give the place its name. They grow to a maximum of about 6.5’ and 220 lbs. One of them came over and settled at my feet so I decided it was definitely a photo op. As I was waiting for one of my dive buddies to take a picture of me feeding the gentle giant, I was holding a sardine and looking around. The local Humphead Maori Wrasse got tired of my dawdling and ripped it from my fingers. And yes, blood really is green in the water. Fortunately, it was a little rip and didn’t cause much damage, although it did mean that I didn’t get the photo I was hoping for. And the cod was more interested in me petting it than in any food so it worked out okay. We also saw huge tridacna clams, maybe 4-5 feet long, with gorgeous mantles and small ones that were not any bigger than your hand.
So over the course of 28 dives, the variety of marine life was amazing. Here’s just a partial list of what we saw in addition to what I’ve already mentioned: about every kind of clownfish you can imagine and lots of anemones, triggerfish in wide variety, humbugs, boxfish, butterfly fish of every imaginable sort, parrotfish, hermit crabs, lobsters, various nudibranchs, pipefish, crinoids of many colors, octopus, coral banded shrimp, lionfish, pencil urchins, and corals and sponges of every type and color. There was soooo much more that we saw. I could go through a book of Coral Sea marine life and probably list 75% of them as seen by us, it was that spectacular.
