Australia Day 12 - Cairns

We had a really early morning today since we had to be at the pier for 7:30am. We had booked a day aboard the Osprey V which took us to two different stops on the Great Barrier Reef for snorkeling and scuba. I had never snorkeled or scuba dived before so I was a bit nervous about the whole thing - I get a bit claustrophobic sometimes and was not sure how comfortable I was breathing underwater. I also normally dislike the life I've encountered under the water, however that's been limited to seaweed and slime and ugly fish. These are pretty fish in clear waters so I was hoping I would enjoy that part of it at least.
Although I wasn't so keen, Craig really wanted to try diving and had wanted to take lessons to become certified prior to our trip. We didn't end up doing that and instead when we booked the tickets the introductory dive was on sale so we each got one intro dive for both of the days we are going out on the boat. We figured that buying the intro dive on the boat was quite expensive so if I didn't like it then it wasn't much money to waste if we pre-booked.
Once we got to Saxon Reef we got to go out snorkeling for a while before our intro dive. This was my first time snorkel so it took a bit of getting used to. The water was grossly salty when you got it on your lips or when a wave got into your mouth. We had on stinger suits (it's stinger season) and flippers and I got used to the feeling of using a snorkel. Once I was a bit more comfortable with the whole thing I enjoyed lazing around on a pool noodle while examining the colourful scenery. We even swam right up to a turtle, which was the one animal Craig most wanted to see on our reef trip.
When it was time to go for our dive they strapped us in to our oxygen tanks and weights (the whole package is very heavy!) and we got into the water (we had a bit of class time explaining of the how-to earlier in the day). The dives were done in groups of 4 with one instructor who drags you around (all linked arms), and we had to pass 2 tests under the boat before we were able to go on the dive - we had to empty the water out of our mask and we had to put our mouthpiece back in after taking it out. Although we were only down under the boat - not much more than a meter - I was starting to panic. I was still not comfortable breathing from the mouthpiece and I didn't like the feeling of being surrounded by water. The instructor started my test but I signalled I wanted to go back up. Up top one of the boat crew tried to pep me up and convinced me to try again. This time I got down and passed the first test. When I got to the second test I took my mouthpiece out, blew bubbles and then put my mouthpiece back in like I was supposed to, however when my mouthpiece went back in I got some water in my mouth which made me panic and realize I really didn't want to do this. And thus ended my scuba experience - I bailed and went back to the surface where I was fairly certain wasn't going to suffocate. Craig tells me the scuba wasn't so nice anyway - they went no more than 10 meters and were just swimming below where we had been snorkeling. They saw a turtle and some clown fish, but Craig kept sinking so he had a different vantage point than the others, hanging off the instructors arm. Meanwhile, on the surface, I got back into my snorkeling gear and had another poke around.
We had a nice buffed lunch and then went to the second reef - North Hastings. This reef was really nice and had a nice plateau of reef less than a meter under the water so it was easy to check out snorkeling. There was even a school of yellow tailed fish as well as a huge fish with big lips that swam right up to the boat.
After some snorkeling, we went in a submerged boat for a bit of a tour around the reef - we saw a clown fish and huge oysters - over a meter wide!
On the way back to Cairns the boat entertainer got out his guitar and played some Bob Marley and other classics and then played a bit on his "didgeridoo" (it was actually just PVC piping).