This morning we all had eggs on toast – a very welcome
change to weetbix! It had rained heavily overnight but it had stopped by the
time we got up. However the skies were
still grey and gloomy which is not what you want when you are going to the
reef.
We drove to the Marina even though it is only 450m from the
apartment, as we didn’t want to carry Rohan (and all the gear) back home in the
afternoon. We were booked onto the Quicksilver
Wavedancer cruise which was a catamaran with sails – seriously cool looking.
We got on board at 9:15 and had a bit of a wait until we
left the marina. Julian and I listened
to the marine biologist give a chat about what we should expect to see on the
reef. We set off at 10am and went reasonably
quickly out to Low Isles.
It was a bit windy out on the deck when we listened to the
chat on how to fit your snorkel and what the times were for all of the
different activities. As it was already 11:30, we decided to take a ride in the
glass bottom boat to have a “dry” look at the reef. It was a lot murkier than I expected but
apparently this is due to the amount of nutrients in the water as it is
close-ish to land (a good thing). This
also meant there is a lot of soft coral and less hard coral. Apparently the outer reef is much clearer and
it is mainly hard coral. They also said
that coral bleaching is reversible if the water temperature reduces by even
1degC. This winter, it is much colder than last year 24degC instead of 28degC,
so large areas of the reef are rejuvenating right now. This was something I hadn’t heard.
After the glass bottom boat ride, we had a very tasty lunch
on board. By around 12:45 we were ready
to hit the reef. We headed out to Low Isles on another little shuttle boat and
it only took about 5 mins. On the island
we got kitted up in our stinger suits (full length body suits with gloves and
hoods) and put the boys in swim vests.
We looked hilarious!
Rohan was NOT keen on snorkelling or noodling or being
carried or anything involving floating AT ALL.
So Steve went out with Julian (without the GoPro) and they saw a
turtle. I went out with Julian and I saw
a giant clam. Steve then went out with
Julian and they saw lots and lots of fish and coral. Julian LOVED it. The water was warmer than being out in the
wind but by the end, we were all cold. The wind had really picked up and grey clouds
were blowing in. We caught the shuttle back to the boat just at about
2:15pm. Julian was still buzzing.
We all got dry and dressed.
I plugged hooked up the GoPro with my phone and we watched the
underwater movies that we had made. They
were surprisingly good – my clam showed up really well, cursing missing the
turtle. We then had something to eat and drink and just relaxed until everyone
was back on the boat. The wind had
really whipped up so when we did start heading home at 3:15, it was a little
rough. Many people found it too rough
and needed the handy white bags. Rohan
and I snuggled up and we both had a nap.
Rohan’s nap lasted the whole journey home! Julian and Steve were fine until about 4pm
when Julian thought he was going to be sick.
They popped out onto the deck and then Julian was good again (still a
perfect no-spew ever record for Julian!).
We got back at 4:30pm and we were very thankful that the car
was right there! We came home and
plopped the kids in front of the box – they were SO tired. Steve went out to buy some bread, beer and
ice-cream. He also looked for another
iphone cable/charger as our old one stopped working!
He came home and we tried to get the BBQ working with no
success. So we cooked up the sausages in
the frying pan and had hotdog (of a sorts) inside. It was a fun day but boy we were tired!
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