Day four started with a shock as we were woken up before 0600. We had three dives to do and until midday to do them, so we were in the water by 0630. This was off to the north of the previous dive and was lovely – lots of fish and a turtle, although the camera didn’t like the morning light. It was also getting a little choppier by this stage and a current deterred any surface swimming making dives that ended under the boat a favourite. There was a site with lionfish we could have explored but at 26m it was a push for us by this point and would have meant sitting out the day’s second dive. So we missed the lionfish and will have to save them for next time.
Dive ten was at the southern point of the reef and was quite nice until everyone got in the water. By this point we had another 15 odd divers, the open-water course having finished, and all of them keen to play. So it was quite crowded and the current made it hard work. For dive eleven it was suggested we head south, but we headed back to the bombora from dive ten and were well rewarded with a shark swimming through the fish. It turned out to be a lovely dive to finish on without the over-crowded and we managed to be first back to the boat and hence to get changed, showered and ready to home.
Of course things are never that easy and we spent the next three hours with the boat going through a sixty or seventy degree angle. Large waves were drenching those on the top deck and moving the fridge back and forth, and at one point threatened to shower us with toasters. Luckily we made do by teaching a poor Scottish lass the finer points of Australian English, in particular the pronunciation of Cairns (or Cans as the case may be). Upon learning the weather gets like that maybe one week in four I decided that a career on terra firma is the way to go, especially as it turns out the forecast for the next day was a 2 metre swell inside the reef – God knows what terrors would be inflicted upon those outside the reef’s protection.
Despite the ocean’s efforts we arrived back in port and stumbled home, seeking a cup of tea and some food. We found a lovely curry restaurant with a great vegetarian selection and soon after retired, sated, to bed.
