CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

April 21, 2023 — I was in a dead sleep when, at approximately seven a.m., I was woken up by one of the security officers and another person who were looking for someone because they were about to miss a tour that they were booked on. Initially, the name they were calling sounded like a guy’s and this was an all-girls room. Then, they pronounced the name right. And it was mine.

Instant panic and confusion. I stepped outside to talk with the guy who’d come by to collect me on behalf of Pro Dive Cairns because I’d missed meeting up with the rest of the group that morning and I had to come to the office to do the paperwork and pay the additional fee and get on the boat. But here’s the thing: I wasn’t scheduled to take the three-day tour until tomorrow. (You know, or so I thought.) So I’m outside trying to tell the guy that I’m booked for tomorrow, and he says it’s today. I think to myself, “Okay, we’ll just pack up and go down there and get this straightened out at the office, because it’s tomorrow. They’ve got to have written down the wrong date.”

So, I packed up my stuff and walked down the stairs, still in a half-asleep fugue state with fuzzy brain. I’ve got my phone out to pull up the ticket information so that I can show them that, no, I booked the 22nd to the 24th, not the 21st to the 23rd. And then I see the ticket. I see the date. And I remember a hot, subtropical March day in Brisbane.

On that hot, subtropical March day, which you might remember as I’m describing it, I got to Brisbane in the early morning (around ten a.m.) and was almost immediately on the phone with the tour coordinator that I’d spoken to in Byron Bay because I needed to drop from diving down to snorkelling on my trip to the Great Barrier Reef. I also needed to pick some extra activities to make up for that change in cost. But the drop down to snorkelling is what matters. We planned to drop me down to snorkelling, happening on the same trip as I would have taken if I were diving, and that way I would still get to hang out with my tour coordinator and we’d have a grand old time because we’d know someone else on the tour.

In fact, last night at Ladies’ Night at Gilligan’s, I’d seen my tour coordinator and we’d talked about how excited we were for the 22nd and how he’d actually had another girl book on to the tour because she was Canadian and was happy to know that there’d be another Canadian with her.

But, in a sad and unfortunate twist of events, when I got the email that contained my updated tickets on that day in Brisbane, the date that I was booked on to the boat for was the 21st to the 23rd, not the 22nd to the 24th. By this time, it was late in the day and I thought to myself, “No big deal, I’ll call in the next couple of days and get this all straightened out.” Except — and this is the kicker — I didn’t.

I didn’t call, I didn’t get it straightened out, and so, as I stood there in the stairwell, this memory came crashing down on me. I never called back and changed the date. And that meant that I was, in fact, booked on the boat from the 21st to the 23rd and that I was running on approximately five hours of sleep and that I was only about 75% sure I’d actually gotten everything out of the room that I owned and would need.

I got down to the office, which, thankfully, was only a half block away, and talked to the very nice gentleman there and apologized profusely, explaining that I’d been certain that the date was supposed to be the 22nd and that there had been a mix-up with the tour company. They were extremely gracious about it and the gentleman had me fill out the paperwork, in blessed silence, because at this point my adrenaline rush was crashing and I was not happy about losing a rest day between tours and I was about five second away from a serious crying jag. He asked what I could leave behind of all the stuff that I had with me and I didn’t have a clue what I might need, what might be able to stay behind, or where any of the important versus unimportant things were since I’d just stuffed everything into my two bags so quickly. He was really nice about it when I just said, “I have no idea,” kind of defeatedly, and said that I could just take it all, it was no problem. We fitted me with flippers and snorkel gear, then went to wait outside for the bus which had taken other people down to the dock and would be coming back to get me and the rest of the crew, including the scuba diving instructors.

It was going to be about ten minutes before the bus made it back and I’d realized that I left my towel in the hostel. I couldn’t very well go three days without my towel and the gentleman I was waiting with told me to go on ahead and grab it. I still had the key to the room because I hadn’t bothered to check out, plus I still technically had another night in the hostel before I needed to check out. That was something that I’d just have to deal with later.

The gentleman who’d helped me chatted with me for a while as we waited for the bus to come back. I’m quite certain that he knew I was about five seconds from a breakdown and was keeping me talking to keep me calm. We talked about what I did back home before coming on this trip, what I was up to, where I was going. I really appreciated it.

Finally, the bus arrived and we got on and headed to the dock, where everyone else was already waiting and where they’d saved me some breakfast. I sat on the edge of one of the seats next to some very nice people who, thankfully, didn’t look at me like I’d held everyone up (and, come to think of it, I probably didn’t because it seemed like they did breakfast and the initial briefing before they even got out of the harbour). I ate a croissant and some fruit and we went through the safety video, I had to fill out some more paperwork because the gentleman who’d helped me this morning hadn’t brought it with him (oh, well, at least I knew the answers), and we started being briefed on diving. I, as the lone snorkeller of the group, was following along with the divers who were already certified and we sat in the saloon for our rundown on diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Or, in my case, snorkelling.

By the time that was done, it was getting extremely wavy and the boat was pitching from side to side like crazy. They closed the sun deck on the top deck and we all took solace elsewhere. A lot of people ended up out on the dive deck, myself included, watching the horizon and trying not to puke. They brought around barf bags a couple of times and I’m sure that I was looking really green because I got two. At one time, I had one of them peeled open and ready to go. But eventually I was just kind of sitting there and drifting between dozing and waking. I couldn’t decide afterward — and still can’t — whether I was actually seasick or just needed a nap. (That said, my troubles with seasickness didn’t stop there.)

It took us three hours to reach the outer reefs of the Great Barrier Reef, spots in which Pro Dive has exclusive use. Our first stop was Malln Reef and it was definitely one of my favourite stops. We headed belowdecks to change and then had a half hour briefing in advance of heading into the water. It was much calmer in the shelter of the reef and the sun was shining. It was a beautiful day to get underwater and see the ocean life around us.

Our first dive (snorkel for me) was thirty minutes in length. I explored some of the outer fringes of the reef, marvelling at the corals and the tropical fish. I was also trying to get somewhat used to the current and the force of the waves pushing against me on the surface. (Divers don’t have that problem, lucky them.)

I popped up and headed back to the boat around the same time as some of the other divers, shucked off my rash guard and stinger suit, then dried off and enjoyed the air and the feel of a somewhat steady boat. We had lunch after we returned from this first dive, which was delicious! Pumpkin soup, baked potatoes, and a variety of cold salads. They told us during the briefing that morning: “You’ll either be sleeping, eating, or diving over the next three days.” They weren’t lying at all.

Our second dive was slightly longer than the first, lasting 45 minutes, and it was definitely one of my favourites. They told us to head out to the edge of the reef, then follow it, keeping it on our left shoulder, then turn around and follow it back to the boat on our right shoulder. Easy navigation, a straight shot, and we’d be against the current on the way out but with it on the way back. I was excited to get in the water and I was rewarded a hundred fold. I saw both black-tip and white-tip reef sharks, and, the best thing of all, a turtle. He appeared right under me and when I caught sight of him I was mesmerized. I swam with him, following his journey along the bottom of the ocean until I apparently got so far out that the dive master came to tell me to turn back using the boat’s dinghy.

I was absolutely buzzing off this dive. I towelled off again, then headed upstairs to chill and relax. We switched our anchor point after that second dive and headed out to Petag Bommie at Malln Reef. You might recall from my post on Day 80 that “bommies” are those little standalone sections of reef that dot the outskirts of the main reef.

Unfortunately, I, being a snorkeller, couldn’t really head out to the bommie because it was across open water and it’s too easy for me to be moved about. However, I was able to explore some of the main fringe of the reef between it and the boat. There was plenty of coral collected in that area, too, much of it lying a few feet down. It was also really beautiful, really colourful. I stayed under for about fifteen or twenty minutes on that dive, while for everyone else it was about forty-five minutes or so. I was getting kind of tired and it was definitely tough dealing with the current constantly.

After that dive, we all gathered for dinner. And let me tell you, the food on this tour is one of the main reasons to go. We had chicken in a potato-and-onion white sauce over rice, with vegetables and salads. Everything was absolutely delicious. I distinctly remember telling the chef a couple of times that he was my favourite person in the world because everything he made both looked and was so good.

After meals, we scraped our plates and rinsed them with seawater that spilled into the ocean. You should have seen the fish that came up for feeding time! They were huge. I actually did manage to get a picture of them the next day in daylight, but that evening, we actually got to swim with them.

I’d asked the dive master if it was possible to do a night snorkel and he’d told me that sometimes they can’t allow it, but that he’d have a look at the conditions at the time and let me know. I was really happy that I got the go-ahead this night. I was a bit freaked out — and rightfully so — to swim in the ocean at night, because even just dark pool water freaks me out a little bit at home. Even when I know that there aren’t sharks or fish or anything else in there, I’m still apprehensive. Surprisingly, being in the ocean at night wasn’t that bad.

As a snorkeller, I had to have the normal accoutrements (i.e. a rash guard), plus I got a flashlight and I had to hold on to a rope that they tossed into the water and tied to the boat at all times. Which honestly made me very happy because otherwise it was me and one other lady who was snorkelling and at least I knew that I couldn’t float away.

The night dive was so incredibly cool. All the divers were on guided dives so they were all lit up underwater with their little lights attached to their tanks and their flashlights on. We could see the sea floor and the corals around them, the life surrounding them, by looking at them underwater. Snorkelling, the flashlights don’t do much other than provide a beacon of hope in an otherwise black abyss, but they did illuminate some of the massive fish swimming underneath and all around us. Those fish left over from dinner were still hanging out around the boat. They honestly put me in mind of catfish because of how big they were and because their mouths kind of look similar.

It was so cool, but we also weren’t able to go very far so after a couple of turns around the back of the boat, I decided to head back in and dry off, then take my shower before everyone else came up and were also trying to get in the showers.

I felt nice and refreshed after my shower, but I was also starting to feel queasy again. I’d made sure to spend most of my time outside during the day and to stay out of belowdecks because moving downstairs while the boat was moving was just not good for me. Before I sat down, though, I had one thing that I had to do.

According to the signs around the boat, the boat was supposed to get wifi. I’m not sure what was wrong with it on this trip or if we were out of range to be able to pick up any wifi, but I didn’t have any way of contacting anyone at home without wifi or data and my data wasn’t working well enough to be able to use it. All I had for data was 3G and in Australia that means zilch. We’d been busy most of the day so I really hadn’t even had the chance to call home quickly. So, finally, I found a small corner of the boat with enough service to call home and I got ahold of my mom and reassured her that I was alive, let her know that I was on my Pro Dive trip, and that I’d explain more when we got back in a couple days.

With my water and one of my bags in hand, I was going to sit on the sun deck for a bit but that went to hell when it started spitting. I went to sit up on the dive deck instead as everyone else came up and dried off. I’m not sure how long I was out there, but it started to rain in earnest and I needed to sit on the opposite side of where I was to avoid getting soaked.

Eventually, I was feeling a little better, or at least no worse, and I decided that maybe I just needed to try to sleep. By this point, they’d come around with the safety roll call, so I just took myself downstairs, brushed my teeth, and went to bed.

Curling up on my side and feeling the rock of the boat was comforting. It felt so nice to be horizontal. And everything in me unclenched just a bit. I still had my barf bags at the ready just in case, but I didn’t think I’d need them. I watched an episode of Modern Family that I’d had downloaded before and went to sleep.

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