CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

April 22, 2023 — Our second day on the Great Barrier Reef started at 6:45am as our first dive was at 7:30am. We changed, grabbed towels and gear, and headed up to the sun deck for a briefing. We were still anchored off the Petag Bommie on Malln Reef but the relative calm of the previous day had given way to rougher waters.

I tried to head out and snorkel for the first dive but turned around after about three minutes because it was so rough. Waves crashed over my head and saltwater went up my snorkel and the current was quite strong, pushing me back toward the boat. I was also feeling somewhat fragile again and saltwater in my mouth wasn’t helping with the seasick feeling. By the time everyone else had dove into the water, I resurfaced and got counted as back on the boat by the dive master.

I headed up to the sun deck after I got dried off and watched the sun over the water, feeling the wind on my face and the salt in the air. My stomach was really rolling and I was just trying to hold it together so that I wouldn’t have to spew off the side. We had breakfast after the first dive and I went down, got some scrambled eggs and bacon and toast and sat back up on the sun deck again because I just didn’t think my stomach could handle sitting in an enclosed space. Given just how sick I was feeling after the first dive, I decided to just skip the second and hopefully head out for the third. We were still anchored off Malln Reef for the second dive, so I wasn’t really missing anything new. I enjoyed chilling up on the sun deck, alternating between reading a book and staring out across the horizon.

We had lunch after dive number two (for real, all we do is eat, sleep, and dive) which was chicken drums with honey mustard and assorted salads. I really liked the salad from our first day so I had that with my chicken drums. I also would have killed for a ginger ale throughout this trip because ginger is so good for settling your stomach, but they don’t have ginger ale in Australia. I decided to give Sprite a chance as something different from water and hoped that the carbonation and syrups might help at least a little. I also discovered the Arrowroot cookies in the cookie jar after lunch and thoroughly enjoyed nibbling on a couple of them in a further effort to chill my stomach out.

We shifted spots for the third and fourth dives of the day and anchored off of the Gordons, specifically Flynn Reef. I went out for the third dive and really enjoyed it. I saw a stingray and another turtle! This turtle was just hanging out munching on the coral several feet from the boat. I came up from that dive super-happy. A little while after everyone else returned from their dive (because I was taking only about twenty minutes to a half hour to snorkel while everyone else had hour-long dives), we had dinner.

And it was lasagne.

I almost cried I was so happy about dinner that night because I actually really wanted to have lasagne a month or so ago but I wasn’t prepared to spend money on what could be a really subpar experience compared to my mom’s. I had no idea what we were having, but when I’d walked through the saloon earlier it had smelled so, so good and also so familiar. I just couldn’t place it until I walked in that evening and saw the pan.

After dinner there was a night dive and I decided to forego it since I’d been able to snorkel the night before. Also, the corals on this reef were far enough out that there was no way I’d be able to get anywhere or see much of anything by just snorkelling. Everyone else headed out and I curled up in the saloon for a little bit before deciding that I was settled enough to go belowdecks and shower.

When I got back from showering, I took a few minutes out on deck to breathe the fresh air and then headed back down again and went to bed since I was nodding off on deck. I curled up on my side and watched a show while dozing slightly. I didn’t want to fall asleep right away since it had occurred to me that they would be doing the safety check and I wanted to make sure that I was coherent enough to hear them.

Now, I know I said it’s eat, sleep, dive, but we do have time for some small amount of socializing during meals. I think it was lunch that day when I was chatting with a few people and we got on the subject of where we were from. I said I was from Canada, then, more specifically, Ontario, and one of the guys in this group said he was from Kingston. I was stunned at that, and knowing he’d actually know about Napanee, said that I was from Napanee, and then he told me that he was actually from Napanee originally too, it’s just he’d gone to school in Kingston and no one ever knows about Napanee! Neither of us could believe it: what are the odds that two people from the same small town in Ontario, Canada, would be on the same boat on the Great Barrier Reef at the same time? Incredible.

I could hear lots of the rest of my group upstairs playing some card games and other things while I was lying on my bunk that night, but my stomach was so content sitting there and my eyes were drooping and eventually I just dropped right off.

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