So, on the 17th of May (yes, I'm a bit behind with writing this up!), I got up early to meet the shuttle bus for Cairns Dive Centre. I had booked a liveaboard dive trip which would take me out on the Reef for ten dives over three days. Now that I had my dive certification which I earned on Magnetic Island, I could go diving without an instructor and put my skills and knowledge to the test.
After a brief at the Carins Dive Centre office, we were driven down to the marina and boarded the Sunlover cruise to Moore Reef. Normally CDC have their own boat which takes you out to their liveaboard boat, but it was being serviced so we got a more comfortable ride on this other operator's ship. It was packed with tourists who didn't exactly look prepared for the rough ride to the Reef, but it got us there without any of us throwing up. From the Sunlover pontoon, we had a short ride over to the Kangaroo Explorer, our home for the next three days.
After a safety and site briefing, we got straight down to business and went for our first dive of the day. Since I had done my dive course only a matter of days previously, it was all very farmiliar to me and I had no problems getting into it all. Your first dive had to be a guided one and so my buddies Jillian and Gary set off with one of the instructors - Benny - at a dive site called East Timor. Whilst the visibility wasn't as good as it was on Heron Island, it sure was a lot better than Magnetic Island!
With our first dive done, we had a buffet lunch in the canteen onboard. The food was actually pretty good, probably better than I had expected given the price of the trip ($450 for ten dives all inclusive). After lunch we had a short break before going for our second dive at 4pm. Jillian (a Sydney-based solicitor), Gary (an Irish computer programmer) and I went on our own this time, heading down to 12m. As well as seeing numerous fish and coral, we found a series of caves in the coral which we could swim through, something that would prove to be the highlight of the trip.
Orignally, I had intended just to do ten recreational dives, but I learnt that for $60 more, I could gain my Advanced Speciality certification onboard by doing a few guided dives that focused on certain specialities of diving. It made a lot of sense to go and do this because you got guided dives on the cheap and the tasks you had to do were pretty simple.
Our night dive that evening became my first speciality dive and I went guided, as I would have had to anyway because it's my first night dive. Diving is slightly different at night because you have to learn a few new procedures to account for the changing conditions. As well as carrying torches, there are different signals which are used at night to communicate between your buddies, yourself and the boat. We didn't see a great deal of exciting wildlife on that first night dive, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
