Great Barrier Reef

I’ve wanted to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef for years. Since getting my scuba diving certification in Thailand in 2006 I’ve become fascinated with finding the best scuba diving sites across the globe. As far as I’m concerned, the ‘Holy Grail’ of scuba diving is ‘Isla del Coco’, an island about 300 miles west of Costa Rica, a place I’d love to visit someday. However, the Great Barrier Reef has always ranked high on my list, if only because it’s one of the most famous destinations in Australia.

Before coming to Australia I researched a few different ways of visiting the Great Barrier Reef, and I finally decided on spending a three days on a ‘live-aboard boat’, a sort of small cruise ship that is permanently anchored at the reef that serves as a home base for scuba divers. Wednesday morning I took a ferry from Cairns out to ‘OceanQuest’, a live-aboard boat operated by ‘Deep Sea Divers Den’, a dive shop in Cairns. OceanQuest has 22 cabins, a lounge, a dining room, and, of course, a large dive deck at the back of the ship from which divers suit up and drop into the ocean. Three days and two nights on OceanQuest is just enough time to complete 12 dives lasting about 45 minutes each (although I confess I only made 10 dives – on two occasions jet lag overpowered my desire to scuba and I slept through the dive). Altogether the OceanQuest experience was fantastic, and was a lot more upscale than I anticipated, considering I chose one of the cheapest live-aboard options available in Cairns.

Highlights during the ten dives included the following:

- Holding an ‘Elephant Trunk Fish’ and posing in front of clown fish and anemone during a small photo shoot with an underwater photographer.

- Floating by countless giant patches of ‘Elephant Ear Coral’, a type of coral that is smooth and ruffled, like an elephant ear might be if it were bunched up.

- Passing innumerable ‘Parrot Fish’, brightly colored purple, yellow, red, and green creatures that are named for their vibrant appearance.

- Discovering several ‘Lion Fish’ – orange and white striped fish with many long, bony fins – in a patch of coral directly beneath the boat.

- Finding giant clams, about three feet in diameter, scattered intermittently across the ocean floor.

- Peering down into the water from the deck of the ship to see about thirty baited sharks swimming below, then dropping into the water only minutes later.

- Diving at night in pitch-black water, discovering that the reef is lifeless after dark when the fish have hidden and gone to sleep, and watching a few giant, hideous ‘Trelly Fish’ hunt for food beneath the long, narrow beams of our underwater flashlights.

- Swimming through a tiny crevasse between two giant rocks and just barely squeezing myself through an opening at the other end… 60 feet beneath the surface of the ocean.

- Watching an evil-looking moray eel slither out from inside his rocky home to peer out as my diving partner and I swam by.

- Chasing down a few sea turtles about five feet in diameter, and watching from above as they glided effortlessly above the reef as an eagle would glide above a forest.

- Following another giant sea turtle through a canyon of coral into his home: a rocky cave at the sandy bottom of the reef.

Needless to say, my time aboard the OceanQuest was well spent. I also got to know several interesting dive partners, including a Colombian software-developer currently living in Qatar, two young medical doctors from the United States , a Japanese civil engineer, and a couple from Seattle who happen to be LDS and have three kids at BYU.

Finally, my description of the OceanQuest experience wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the food. I ate like a king aboard the OceanQuest. Considering that the boat is permanently moored at the reef, all food has to be brought in by a ferry daily, and the meals are prepared by crew members who are dive instructors first and chefs second, I was very impressed with the cuisine. Every meal tasted great, but my favorites were the barbecued ribs Wednesday night, tasty grilled hamburgers for lunch on Thursday, then breaded ‘chicken schnitzel’ for dinner the same day.

I could write for hours about my three days at the reef, but I think I’ve summed up most of the highlights. It feels great to have been spoiled for a few days, and it feels great to have finally experienced the Great Barrier Reef.