Sunday, March 5th, 2023 Queen Victoria, Cairns, Australia
Updated: Mar 3
Over the past two days the Queen Victoria has steamed north from Sydney, the weather has become progressive warmer and more humid with the occasional shower – decidedly tropical; the seas have been quite calm. During this time we also attended several lectures: 2 by Dr. Judith Hinchliffe a forensic dentist who talked about the 2004 Tsunami in Thailand and also about suspect identification using bite marks – she was very good. The other lecture was by Captain Geoff Gain, a Great Barrier Reef pilot who talked about the reef – good content but not so well presented. This morning, around 11AM, the Queen Victoria entered the Barron River at Cairns (pronounced Caaans), executed a 180 degree turn and berthed at the cruise terminal. It was a very overcast day with very low clouds and quite heavy rain. Today we have a ships excursion to the Great Barrier Reef, something I’ve always wanted to do – but never thought I’d get the chance. So it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that we made our way out to the waiting catamaran, just a short walk from the cruise dock. The rain had eased off and the sun was even breaking through, though more rain was forecast. The boat was bigger than I expected accommodating about 100 passengers on 2 decks with a lunch buffet, 3 toilets and a substantial snorkel / dive preparation area with a platform. Seating on the lower deck was very comfortable and we settled in for the 90-minute ride out to the reef. The swell was quite small until we reached the open sea then the boat began to rock, and one by one a steady stream of passengers made their wait out to the aft dive platform to cast their accounts to Neptune. The staff were obviously used to passengers being seasick, they donned plastic gloves and got on with the business of offering help and cleaning up. Eventually we approached the designated site, there were no visible, above-surface, signs that we were over a reef – it just looked like open sea. I’d brought my own snorkel and mask and so just needed to get fins from the crew; in addition there was a requirement to wear a “stinger suit” to protect against stinging jellyfish – apparently this was high season for stingers. The stinger suit was most difficult to get on, it was a one-piece thin spandex-like garment, complete with hood, and very uncomfortable. My estimate is that less than half the passengers went snorkeling, the rest had been promised reef viewing via a glass bottomed boat – there was no glass bottomed boat at this site, but a platform and semisubmersible vessel was promised for the next site, this was the first I’d heard that we be visiting more than one site. The lunch buffet was served, it was mostly various types of salads and a Thai curry. I suited up and approached the dive platform at the back of the boat. Looking out I could see that a designated dive area had been established using a series of small buoys. I sat on the edge of the platform with my legs in the water and tried to look as “professional” as I could, no one else was yet ready to go in the water – I waited a bit and still no one appeared ready, so I put on my fins and slipped into the water. My first impressions were that it was quite dark and murky; with the sky being overcast there was no strong sunlight to illuminate the coral and with the seas being quite rough, silt was being stirred up. The water was quite warm, but the chopped sea was a bit disconcerting. The area where the boat had anchored was quite deep and so I set out towards the perimeter of the dive area. Soon I was over coral and saw my first fish, much of the coral appeared and white – which I think is an indicator that it was dead. I tried to steady myself over some of the brighter coral that was nearer the surface, but often the swell would unexpectedly surge me 6 to 8 feet away from my intended spot. I tried to get some pictures and video using my underwater camera, but it was difficult to steady myself. The fish were all quite small but brightly colored, the kind you’d see in a saltwater aquarium. The swell continued to be a problem, often cresting my snorkel, and forcing me to blow out the salt water. I continued to explore for about 45 minutes before returning to the boat. The procedure to remove the wet stinger suit, now firmly stuck to my skin, proved to be almost impossible – especially trying to get the suit off my shoulders, at this point I realized that if I’d been a circus contortionist removing the suit would have been a breeze. Eventually a nearby gentleman took pity on me and helped me out of the stinger suit. The second dive site consisted of a permanently moored, quite large, platform – again with a buoy-established swimming perimeter. A submarine-looking craft was moored to the platform, the kind we’d seen at many beach resort locations in the Caribbean and Hawaii. The lower underwater section of the boat has windows along both sides and passengers can sit and get the effect of being in a submarine. Sandra went on the “submarine” and reported that it was very disappointing due to the dirty windows and murky conditions. The platform provided a bit of a “lee” from the swell and so I decided to swim in this area in the hope that I would not get tossed around as much. Though the water was still murky, the coral and fish were a lot more interesting at this site. In addition to the small colorful fish I’d seen at the other site, I saw several larger fish and was lucky enough to capture a turtle swimming past me just as I’d turned on the video camera. A small shark, about 3 ft long, swam by but was off before I could raise my camera. After ridding myself of the awful stinger suit and drying off, I explored the platform a bit more. The entire platform was shaded and also, at one end, had a second level – there were also facilities for serving food, but it was closed for our visit. Below the main level there was an underwater viewing room that ran the width of the platform and had angled windows looking out onto the reef. Again the windows were a bit dirty thus restricting the clarity of the view. I’m glad I got the opportunity to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef, but I have to say the quality of the coral and the clarity of the water were not as good as we’ve seen in Hawaii. With the ship not departing until after 9:30PM, and our return to the dock from the reef at about 7:30PM, we had the chance for an evening meal off the ship – what a treat! Several large restaurants lined the dock just along from the cruise terminal, we opted for an Italian place called Ollies and it was fantastic. After dinner we made it back to the ship on time but did not have time to see anything of Cairns.
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