Great Barrier Reef

Nov. 12 – Great Barrier Reef

Finally, we get to see the Great Barrier Reef! But, it rained most of the previous day and there are on-again, off-again showers with high wind gusts. It made for a very rough trip out, with the catamaran rocking like a jumping horse. (Thank goodness for Dramamine!) The picture shows the port side of the ship near the top of a dip. Within a second or two, the horizon was above the ceiling out of sight and a few second after that it was back down in sight. I tried to get the effect on camera, but couldn't catch it just right.

The storms also churned up the sand around the reef (we went to one of the interior reefs at the Low Isles) making the water murky and viewing was not very good. Richard, Judy and I went snorkeling in the morning and we did see some pretty hard and soft corals, a couple of sea turtles and giant clams. We weren't very pretty ourselves in the protective suits. (Luckily there aren't any pictures of that!) Bill and Phyllis did the glass bottomed boat tour and recommended it to us, so we did that in the afternoon. Viewing was much better in the boat than it was snorkeling. And the comentary was better than the marine biologist's commentary, mostly because it is difficult to make comments with a snorkel in one's mouth. All in all I was disappointed, I really wanted to see more.