19.10.2018

19.10.2018 3days in cairns

                              Diving

After a nice breakfast I made my way to the ferry terminal where I signed in for the Silverswift trip to the great barrier reef.

I got on the ship and my online certification was accepted. Then we started to head for the great barrier reef. It was a big ship with a lot of people on it. Many came to snorkel or just enjoy a day on the ship. There were about 12people diving and 2 dive guides so we were split into 2groups. Our dive guide was Jan from the netherlands. And my dive buddy was Catlos from abudabhy.

We got into our suits and jumped in the water. It was similiar to the reef in townsville. There were not as many clownfish here and no Crown of thorns. We did see a giant clam, like really giant the biggest one I have seen so far. There is a rumor that divers in the earlier years feared which was that giant clams would try to eat divers. This clam made me understand how this rumor started.

There was a strong current today and though our dive guide had no problem to keep moving the rest of us did fall behind a bit. I noticed that I was breathing heavily which wasnt really possible since the regulator only delivered so much air. Which exhausted me quite a bit.

When we slowly started heading back I broke one of the rules of diving. Which was the safety stop before you surface. While going up I didnt notice how close I was to the surface before I already broke it.

The feeling I got then is known as decompression sickness. When you surface to quickly and the pressure around you changes from underwater pressure to normal air pressure. It can be pretty bad but for me it resulted in a headache.

After we had a short break and the boat changed the dive site, I was feeling better so I did go on the second dive. We saw a hole bunch of garden eels which basically look like weird plant worms at the bottom of the ocean. The current was a lot less strong here. There were also a lot more big coral structures here though during that dive the deeper we got the worse my headache.

After that we had a lunch break, they had some very nice lunch. Rice with sweet/sour sauce, different salads a lot of fruits. We changed the spot again. I took a little break on the sun deck but when we were getting ready for our third dive I could still feel the headache.

So when we went in the water I stayed with the group for a bit but when I just kept getting worse I did the responsible thing and turned around.

I think I would enjoy diving the most just on my own. Having a dive guide is great but they are faster underwater, they already saw everything down there and you have to stay close to them all the time. I wouldnt mind to just sit on the bottom of the ocean for 10minutes and watch what happens all around me. Exploring bigger openings in the reef is cool but I want to explore every little opening. It doesnt matter if I stay on one spot for the entire trip I would rather do that than swimming around all the time.

We started heading back to cairns. I filled the two dives I did in my dive log and noted that decompression is a bitch. Jan said I did the right thing be surfacing because if I would have kept going the pain would have stopped but I would feel worse for the next couple days, also I only missed a small shark on the third dive nothing else to special.

Back in cairns I showered and enjoyed my slowly fading headache with a delicious pizza.

My Bus tomorrow leaves at 1pm so I got plenty of time to enjoy the full free breakfast. Then back to townsville 3days in cairns
Diving
After a nice breakfast I made my way to the ferry terminal where I signed in for the Silverswift trip to the great barrier reef.

I got on the ship and my online certification was accepted. Then we started to head for the great barrier reef. It was a big ship with a lot of people on it. Many came to snorkel or just enjoy a day on the ship. There were about 12people diving and 2 dive guides so we were split into 2groups. Our dive guide was Jan from the netherlands. And my dive buddy was Catlos from abudabhy.

We got into our suits and jumped in the water. It was similiar to the reef in townsville. There were not as many clownfish here and no Crown of thorns. We did see a giant clam, like really giant the biggest one I have seen so far. There is a rumor that divers in the earlier years feared which was that giant clams would try to eat divers. This clam made me understand how this rumor started.

There was a strong current today and though our dive guide had no problem to keep moving the rest of us did fall behind a bit. I noticed that I was breathing heavily which wasnt really possible since the regulator only delivered so much air. Which exhausted me quite a bit.

When we slowly started heading back I broke one of the rules of diving. Which was the safety stop before you surface. While going up I didnt notice how close I was to the surface before I already broke it.

The feeling I got then is known as decompression sickness. When you surface to quickly and the pressure around you changes from underwater pressure to normal air pressure. It can be pretty bad but for me it resulted in a headache.

After we had a short break and the boat changed the dive site, I was feeling better so I did go on the second dive. We saw a hole bunch of garden eels which basically look like weird plant worms at the bottom of the ocean. The current was a lot less strong here. There were also a lot more big coral structures here though during that dive the deeper we got the worse my headache.

After that we had a lunch break, they had some very nice lunch. Rice with sweet/sour sauce, different salads a lot of fruits. We changed the spot again. I took a little break on the sun deck but when we were getting ready for our third dive I could still feel the headache.

So when we went in the water I stayed with the group for a bit but when I just kept getting worse I did the responsible thing and turned around.

I think I would enjoy diving the most just on my own. Having a dive guide is great but they are faster underwater, they already saw everything down there and you have to stay close to them all the time. I wouldnt mind to just sit on the bottom of the ocean for 10minutes and watch what happens all around me. Exploring bigger openings in the reef is cool but I want to explore every little opening. It doesnt matter if I stay on one spot for the entire trip I would rather do that than swimming around all the time.

We started heading back to cairns. I filled the two dives I did in my dive log and noted that decompression is a bitch. Jan said I did the right thing be surfacing because if I would have kept going the pain would have stopped but I would feel worse for the next couple days, also I only missed a small shark on the third dive nothing else to special.

Back in cairns I showered and enjoyed my slowly fading headache with a delicious pizza.

My Bus tomorrow leaves at 1pm so I got plenty of time to enjoy the full free breakfast. Then back to townsville