The GBR

I took advantage of my location and went on a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef on Sunday. When I registered the guy told me (after I paid my money, of course) that there was a wind warning advisory out for Sunday. I told him that I was a little nervous about getting seasick (yes, I will be living on a boat for the next month). The only advice he gave me was to stare into the horizon if I started to feel the least bit of seasickness come on. So with those words of wisdom I jumped on board Passions of Paradise ready to go explore the South Pacific.
It was about an hour and a half boat ride out to the first reef location. On the way out I decided that I would try the intro scuba dive course, too.  So I listened to the spill and got a little anxious but firgured I would try it for 10 minutes (the first 10 minutes were free) and then go from there. With the intro dive, the ratio was 2 divers for every instructor.  After battling the waves snorkeling for the first 30 minutes, I was ready to go underwater.  My instructor was a scruffy, Australian with long hair who looked more like a surfer than a diver to me, but I was ok with that. I got fitted with the goggles and tank and tried my best not to fall. I jumped in and as I grabbed on to the rope where my instructor was, the first thing he said was "you look terrified." I was pretty terrified at that point. Could I really trust this regulator to breathe for me underwater??? We then reviewed our drills then the 10 free minutes were up, and it came time decide if I was going to leave the rope.   Some of my initial fears were lessened as we went through the drills, so I decided to go a little deeper. Me and the other diver linked arms with our instructor and went under. Two things struck me during this first dive. One is that the kids' books which show all the crazy colors for the underwater creatures are actually not making it up. There really are that many colors painted on the surface of this huge mass of water. Not only were the coral and the sponges crazy neon colors of purples and green but the fish were, too. The second thing that surprised me was just how slow everything seemed to be under the sea - time itself seemed to move at a slower speed. Needless to say, I was pretty blown away on this first dive and if it wasn't for my ears doing all sorts of crazy popping, I could have stayed down there all day.
We got out and had a nice lunch. I met a cute 8 year old boy who gave me a hard time about how much I was eating. The other guy to the left of me was pretty amazed at all the colors that were down there at the bottom of the ocean, as well.  It was surprising, but should I be surprised by God's art work and attention to detail even at the depths of the sea?
Well, I got one more dive in that afternoon. Sit down, Mom, because we did see a shark . But  he did not seem to care too much about us.  He just kept swimming.
On the way back to shore the wind and waves were kicking and that got the boat to rocking which made some motion sickness come on, but I looked continually at the horizon for about 45 minutes which did seem to keep things under control for the most part. Thankfully, I did not need a brown bag. T
It was a great trip to the reef.  I was glad I stayed an extra day in Cairns.