We went over on a fast catamaran with a company called ‘Great Adventures’. It was a 45min trip. Once on the island, we went to check out the day visitor facilities – there was a pool, a dive shop, several eatery options, lockers for hire etc. We made use of the locker facilities. Part of our tour package was a half hour glass bottom boat trip, which we did at 10.00. I was surprised at how much we all enjoyed this. We saw quite a lot of different things. It was close to low tide when we went out and so the coral was less than a metre below the bottom of the boat. We saw lots of different types of coral, quite a few different types of fish, sea cucumbers, and a couple of sea turtles. There were usually 2-3 boats out at the same time, and towards the end of the half hour, the boats congregate around a ‘fish feeding” area – someone provides the food and many of the larger trevally which feed near the surface of the water come flocking in for a feed. You can see them splashing around on top of the water, but you also see a lot through the glass at the bottom of the boat.
After this we decided to find a table near the pool to have some morning tea. On the way to do this we passed the dive shop and went in to make enquiries about an introductory dive. When discussing Green Island the previous night, Sam had expressed a very strong desire to try scuba diving. He said it was something he had always wanted to do since he was about 3 yrs old and found out about it. He qualified for the minimum age which was 12. Sam’s ideal holiday would be quite expensive as he is interested in all the adventurous sports and activities. He has quite a few on his wish list. He knows he won’t be doing all of them this holiday, but we would pick a couple he could try. Scuba diving seemed to be high up on the list. It didn’t really overly interest any of the rest of us, but he didn’t want to go on his own. Out of Michael, Lauren and myself, I seemed to be the one with the next highest level of interest. So, despite a slight nervousness about it, I found myself booking in to do an introductory dive along with Sam. It was scheduled for 12.00 and would take 2 hrs (including the briefing and training in the pool). Having booked in and so on, we had our morning tea and headed to the patrolled beach area, as the 2 younger girls were keen for a swim. Michael, Lauren, Hannah and Bethany were going to go for a snorkel off the beach while Sam and I were diving.
Sam and I had an early lunch at about 11.45 and then bid goodbye to the others and headed for the dive area. We had our briefing for about 20-30 mins – discussing how to equalise and you descend, how to breathe normally in the regulator, what to do if the regulator gets knocked out of your mouth, the different hand signals that the instructor might use and that we, the participants, might want to use. We then suited up in our full length lycra suits (to protect against possible stingers) and then in our wetsuits. We got our masks and fins ( I was able to get prescription ones which was great) and then our weight belts. Then our instructors helped us on with our flotation vest with the air tank and other equipment attached. It was heavier than I expected. We headed to the pool for our ‘drills’ with our instructor. We had to practice putting our head under to start with and breathing normally with the regulator, then going down and equalising, then practicing taking the regulators out of our mouth (as if knocked out) and how to recover them and return to normal breathing. Sam and I both passed the test and so we headed out to the dive boat anchored just off the beach. As it turned out the ratio of instructors to participants was 1:2, so Sam and I had an instructor for just the 2 of us. She was very nice. We were told that she would be linking arms with us the whole time we were down there, which gave me some comfort. We motored to a spot about 5 mins away from the beach. We were told it was going to be about 2m down to the seabed here. Sam and I were the first ones in the water – we walked down some steps that had been lowered into the water at the back of the boat, then had to hang on to a length of rope each once we were in the water. I think Sam was feeling really excited this whole time, while I was still feeling a bit apprehensive. But I kept telling myself all would be OK. We had to move our hands down the rope – equalising after each 2 hand movements down – this was about 5-6 equalisations before the instructor indicated to link arms with her and move away from the rope. I had quite a bit of pressure in my left ear and, during our briefing, the instructor had said to make sure we indicate a problem rather than thinking it will get better and go away. So I indicated to the instructor. She was very good at keeping me calm and indicating through sign language that I needed to pinch my nose and blow gently to build pressure while holding my breath (I had been breathing out through my mouth at the same time as exerting pressure through the nose). I felt the equalisation then. So we were able to continue on. I didn’t have any more problems with equalisation after this. The only other minor problem was that I felt like water was coming into the mask around the nose area. I signaled the instructor again and she showed me how to purse my lips more and this helped. Once these were sorted out started to relax more and enjoy it. It really was amazing the sights we saw. We swam around coral bommies and saw large schools of fish darting in and out. A lot of the time they didn’t even seem to notice us. We would have seen about 50 different species of fish. We saw a green turtle – twice. The first time, it was hiding behind some coral. This instructor took us right up close to the coral. We could have touched it if we were allowed to. It then swam away gracefully. We saw a stingray, and we saw a couple of giant clams. Once again the instructor took us close to the giant clam and we were allowed to touch the side of it – this made it close up quickly. We also picked up a sea cucumber and felt it. I kept looking over at Sam every now and then to see how he was going. I’d do the ‘are you OK?’ sign to him, and he would signal back that he was OK. Apparently we were down for about 30mins although it didn’t seem that long. We came up slowly – Sam first and then me and walked back onto the boat. Sam had a grin from ear to ear for the rest of the day – he had absolutely loved it.
We went back to the patrolled beach where the others had been swimming. They were still there, although they’d had a break for lunch. All 4 of them had done some snorkelling off the beach – even Bethany and apparently she had done very well. Lauren had gone out a bit deeper on her own (although there were quite a few people around and the lifeguard on the beach) and she said she had seen lots of coral and quite a few colorful fish. She was happy with this experience. We all stayed on the beach for a bit longer – it was such a beautiful day and the water was a nice temperature. We had some of the afternoon tea we’d brought with us. A bit after 3.00 I took Hannah and Beth up to the pool area as they wanted another swim in the pool. We then went and had showers and changed.
We started heading back to the jetty, but first went and checked the photos that were taken of Sam and I diving – both underwater and on the boat. We chose a photo of the 2 of us on the boat and bought that.
Then it was along the jetty and a bit of a wait to get on the catamaran back to the mainland. Quiet trip back again and Bethany nearly fell asleep. Back to the caravan then, very thankful for a great day.