This morning we got up early again to explore the Great Barrier Reef! It is my first time on the reef, and Shayna’s second time since she already went on her way up the east coast. We both signed up for the introductory dive on Passions of Paradise day trip, but shayna actually has gone scuba diving before here in Australia. I was pretty nervous but excited to give it a go. We had a beautiful day for scuba diving and we loved the spacious catamaran we were on. There were 150 amount of people on board, but it didn’t feel like that at all- never felt like more than 40 people. We were greeted with some baked goods and tea/coffee to start. We had some safety briefings and I took a sea sickness pill. Thank goodness I took that pill- the waves were very choppy on our 1.5 way out to the reef. Once we got out there we waited a bit until our group was ready to go.
They had one rope a meter under the boat set up to hold onto as you learn how to use your breathing apparatus properly, and then another line 2 meters down. This is such a different experience than snorkeling! We got all our gear on, and headed into the water. It felt strange having all the equipment on and going underwater. The first time I put my head underwater was so strange! I was not used to the breathing apparatus at all. Unfortunately I had a lot of goggle problems, where it just kept filling up with water even when I let the water out of it properly. I wasn’t freaking out but was disappointed after the 3rd mask we tried and it was still filling up. I went down one meter with the last mask, tried to make it work and had to make the executive decision to call it off. There were other people in my group waiting to go, and if I was having problems one meter under the water, who knows what kinds of problems I would be have 8 meters down. The instructor was very patient and encouraging, but agreed with my decision to snorkel instead. What ended up happening was that I got to snorkel above shayna scuba diving. She was soaring through the air. .I couldn’t help but cry a bit in my snorkel mask. It was so beautiful and serene. I even caught a little bit of the dive on my gopro. I am always so proud of my sister and this was one of those unexplainably emotional moments for me. Maybe it was because I couldn’t do it, so to see her do it with such ease and grace was unreal. After the first round in the water we had a beautiful lunch, including a show-stopping macaroni and cheese.
Afterwards we got in the water again and explored the reef more. The ride back was also very enjoyable because we sunbathed out on the catamaran nets. What a lovely day. Afterwards we made our way back and xxxxxx
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