One very happy diver...

Our own little mermaid MDC junior volunteer Shari recently returned from a sweet dive trip up north. Here she shares her news and some of her incredible and award winning photo's with us. Massive congratulations and thank you Shari, very inspiring and very proud!

Shari aka MDC little mermaid

As some of you know I recently returned from a week long dive trip in Cairns. Being marine-y people, I thought you'd like to see some photos and have a re-cap!

Organised through my local dive shop, dad and I booked a week-long live aboard trip. For all those non-divers, a live aboard is just a trip on which you live aboard the boat for X amount of time!
We arrived in Cairns, greeted by other eager divers from the local club. After a night of heavy partying (for some), most of the dive crew were still asleep at 1pm when we got to the hotel. That day was spent shopping at different markets, finding amazing little tropical treasures. A quiet night ensued, as we were up early for transfer to the boat.

We arrived at the dock, and quickly boarded the amazing 120ft vessel 'The Spirit of Freedom'. Overcome by the sheer size and beauty of the boat, we were briefed on the sun deck before leaving port. We were headed about 200 miles North of Cairns on the Ribbon Reefs. That afternoon, we did 2 'intro' dives so the crew could get used to us and check out our dive styles. The dives weren't particularly excellent, but that seemed to be lead up to the next few days of diving. The first reef we visited was called Saxon reef, and we did our two dives at 'Turtle Bommie' and 'Coral Gardens'. (Unfortunately we didn't see any turtles on that dive!)

After each dive, the crew would quickly present us with piles of fresh fruit and light snacks to keep up our energy. Being the only vegetarian on board, I was quickly ridiculed by the more 'blokey' divers!
Dinnertime was light but filling, with a lovely tofu and mushroom stir-fry for me, and a critically endangered bluefin tuna steak for the rest (the irony!). We all seemed to sleep well that night, with lovely calm seas that seemed to rock us gently to sleep.

Heading out for a dive

My lovely dreams stopped abruptly at 6am, with the crew knocking at the door politely shouting "Dive time!!". In the space of 10 minutes, all the underwater creatures had climbed from their bunks with weary eyes, and were sitting with a small bowl of cereal. Within half an hour, we all had wetsuits on and were being briefed on our first 'real' dive. The cod hole!

Without much thought whatsoever, we leapt into the lovely 25 degree water and were immediately greeted by at least 3 giant potato cod. What a way to start a morning! The cod hole is a series of 'steps' that lead to around 40m, with 8m at shallow sandy coral gardens. It was an absolutely lovely dive, with jagged reef lining the sand which made up a hidden ecosystem of nudibranchs and clownfish. Our second dive was the cod feed, straight after our main breakfast (hash browns and fried things galore!).

At the feed, we knelt in a circle on the sandy, shallow bottom. Inevitably, this proved difficult since there was a slight current slowly tipping us all over. A crew member swum to the middle of the circle with a bucket of pilchards, and sat in the centre. We watched her swim to the first 'victim', and she would gesture the question 'Are you ready?' and if you nodded, she threw a pilchard right in front of your nose. Instantly, a 2m+ potato cod swept in, opened its massive mouth and just as it enveloped your entire face, it sucked the small fish in and swam off behind you. This dive was a truly amazing experience.. but this was nothing compared to what else we had in store!

Potato cods bigger than a sack of potatoes

The third dive for that day was at the Twin Towers. Oh my, such an amazing seascape! On a 30m reef, a huge rock structure spiralled beautifully up to two 8m pinnacles. Everyone started at the bottom to get some depth, before exploring the piles of coral and rocks. Caves were rutted out of the rock, which made homes for large white tip reef sharks and batfish. Looking closer revealed different species of nudibranchs, some only 3 millimetres long! In between the towers, a very friendly olive sea snake swam with us for a while, swirling in and out of my legs. It was hard not to handle it like my pet snakes at home!

On the outskirts of the towers, large pelagic barracuda circled in the blue water, and Spanish mackerel danced in the sunlight. It was hard to leave the site! But when it came time for our safety stop at 5 metres, we were met once again by the curious sea snake. He teased me for a few more minutes before going back to explore the peaks of the erupting monument. Whilst waiting for my dive computer to count down 5 minutes on the safety stop, dad and I played 'paper, scissors, rock'.

 I glanced behind him and out of the light blue ocean, I saw a glint of white off in the distance. I watched for a while longer, and before long it appeared again. This time though, I saw a goliath appear from the empty blue - a dwarf minke whale. We watched as long as we could, but soon had to surface because we were very close to running out of air.

Twin Towers friends

Delightful dancing dwarf minke whale

We clambered back onto the boat and quickly stripped off our dive gear, ready to jump right back in! There was an ecstatic feeling in the air as all the divers rushed into the water as snorkelers; we swum out behind the dive deck and grabbed a line that had been tied to the stern. As soon as I looked down, I saw 3 dwarf minke whales 4 metres below me - absolutely amazing. As we each latched onto the line, the whales cruised past, looking at us. There were about 7, some with distinguishing markings, some more curious than others.

As people left the water, they seemed to become braver and venture closer and closer to us. The whales would just drift past, and wouldn't be seen again for 5 minutes or so. Suddenly they would all sweep in at once from different angles, and it was almost like they were dancing for us - a beautifully choreographed dance of curiosity and happiness, with each pass closer and closer. By the time we were the last few in the water, the whales were close enough to touch, almost inviting us to caress their large, soft bodies (but of course that was illegal!).
Absolutely stunning, it was just one mammal to another, accepting each other for simply being. A moment I will never, ever forget.


The fourth (and final) dive that day was at Challenger Bay. It was of course a lovely dive with numerous nudibranchs, and a highlight of juvenile lionfish and soft corals. Bright yellow trumpet fish gently fluttered past, creating the perfect evening/late afternoon dive. Later that day, a night dive at Challenger bay was optional, but I chose to sit out as I was quite water logged after being under all day!


Another early morning dive at Pixie Pinnacle - What can I say. A very impressive dive starting deep and spiralling up toward gardens of soft corals littered with lionfish and nudis, sea snakes and pipefish. The fish shoaling on the rock face, elegantly twisting and swimming in unison seemed to be in their own little grand ballroom. Words cannot express the beauty of these dives.



Lionfish at Pixie Pinnacle

When we arrived at our next dive site, whales had been spotted again! We either had the option to dive the site or snorkel with the whales, so I stripped off the camera strobes and went in snorkelling. There were only 2 other people in the water which made the second encounter even more calming. To my surprise, this was the same pod of whales that we had seen the day before!! I could see the older, more experienced one that came closer to us, and the quicker younger ones that hung deeper. It was amazing to have them swim straight for us, and then duck under the water before colliding and glide so easily underneath us, whilst we kicked and flopped on the surface like a fish would on land. The thing that set this apart from the previous encounter was the 'singing'; at one point, one of the whales hung below us and tipped it's head down - I had shivers down my spine as it begun to sing and make these wonderful, deep burping sounds. I just wish I could understand it!

Having to get out of the water and leave those wondrous whales for the last time was one of the hardest things I've had to do. It was so sad to have shared such a special moment with them, and just leave without saying goodbye and thanks!


Wondrous whales

Singing stars

Our second last stop was 'the Cathedral'. This beautiful dive was dominated by white spotted eagle rays and dozens of mobula rays (like a mini-manta ray!). Big coral and rock bommies pushed up from the ground formed big upwellings of small fish and plenty of soft coral. Turtles swum around and around, scouting the area, as larger pelagic fish drifted in the deep blue. This dive was a hotspot for the Dusky Nembrotha (I suggest you Google!). These are probably my favourite nudibranchs - black bodies with lime green spots and neon orange lining, such striking contrast!

Dusky Nembrotha

 Our last dive was a drift dive in the afternoon. It was at an aptly named Dynamite Pass. Our boat anchored in deeper water, and we had split up into 4 groups. Each group was taken out about 2kms by one of the on-board zodiacs, and dropped on the edge of a large wall. We all rolled back into the water at once and quickly descended. The wall was reef that was infused with sand - it really did look like the reef had been blown up, and sand was seeping out of the wounds. As the current pushed us, we went into the shallows and explored the maze-like shallows.


Imagine you're in sand shallows, 6m deep. You face a coral wall, with a metre wide crack down the centre. You swim through, carefully not to damage the large fans jutting out in front of you. As your round a corner, a whole new world opens up. An underwater garden of Eden with creatures that possibly haven't seen humans before. Holothuroids (my favourite!) are dotted across the sand and you watch as small damselfish come in and out of hiding in coral rubble.


Other divers soon joined dad and I, and we each explored these shallow gardens in our own way, each reminiscent of the trip and its ultimate beauty. I just lay on my back and looked up at the surface, watching the waves lapping softly, my bubbles climbing to meet the clouds. We were like children exploring a new place, as excited as could be, skittish and light-headed. Handstands and underwater fighting were just a way of expressing the sheer joy of being truly care free.


That evening our group sat on the top deck, watching the sun set, waiting for nothing. It was so beautiful and nostalgic, we were all completely speechless. We sat there, enjoying coronas, waiting for the night celebrations to start. And they did after the fourth round!


Soon after coming home, I entered 2 of my photographs into the 'Young' category in the Cairns Underwater Film Festival. I recently found out that I came runner up and winner for that bracket! Big thanks to Harbour Dive, the Spirit of Freedom Crew and my dive buddies for this truly unforgettable experience!!

An awesome crew and sweet dive buddies

Happy diving
xxx
Shari