JulieannevZ
Guest
Hi everyone, I'm new to this board, and would love to share my recent experience on a Live Aboard Trip at Moreton Bay. This is close to Brisbane, in Queensland.
We arrived at the boat at about 9 pm and loaded
all our gear on board. Most of us went to bed early, to be ready for
all the dives the next day!
The "rooster" came on at 7 o'clock, then music -
"who Let the Dogs Out". It was funny!!!
FIRST DIVE OF THE DAY at Laurie Land
I went down with my instructor and
another 2 buddies.
One time I noticed the other 3 hanging round
watching me and I wondered what strange thing I
was doing now! They were making signals, pointing
under me. I looked down and there was the biggest
green turtle I'd ever seen. He was about 1.3
metres in diameter.
Paul was having a good laugh afterwards and said
they were waiting for me to step on the turtle and
for him to snap at me. He was beautiful and I'm so
pleased I didn't step on him
We also saw a Wobbegong shark, Xmas tree worms and
LOTS of other fish.
The current was fairly strong and we managed to
ascend at the stern of the boat instead of the
bow, where the steps were located. So, we had
a bit of a swim back. It was breakfast time, then after a couple of
hours, we did our second dive.
Laurie, the Cook ( also a doctor in his real job)
on the boat LOVES to dive. Him and his brother
Peter ( the other of the 3 crew ) went off for a
dive before all of us and come back with a
detailed report, sometimes some video or photos
and they draw a map for us. Then, Laurie cooks a
meal or a snack.
SECOND DIVE - Mary's Lair
Second Dive was Fantastic. There was Ruth, Manuel
and me. We did a giant leap from the higher side of
the boat. ( I don't like those giant leaps ). I
ended up doing a belly flop and lost my mask.
Picked it up, put it on and swam over to Ruth and
Manuel. We went through a cave about 15 ms. long.
There was lots of choral around - very pretty,
and fish all over the place ( we have some photos
coming ).
We ascended very slowly, hung onto that bar under
the boat - pretty hard to hang onto that thing
when it's swaying with the boat.
THIRD DIVE at JJJ ( named after the radio station
we were listening to )
I went down with Megan this time. She is GREAT!!!
There was a really strong current and we had to
hang onto the ropes on the side of the ship to
swim over to the anchor chain. Then, we had to
descend quickly to get off the surface.
We got to the bottom and I could hardly believe
what I saw. This gorgeous purple and white garden,
so much prettier than I'd ever seen on the land.
And, this very long bright yellow fish swimming
next to the purple plants. Other smaller bright
yellow fish swimming nearby. It was like I was in
a dream with this pretty picture in front of me.
ANd, most of the area was like that - all these
pretty purple broccoli type plants everywhere.
We saw a HUGE Shovel Nose Ray - a silver colour.
He just sauntered on past us!! Also some pink
jelly fish.
Our ascent was a bit weird. Megan signalled to
ascend and I looked up - we were right under the
boat. I looked at her and she obviously knew what
she was doing. The current was still strong and
she knew we had to go under the boat to get on the
side where the bar was. So, we ascended a bit up
under the boat, hung onto the anchor chain while
Megan got a bearing, then went down really deep (
21 metres) below the anchor chain to get to the
bar.
That was tough!!! We hung onto that bar ( the
safety stop ) for 3 minutes. That was the longest
3 minutes I've ever had. The current was soooo
strong, the bar kept moving with the ship and we
had to hang on for dear life.
Anyway, we managed to get back to those steps on
the boat and I climbed in, exhausted. Megan was
fantastic!!!
I skipped the 4th dive and the night dive because
of the current. It was fun watching the 7 other
divers go off for their night dive. They really
enjoyed it!!!
If you'd like to read about the second day here's
my blog for the 2nd day on the Live Aboard Trip.
The second day I awoke to complete stillness!!
The first day, the boat was just rocking all the
time, and we walked about like we were drunk.
2nd day it was still and calm. I knew this would
be a great day!!!
Ruth took Manuel and I aside, and said we would do
the Deep Dive towards our Advanced course first!
Another instructor, Ian would take both of us down
and do some skills. We were going down about 26
metres, so the maximum time we could stay down was
20 minutes. And, we would have to make a safety
stop.
FIRST DIVE ON SECOND DAY - Robert's Shoal at
Moreton Bay
I was confident about the deep dive because I'd
gone deep the day before. It didn't seem much
different really!
Ian showed us some different colours of felt that
we would look at in the deep as well, just to
compare the difference.
He also got Manuel and I to write our names on a
slate, both forward and backward, and timed us. My
name is VERY long ( middle one too )!!!
When we got to the 26 metres, we had a little
swim, then sat or laid on the bottom and wrote on
the slate again. Ian timed us again. I wrote my
name forwards, and it took me so long, I forgot to
write it backwards. Then, I remembered and took
the slate back from Ian. He timed me from the
beginning, including the "missed time". I probably
forgot because I was a little "narced"!
After that, we'd been there 16 minutes ( time goes
so quick under water ) and we made our way back to
the anchor chain, and ascended very slowly,
stopping at the bar for 5 minutes on the way back
to the steps.
SECOND DIVE at Charlie's Chapel.
This was a good place to dive too!! Lots of places
to explore over the little rocks and choral. Some
little caves to look through and very pretty
plants again!!
This time, I went with Gary and Graham, a couple
of guys who had already done their Advanced Open
Water.
THIRD DIVE at Charlie's Chapel.
My ADVANCED Navigation Dive Ruth took Manuel and I
back to Charlie's Chapel to do our navigation
skills. We set a compass heading and swam 30
kicks, then set a reciprocal heading and went back
the other way! Then, we did a square and practised
natural navigation.
Ruth left Manuel and I at the anchor chain, and we
were going to swim around a bit on our own.
However, we both got low on air very quickly (
used up a lot of air while navigating ), so we
ascended very slowly up to that darn bar again. We
hung on for 5 minutes, then swam up to the stairs.
I missed the next dive and the night dive because
I went off for a power nap.
I woke up to this loud rock 'n roll music and
somebody making farting noises in the microphone.
I went out onto the deck, and there's 8 people all
kitted up in their diving gear, singing and
tapping their feet, some doing a kind of dance!!
It looked like Scuba Disco. They all had little
coloured lights on their tanks!!!
Off they went to the exit and did their giant leap
into the dark sea!!! I'm not going to miss out on
that ever again!! Here's the 3rd day on my Live
Aboard Scuba Diving Trip
Dive Site named Cemento
Our 3rd day, we woke up to a strong Easterly
current going across the boat. This time
we were doing a wreck dive.
The wreck was a 50 to 60 metre ship named Cemento.
It actually sunk before it was meant to, so ended
up upside down. The had to cut the doors off, so
divers could see stuff inside!!
Ruth went in and out some door openings and came
back and up again, while the rest of us watched.
There were a few fish to look at!! It all looked a
bit weird to me - first wreck I had visited. After
awhile, I started panicking because I started
doing another of my runaway ascents. Luckily, Ruth
saw me in time and signalled to stand upright and
dump my air.
Now, why didn't I think of that? It did the trick
alright!!! Down I went gently onto the wreck.
Aaah, that felt better!!
We made our slow ascent again, this time we hung
onto the rope instead of the bar. That was a
little easier.
The LAST DIVE on the trip - Flinders 4 Reef Drift
Dive
--------------------------------------------------
This was absolutely the most beautiful and BEST
dive of all!!! Peter ( one of the crew ) took
Ruth, Manuel and I over to the reef, on the
"Little Tender" ( a small inflatable boat).
We donned our fins and masks and fell back into
the water, descended quickly, and the reef was
absolutely breathtaking. It was covered almost
completely with the most gorgeous coloured
chorals, there were pretty little fish everywhere,
and enormous turtles, sometimes in groups of 2 or
3.
A couple of times, I thought Manuel was going to
run off with the turtles. He seemed mesmerised by
them!!!
We drifted right along the reef, ascended, and
there was Peter waiting for us in the "Little
Tender". He towed Manuel back to the Big Cat, then
came back and got me, while Ruth went back for a
dive on her own!!
The crew told me there are 240 species of choral
on that reef, many more than they've identified on
the Great Barrier Reef!
I recommend this Live Aboard Trip to anyone coming
from overseas to dive!!
After that Grand Finale, it was time to start
packing up ready to go home.
On the way home, we had an amazing display of
Whales!!!
At first, we saw one or two of them breeching and
playing in the water from a distance. Then, one
passed us very close ( about 10 metres away ).
We went back inside, then Jeremy ( the Skipper )
called out "whales at the bow. There were about 4
or 5 plus a calf playing in the distance. Going up
and down, up and down, with their tails in the
air. Put on quite a performance for all of us!!
What a way to leave Moreton Bay.
We had a wonderful time and I'm going on LOTS more
Live Aboards!!!
We arrived at the boat at about 9 pm and loaded
all our gear on board. Most of us went to bed early, to be ready for
all the dives the next day!
The "rooster" came on at 7 o'clock, then music -
"who Let the Dogs Out". It was funny!!!
FIRST DIVE OF THE DAY at Laurie Land
I went down with my instructor and
another 2 buddies.
One time I noticed the other 3 hanging round
watching me and I wondered what strange thing I
was doing now! They were making signals, pointing
under me. I looked down and there was the biggest
green turtle I'd ever seen. He was about 1.3
metres in diameter.
Paul was having a good laugh afterwards and said
they were waiting for me to step on the turtle and
for him to snap at me. He was beautiful and I'm so
pleased I didn't step on him
We also saw a Wobbegong shark, Xmas tree worms and
LOTS of other fish.
The current was fairly strong and we managed to
ascend at the stern of the boat instead of the
bow, where the steps were located. So, we had
a bit of a swim back. It was breakfast time, then after a couple of
hours, we did our second dive.
Laurie, the Cook ( also a doctor in his real job)
on the boat LOVES to dive. Him and his brother
Peter ( the other of the 3 crew ) went off for a
dive before all of us and come back with a
detailed report, sometimes some video or photos
and they draw a map for us. Then, Laurie cooks a
meal or a snack.
SECOND DIVE - Mary's Lair
Second Dive was Fantastic. There was Ruth, Manuel
and me. We did a giant leap from the higher side of
the boat. ( I don't like those giant leaps ). I
ended up doing a belly flop and lost my mask.
Picked it up, put it on and swam over to Ruth and
Manuel. We went through a cave about 15 ms. long.
There was lots of choral around - very pretty,
and fish all over the place ( we have some photos
coming ).
We ascended very slowly, hung onto that bar under
the boat - pretty hard to hang onto that thing
when it's swaying with the boat.
THIRD DIVE at JJJ ( named after the radio station
we were listening to )
I went down with Megan this time. She is GREAT!!!
There was a really strong current and we had to
hang onto the ropes on the side of the ship to
swim over to the anchor chain. Then, we had to
descend quickly to get off the surface.
We got to the bottom and I could hardly believe
what I saw. This gorgeous purple and white garden,
so much prettier than I'd ever seen on the land.
And, this very long bright yellow fish swimming
next to the purple plants. Other smaller bright
yellow fish swimming nearby. It was like I was in
a dream with this pretty picture in front of me.
ANd, most of the area was like that - all these
pretty purple broccoli type plants everywhere.
We saw a HUGE Shovel Nose Ray - a silver colour.
He just sauntered on past us!! Also some pink
jelly fish.
Our ascent was a bit weird. Megan signalled to
ascend and I looked up - we were right under the
boat. I looked at her and she obviously knew what
she was doing. The current was still strong and
she knew we had to go under the boat to get on the
side where the bar was. So, we ascended a bit up
under the boat, hung onto the anchor chain while
Megan got a bearing, then went down really deep (
21 metres) below the anchor chain to get to the
bar.
That was tough!!! We hung onto that bar ( the
safety stop ) for 3 minutes. That was the longest
3 minutes I've ever had. The current was soooo
strong, the bar kept moving with the ship and we
had to hang on for dear life.
Anyway, we managed to get back to those steps on
the boat and I climbed in, exhausted. Megan was
fantastic!!!
I skipped the 4th dive and the night dive because
of the current. It was fun watching the 7 other
divers go off for their night dive. They really
enjoyed it!!!
If you'd like to read about the second day here's
my blog for the 2nd day on the Live Aboard Trip.
The second day I awoke to complete stillness!!
The first day, the boat was just rocking all the
time, and we walked about like we were drunk.
2nd day it was still and calm. I knew this would
be a great day!!!
Ruth took Manuel and I aside, and said we would do
the Deep Dive towards our Advanced course first!
Another instructor, Ian would take both of us down
and do some skills. We were going down about 26
metres, so the maximum time we could stay down was
20 minutes. And, we would have to make a safety
stop.
FIRST DIVE ON SECOND DAY - Robert's Shoal at
Moreton Bay
I was confident about the deep dive because I'd
gone deep the day before. It didn't seem much
different really!
Ian showed us some different colours of felt that
we would look at in the deep as well, just to
compare the difference.
He also got Manuel and I to write our names on a
slate, both forward and backward, and timed us. My
name is VERY long ( middle one too )!!!
When we got to the 26 metres, we had a little
swim, then sat or laid on the bottom and wrote on
the slate again. Ian timed us again. I wrote my
name forwards, and it took me so long, I forgot to
write it backwards. Then, I remembered and took
the slate back from Ian. He timed me from the
beginning, including the "missed time". I probably
forgot because I was a little "narced"!
After that, we'd been there 16 minutes ( time goes
so quick under water ) and we made our way back to
the anchor chain, and ascended very slowly,
stopping at the bar for 5 minutes on the way back
to the steps.
SECOND DIVE at Charlie's Chapel.
This was a good place to dive too!! Lots of places
to explore over the little rocks and choral. Some
little caves to look through and very pretty
plants again!!
This time, I went with Gary and Graham, a couple
of guys who had already done their Advanced Open
Water.
THIRD DIVE at Charlie's Chapel.
My ADVANCED Navigation Dive Ruth took Manuel and I
back to Charlie's Chapel to do our navigation
skills. We set a compass heading and swam 30
kicks, then set a reciprocal heading and went back
the other way! Then, we did a square and practised
natural navigation.
Ruth left Manuel and I at the anchor chain, and we
were going to swim around a bit on our own.
However, we both got low on air very quickly (
used up a lot of air while navigating ), so we
ascended very slowly up to that darn bar again. We
hung on for 5 minutes, then swam up to the stairs.
I missed the next dive and the night dive because
I went off for a power nap.
I woke up to this loud rock 'n roll music and
somebody making farting noises in the microphone.
I went out onto the deck, and there's 8 people all
kitted up in their diving gear, singing and
tapping their feet, some doing a kind of dance!!
It looked like Scuba Disco. They all had little
coloured lights on their tanks!!!
Off they went to the exit and did their giant leap
into the dark sea!!! I'm not going to miss out on
that ever again!! Here's the 3rd day on my Live
Aboard Scuba Diving Trip
Dive Site named Cemento
Our 3rd day, we woke up to a strong Easterly
current going across the boat. This time
we were doing a wreck dive.
The wreck was a 50 to 60 metre ship named Cemento.
It actually sunk before it was meant to, so ended
up upside down. The had to cut the doors off, so
divers could see stuff inside!!
Ruth went in and out some door openings and came
back and up again, while the rest of us watched.
There were a few fish to look at!! It all looked a
bit weird to me - first wreck I had visited. After
awhile, I started panicking because I started
doing another of my runaway ascents. Luckily, Ruth
saw me in time and signalled to stand upright and
dump my air.
Now, why didn't I think of that? It did the trick
alright!!! Down I went gently onto the wreck.
Aaah, that felt better!!
We made our slow ascent again, this time we hung
onto the rope instead of the bar. That was a
little easier.
The LAST DIVE on the trip - Flinders 4 Reef Drift
Dive
--------------------------------------------------
This was absolutely the most beautiful and BEST
dive of all!!! Peter ( one of the crew ) took
Ruth, Manuel and I over to the reef, on the
"Little Tender" ( a small inflatable boat).
We donned our fins and masks and fell back into
the water, descended quickly, and the reef was
absolutely breathtaking. It was covered almost
completely with the most gorgeous coloured
chorals, there were pretty little fish everywhere,
and enormous turtles, sometimes in groups of 2 or
3.
A couple of times, I thought Manuel was going to
run off with the turtles. He seemed mesmerised by
them!!!
We drifted right along the reef, ascended, and
there was Peter waiting for us in the "Little
Tender". He towed Manuel back to the Big Cat, then
came back and got me, while Ruth went back for a
dive on her own!!
The crew told me there are 240 species of choral
on that reef, many more than they've identified on
the Great Barrier Reef!
I recommend this Live Aboard Trip to anyone coming
from overseas to dive!!
After that Grand Finale, it was time to start
packing up ready to go home.
On the way home, we had an amazing display of
Whales!!!
At first, we saw one or two of them breeching and
playing in the water from a distance. Then, one
passed us very close ( about 10 metres away ).
We went back inside, then Jeremy ( the Skipper )
called out "whales at the bow. There were about 4
or 5 plus a calf playing in the distance. Going up
and down, up and down, with their tails in the
air. Put on quite a performance for all of us!!
What a way to leave Moreton Bay.
We had a wonderful time and I'm going on LOTS more
Live Aboards!!!
