A bad day at the office

Seriously - we did not see a SINGLE turtle yesterday.  Rough life, I tell you.  The boat drivers had the day off, so we had to do both our dives inside the lagoon.  What we DID see on the second dive was a small school of these guys, bumphead parrotfish:

They were about 3 feet long - pretty weird, no???  After making it back to dry land, we had to contend with the evil sand flies that decided I was Dinner.  And that was the the worst part of my day.  Not too shabby...

Busy, busy, busy!

Wednesday was a public holiday here (ANZAC Day; similar to Veterans' Day in the US) so the boat was busier than normal this week.  I went out on lots of dives and got to see some really great things, especially in the last couple of days.

On Weds, the wind was really strong and on our first dive, there was a rip current on the surface.  We dropped into about 60 feet of water and started swimming headfirst into the current, which was still quite strong at that depth.  I ended up getting pulled away from the group since I was carrying the line to our dive flag floating on the surface.  I waited for a few minutes to see if they might swim back in my direction, then prepared to ascend and return to the boat.    I turned around just in time to see a huge manta ray* gliding gracefully past me!!!  Surprise!    I was so thrilled that I didn't even mind missing the rest of the dive, especially since the rest of the group didn't get lucky enough to see mantas.  This one had three sharksucker remoras under it, two attached and one just swimming along.  The free-swimming fish ventured closer to me and started giving me the eye.  I got the feeling that he had heard about me from his cousins in Belize.**

Remoras:  lazy little bastards.

*For those of you who don't dive, mantas (and whale sharks) are one of the most exciting, elusive things you can hope to find underwater.  Mantas can grow up to 20+ feet across and do not sting or bite.  Click here for more info & pics!
**Backstory here

Minor Differences

The old commute

The new commute

The old motorman

The new motorman (AKA Captain Mick)

The old office

The new office

So, this happened...

...

And then THIS happened:

No, James, they do not make real gila monsters that big.  Not even in Carefree.  Beer + no tv + Google = mucho hilarity, I tell you.  Our house is always an interesting place.

Best.Line.EVAR.

‘Hey, Ashley?  There are some puppies down here…”  I almost killed myself in my mad dash down the stairs (no easy task what with my monstrous post-Easter hangover) to see why puppies were in our yard.  Turns out they had gotten loose from the house across the street, but until we found their owner they were happy to roll around in the tall grass, chase each other, and try to eat my fingers.  The little Houdinis even managed an encore – after lunch, we found them hiding out under the car.  Definitely a very nice surprise, unlike the earlier discovery that I noticed after waking up to see my purse covered in blood stains.

Just in case the gouges from my recent diving incident weren’t enough, I evidently thought my legs needed a few more battle wounds.  And this, boys and girls, is why you don’t START drinking at 1pm.  Or if you do, you don’t continue  until 1am.  “Oops!”  I blame the Aussie country club owner who encouraged his friends to play ‘be your own bartender.’  Free beer is an even bigger enticement in a country where a 6 pack of Bud costs $16 (Australian!!!).  Happy Easter, indeed…

1770 Adventure

So yesterday I actually made it out to Southern Great Barrier Reef; woohoo, actual diving!!!  Boat days are a bit of an endurance trial.  I dragged myself out of bed a little after 5:30am, and the bus dropped us off at the house at 6:30pm.  Let's just say I had no trouble falling asleep.

Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera yesterday, but I am headed back to the boat tomorrow, so I will bring back plenty of photos to post.  Hopefully the underwater visibility will be somewhat improved so I can introduce you to George, the resident giant estuary cod at the place we dive, who's at least 4 feet long & about 300 pounds.

I managed to get my rescue diver certification wrapped up, which is a huge relief.  It resulted in a lot of REALLY perplexed Japanese tourists, I must say.  There was a small crowd gathered at the railing looking very concerned as I performed a simulated rescue on my "drowning" fellow DM trainee.  I was especially entertained by one woman who showed up for a day of sun and water adventure dressed in a long black velvet  skirt, black & gold brocade jacket, and loads of pearls.  We speculated that perhaps she had gotten her tours mixed up and would show up for a dinner theater engagement that night wearing her bikini...