Day 113 Thur 08/02/2012
Sushi Train
“Lunch at Sushi Train. So good! Parma at Woolshed. Jasper and his special treats.”
Seems like my notes dropped off for a couple of days after our amazing reef trip on the Rum Runner. I can maybe go look back and see if there are any photos taken during the days of no journal entries and fill in some gaps.
Sushi Train is one of my favorite spots to eat for a couple of reasons. All of the sushi is made right in front of you and placed onto the conveyor belt. You pay by the color of plate so one is able to eat fairly cheap if you are watching your money. They also have pretty good sushi. For $10 to $12 I am full, and that’s a cheap lunch here in Oz.
The chicken parmesan is one of the upgrade meals at the Woolshed meaning you can pay just a few dollars on top of your free meal voucher from the hostel and upgrade to something fairly substantial. Frank almost always upgrades to something yummy, so tonight I splurged the couple of bucks to get the parma. I have no idea what Jasper’s special treats were. They must have been extra special, because I do not remember them. I imagine a rowdy night at the Woolshed regardless, and who knows what may have gone down at the hostel tonight.
Day 114 Fri 08/03/2012
The Rum Runner – Our Floating Home
“Early brekkie. Packed all my stuff. Sorted all of my stuff outside on the picnic tables with Jed, then had lunch at the Pier Bar. All of my gear with me. I left my bike at the hostel. I boarded the Rum Runner at 3:30PM where I met Mike, Sarah, Alice, Jas(mina), Richie & Jase. I stopped writing in my journal & started writing out dive logs. Hundreds of dives. Epic times on this boat. I became a Rescue Diver & then a Dive Master! Maybe I can write some of the many stories from this boat another time. Working on this boat has been the best part of Australia I think. I hated to have to say bye to Frank & Roel though. They walked me down to the boat to say bye. They are heading south today. The chances of me seeing them again in Australia are not good, BUT we will 100% see each other either in Europe or the USA. Thanks for the awesome times so far guys. I cannot wait to tell our stories again someday.”
Well today is another pivotal day here in Australia for me. I woke up early to get out of my hostel room. Jed was up with me as I dumped everything out onto the picnic tables outside to sift through my items. All I took was my SCUBA gear, cameras, board shorts, and a few changes of clothes. I packed everything else into my large backpack to store over at Richie’s house. I hoped my bike would be fine locked up over here at the hostel until I figured out what to do with it. Thanks for sitting with me while I was packing Jed. Your company is always hilarious. You’re a good C!
Frank, Roel, Jed, Ditty & I walked down to Pier Bar for some lunch and one last drink. The guys all pitched in to help carry something since I had a SCUBA bag, large backpack, and a smaller bag. I didn’t have to do my normal transportation method of stealing a Wooly’s trolly (shopping cart). You guys are legends.
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| Ditty, Frank & Roel seeing me off |
They walked me down to the E Finger of the Marlin Marina where I was set to meet the skipper and board the Rummy. Travelling with Frank and Roel has made me feel right at home here in a place so far away from home. They helped me survive Kalgoorlie. They were a great alarm clock the first few days there as well by playing their Dutch hardcore music at 7AM. I cannot imagine a better couple to road trip with. They also loved stopping for photos which I am known for slowing down the group to do so. I am so fortunate to have met them when I did. Thanks for everything guys. I hope the Ford FuturaMA gets you back to Sydney or wherever your final destination is. Love you guys! See you again, mates!
When Richie arrived he loaded up my bags for storage and we walked down to the boat. Mike, Sarah and Alice were onboard along with two new faces, Jasmina and Jason. I had seen Jason or Jase as we call him on my first trip very briefly. I had not seen Jasmina though. Jas is from Helsinki, the capital of Finland, and she joins the crew as an instructor when there are students aboard.
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| Rum Runner layout below deck |
The boat had just come into the marina from a trip. The schedule for two day trips is simple. The boat will leave Tuesday morning early to head out to the reef, where it stays the night. The boat returns Wednesday around 2-3PM when it restocks and is cleaned. There is a Thursday to Friday and a Saturday to Sunday trip that follow the same schedule. The Rummy crew is off on Mondays. There are three 2-day trips per week. Richie and Jase alternate trips usually. Nowadays they never both go on a trip together.
I was immediately put to work. Since this trip coming in was Jase’s turn at the helm Richie was responsible for getting the supplies needed for the next trip. This also meant if there were any issues with equipment like SCUBA gear or boat mechanical issues Jase would make a phone call on the way back from the reef to hopefully catch Richie in time to get the needed parts to fix the problem. We unloaded the supplies onto two carts and rolled them down to the boat as it came in.
After all the passengers have departed the boat the crew creates a chain from the cart up onto the boat and down the stairs below deck. The hostie for the next trip is responsible for being in the gallery to put up all the food since he or she would be the one getting the food back out to cook.
Once the food is passed below deck the skippers will tend to any repairs needed while the rest of the crew start cleaning the deck and hull of the boat. Usually everyone chipped in, and the process only takes an hour or so.
Mike made some room in one of the lockers for me to stow my few things and I was told to make myself at home. This living arrangement was even tighter than living in a hostel. There was very little wasted space. There would be four of us living on the boat until Mike had finished training me. Even with there being four of us sharing this space I felt like I had much more privacy than in the hostel. I fell asleep tonight listening to live music coming from across the water at the Salt House. The Friday night sounds from the Marina were much nicer than the Friday night noise at the hostel.
Day 115 Sat 08/04/2012
First Trip as DMT
“The Rum Runner sets sail this AM for my first time as a Dive Master in Training. We took a pretty funny picture of Mike YELLING at me while I was doing the dive roster for the first time. I swam with a turtle on one of these dives. Unreal! Pics to prove it. Thanks Houser (Mike).”
I was so nervous today. I cannot remember what I might have started to do. I think Mike and I woke up and immediately began filling up the water tanks before starting to setup dive gear. Passengers start to roll in as we are adding BCDs to tanks and checking regulators. I basically followed Mike’s lead. Each person must remove his or her shoes, place any bags and luggage in the cockpit area, and come be fitted for fins and a mask.
Mike tried to show me how to find the fin size of different fins quickly. Certified divers were put into a stall on the starboard side of the boat, and all snorkelers or non-certs were put over on the port side. We did our best early on to get people sized correctly with fins, mask, BCD, and have friends and family next to each other in stalls.
Once all sixteen passengers had been assigned a tank/stall they were asked to go downstairs to sign waivers and pay. Then morning snack was served up in the cockpit while the crew dropped on the lines. This was Richie’s trip again as skipper so Jase was down on the dock at the bow line. Mike was on the stern line and the “springer” line. I can hear Jase yell at me right now for screwing up the order of line removal. The only difficult part about debarking for us was getting onto the boat after you drop the springer and stern line. Jase takes the bow line off and throws it up on the boat. We leave him. If you are on the stern line though you have to quickly drop the lines and carry them on board. No one ever got left from what I can remember, but there were some close calls now and then. Richie had the hard part f backing the boat out of the slip.
It would be time for the safety briefing followed by the dive briefing. Mike did the briefing again this trip. I would have to pay attention to this for in just a few trips this would be my responsibility. I was terrified to even think about this. I became nervous just watching smooth Mike here doing the speech and winning over all the passengers on the boat. I am taking notes Mike.
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| Caught eating a toasty instead of filling out the dive roster |
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| First Day as Crew on the Rummy |
I went below deck with Mike and he showed me how to take the information from the waivers and create a dive log for accountability on the trip. We needed a diving roster for every time we let people into the water in order to keep from leaving someone out on the reef for shark bait. While transferring these names over to the roster one of the girls got a great picture of Mike scolding me for screwing up something.
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| I love these little Black & White Snapper becuase they remind me of cows |
The dives were even better on this trip. We started with a dive site called Canyons, which is one of the best sites there on Thetford Reef I believe. This is a fairly large site to navigate and at this point all I can do is follow the leader and get comfortable with myself in the water with paying customers. There are two main structures of coral here on this site and you are able to run a figure eight through them if you have a fast group. If it is a slower group or they are air hogs you just focus on the larger closer structure. When a few divers got near the 50bar mark he would gather them together and send them with me towards the boat while he continued the dive with the divers who still had plenty of air. He would just point the direction for me if he could tell I didn’t know.
Mike turned me loose on my second dive working on the boat, and it was on a night dive. I would be leading five cert divers. I helped get them all geared up by the only light we had on deck, one giant beam facing the starboard side of the boat where the cert divers tank stall are located. This light will also help light up the ocean in the vicinity of the boat. It acts as a beacon for us on night dives when there is no moon to navigate by. Sometimes the light can attract marine life.
When the divers were ready Mike dropped the chain at the railing allowing us to step into the water. I was not completely comfortable going in first, but I didn’t let anyone else know this. Who wants to jump into the middle of the ocean at night first? Soon that answer would be me, but I didn’t feel that way at the moment. The worst feeling is jumping into the water first on a night dive and having the next person in line have a last second gear issue. Like when someone forgets to do the proper buddy checks and they get to the edge of the boat before realizing they have a tank half full. So whoever is in the water already has to wait. It’s not fun. Right now the water is pretty chilly.
There were no hold ups this time though. All the divers stepped in one by one and met me at the mooring line at the bow of the boat. Everyone had a regulator in his or her mouth, and they all were giving OK signs. We started our decent down the mooring line towards the ocean floor. I had been on a couple of night dives at the Loch Low Minn Dive Quarry in Athens, TN and one night dive here on Thetford Reed. Diving at night was still new to me.
Richie had told me to stay on the starboard side of the boat where the light was shining over the water. I would be able to see the light from the bottom the whole time. We hit the reef and took a right. We finned this direction for just a few minutes until I became worried I wouldn’t be able to get us back to the boat without a long surface swim. Crap, I hadn’t timed the dive. My bezel on my dive watch hadn’t been set at all. Our night dive plan is no more than 10 meters and a time limit of thirty minutes. I had no idea how long it had been.
I gathered the group on the ocean floor and circle them up best I could without stirring up the bottom. We create the bioluminescent glow from the microorganisms in the water, although the light pollution from the moon and boat made it hard to see the glowing particles. It was time to do a safety stop on our way back to the boat. I figured we were close to thirty minutes.
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Not the best photo but this is too far to pop up from the boat at night
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I had heard the crew talk about confusing the moon with the deck light before. I am not sure if it was Mike or another DM on the boat (it might have been one of the skippers) that was leading a dive and got off course by following the moon instead of the deck lights. When the divers popped to the surface they realized how far off they were and had to have the tender come pick them all up.
I took a look up to find the deck light and realized how much my mask was leaking when water rushed up my nose. I really needed to shave, because this facial hair wouldn’t allow my mask to seal on my face properly. I thought I saw the light and we finned off in this direction hoping to find the large concrete mooring block where we began. If you can find the mooring block the boat is tied to then you can follow the line back up to the boat.
On our way back I spotted a chevron barracuda and a large black spotted pufferfish. Then we found the mooring block. We were all back on the surface at the stern of the boat safely. Mike was back there looking at his watch as we approach. Our dive had only been twenty two minutes long. Whoops! He smiled and whispered, “Maybe no one will say anything.” After seeing the big puffer and the barracuda there were no complaints. I figure I had led my first dive successfully. Everyone was safe, and we all had fun.
Day 116 Sun 08/05/2012
A Turtle!
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| Mike looking Pro on dive site 360 |
“Well I’m in the right place. I love the boat. 16 passengers. If the boat is full the crew have NO BEDS. Hah, sux! Well it sux for most people, but I can sleep anywhere. There are exactly 16 beds. Well, 15 little beds & 1 super ridiculously small bed nicknamed THE COFFIN. It is hard, even for me, to get into (this bed). When the boat is out to the reef I sleep on the deck pretty much anywhere.
We are off tomorrow (Monday) & I will soon find out that Sunday nights are the one night during the week that the crew unleash demons from being on a boat all week. Dinner at Woolshed. Irish Pub. Fuzzy. But we did see how many people we could fit in the coffin back on the boat. Hahaha! FOUR = MAX. Sarah, Alice, some English dude & myself. Funny pic. Jed & Jackie came back with us as well. Jed has been working on Jackie for a while now. Too funny. “Pester them to death until they give in,” – Jed Healy. She never gave in. They did become good friends though. Maybe he can continue pursuit back in Europe later.”
I spent the night for the second time in my life out on the water of the Great Barrier Reef sleeping on a cushion with a blanket. How awesome is this? There are many duties on the boat I must become familiar with before I can think about doing lots of diving according to Richie. The DMT is usually put on lookout for most dives. Being the lookout means you stand on the deck and help divers in and out of the water. Your main focus is on people in the water. You have to know where all of the snorkelers are at all times. If they get too far away the lookout has to get their attention and bring them closer. The lookout also must keep track of where the divers are. If someone pops up with problems the lookout is the first person to respond. I was getting to do lots of lookout duty.
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| Me checking out the hawksbill turtle Mike found |
Another very important role of the lookout is to keep the dive roster/log current. You have to know who is in the water. When people get back on the boat they must sign back in. If this isn’t done properly then the crew have no idea who is under the deck sleeping or who is out there chasing Nemo. It is very important to keep track of people in the water.
I only got one dive in today because of lookout duty, but this dive was top notch. There was only one guy from Germany, Jelter, who wanted to go diving on the last dive spot of the day. So Mike and I got to jump in with him. According to Mike this site, named 360, was kind of confusing to navigate. He would lead the first portion of the dive and have me bring us back to the boat.
As we got down between some coral bommies and reef structure Mike turned to look at us and then shot off motioning for us to follow quickly. He had spotted a hawksbill turtle. This guy was munching on coral as we approached him and snapped a few photos. Mike did a great job of getting pictures of the turtle in the foreground with Jelter and I in the background. Thanks Mike!
This turtle didn’t stick around long before shooting off into the blue. We were all so excited to get to swim with this little guy for a short time though.
After the last dive the lookout begins cleaning the dive gear as divers come out of the water. Tanks are filled. Beds are made as we approach Cairns. Below deck must be vacuumed. The toilet/shower area is doused and scrubbed with cleaning agent. The trash bins in the toilets are cleaned as well.
Mike gave a short fair well speech as we pull into the marina. This might sound more like the one I gave, but I cannot remember how Mike did his. They are very similar I am sure. We gather the group at the bow of the boat for a group photo.
“To the port side we have the mangroves where the salt water crocodiles live, which is why we can’t go swimming here in Cairns. To the starboard side the beautiful rainforests up in the Atherton Tableland where it looks like it might be raining right now. Straight ahead the wonderful party city of Cairns. This unfortunately means our trip is almost over. (Crowd AAWWWWE’s).
We want to thank all you snorkelers for coming out here and enjoying the reef with us. We want also thank the divers who came out, because without you guys I would not have a job on the boat. Let’s thank our Dive Leaders for taking you guys on some awesome dives. Also we want to thank Alice (or Sarah) for keeping our bellies full the whole trip (Usually the hostie would get the biggest round of applause and cheers). Also, everybody give Richie (or Jase) a wave for taking us to some awesome dive sites and keeping the boat off of the reef.
As you guys have probably already heard the Rum Runner is owned by your skippers here, and the boat runs by word of mouth. We have returning customers every year, so if you had a good time please tell you friends back at your hostel or back home. If you didn’t have a good time, don’t say anything at all. Also if you do Trip Advisor, go on there and give us some feedback. The skippers read those comments and take them very seriously.
The Pier Bar here has good drink specials from 5 to 7 tonight. Usually we go there for some drinks after we clean the boat, so we hope to see some or all of you guys & gals there. OK, let’s get together for this photo!”
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| Mike washing the boat? |
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| Jed & Jackie dropped in to say hey. Look Richie, they even brought their own beer. |
Passengers on top of their game pull camera out from everywhere. After all the group shots are completed the crew inform the guests the starboard side of the boat needs to be clear of traffic as we are pulling into the marina so the skipper can see and the crew can prepare to dock. On Richie’s trip Jase would usually be waiting on the dock with all of the supplies for the next trip and ready to catch the bow line to dock. Since this is a weekend trip and we are off on Monday he might not be waiting for us. We will resupply tomorrow. Without help on the dock one crew member will attempt to lasso the springer line onto the cleat as we pass. When they miss, which was almost 90% of the time, they must jump onto the dock and get that line on quick. The next most important line is the bow. This line keeps the boat from slamming into the docks at the bow. The deckhand or deckie must get the lasso on then run to catch the bow line thrown down from the deck by anther deckie. By this time another deckie has come down by the rear cleat on the dock to grab the stern line and as the bow line is secured the boat can be pulled up to the dock for people to exit safely. (As I write this I really hope I got these steps right or Jase will light my ass up) “MCNAAAAAAAAAAAAAIR!”
So with the boat secured the crew hop onto the dock and say our goodbyes as the guests leave the
boat. When all guests have left the crew gives the boat a scrub. Then time to relax.
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