Day 187 Mon 10/15/2012
Cero
“Absolutely nothing.”
 |
| There were hundreds of jellyfish in the Marlin Marina today |
.jpg) |
| Taking the tender over to Bird Crap Island |
Day 188 Tue 10/16/2012
Michaelmas Cay & Bird Shit Island
“We had a guy, Dave from Canada, on this trip with a SIXX tattoo. He was impressed I called him out on it. This trip was different. I think we went to Michaelmas Cay. The diving was OK. Michaelmas Reef.
Bart, Julia & I took the tender over to the island, which we named Bird Shit Island. There were thousands of birds flying everywhere. Julia got pooped on! So funny! J
On our dives we saw lots of GT (Giant Trevally) & batfish. We also saw an amazing cuttlefish that put on a good show for us. It looked just like The Predator. Wicked! I also managed to find 2 turtles. There was only one certified diver on the boat. Craig from the USA.
 |
| Craig & I |
My leg has been hurting. A few trips ago someone’s tank was not properly secured. It came out of its holding bay & slammed me in the leg. Ouch. Hurt like hell. Well just my luck there was an Austrian girl on this trip, Maria, who is an Olympic physical therapist. Haha, life is GOOD! She made me cry as she destroyed my leg, but it felt so much better afterwards.
Jase had me jump in & clean the mooring line at Upolu. I basically just had to scrape the mossy growth off of it.
 |
| Crew on the Bird Dookie Island |
Day 189 Wed 10/17/2012
Dumb & Dumber
“Actually today is the day I cleaned the mooring line. When we finally got home Julia combed my hair into Dumb & Dumber style.”
Day 190 Thur 10/18/2012
Trip Off
“Richie had some minor surgery scheduled for today. , so we had another trip off.”
Day 192 Sat 10/20/2012
Bobby & Rachel’s Wedding
“Our next trip out had one gal named Yewanda from Missouri, who was terrified of the water. My mission was to get her in the water to see reef & Nemo fish. I grabbed a Rum Runner life ring & managed to get her down on the back deck of the boat. Trevor, the GT fish who usually hangs out under the boat, tried to ruin her getting into the water by swimming out and saying “Hi.” GTs, giant trevally, are very friendly & usually swim right up to you. I named our local GT Trevor. Too easy, right?
Well I finally got her to grab the life ring & get into the water so I could drage her to the reef. It was all good. We saw loads of fish & reef.
Today is also Bobby & Rachel’s Wedding Day. D Peeps & Caraccio sent me a picture! Haha, it was the 2 of them with Bobby’s 2 sisters. Nice! I hated missing this. I’m pretty sure if I weren’t working on the Rum Runner I’d have flown my butt back home for their wedding.”
.JPG) |
| Nynke & her DM |
.JPG)
We let Erin from the USA drive the boat for a photo op. She’s from Colorado. Nynke is another hot Dutch gal. Maybe if Australia kicks me out I can move to Holland. Super cool gal too. Sometime recently my camera case has started leaking. It looks like someone swapped o-rings with me and now mine won’t seal up. Richie is having me test the case constantly with the camera not in the equation to try and find the button or seal that is faulty. What a pain this is. |
| Peeps, Darcy, Nikki & Caraccio at the wedding |
Day 193 Sun 10/21/2012
 |
| Skipper Richie |
Tommy becomes FT Crew
“The crew went to Paddy’s tonight with some of the passengers. Bart & Julz wrestled the big plastic croc at the playground outside the Woolshed. Oh Gwen jumped in there too before going back to her hostel, Wood Duck Hostel.
Oh yea, there’s more. So Tommy is our official instructor now. He has been filling in temporarily. Now that he’s official we had to get him a Woolshed VIP card so he can get the cheap or FREE drinks there. I had taken an awesome picture of him doing what he calls a “Shake N Take.” So we are all in the office getting Tommy’s VIP. He quickly bails to go to the bar for a moment. I get the manager to print 2 cards for him. I give Bart one, and I take the other. I told Bart I want him to cut the card up in front of Tommy. Oh it was good. He finally got his VIP status & we immediately “took it away” from him. Hahaha gotcha brodawg!”
Day 195 Tue 10/23/2012
Jase’s Fillet
We caught a big tuna on the way out to the reef, and Jase filleted it.
Day 197 Thur 10/25/2012
Cheerio
“Had some cute chix from England on the boat. Lucy from Brighton, Christie from Essex & Shae from Manchester I think.”
The girls were a hoot. We also tried to get loads of GoPro pictures today, but my camera is finally showing signs of the end. The pictures and video it takes is very blurry. It is not fog either, so the camera may be on its last leg. We had some trouble finding one of our mooring lines today as well. At our over night spot Richie was wanting to put a second line onto the stern of the boat to keep us secure over night. The second line at our spot had been lost. Tommy & Richie took the tender out to find this line and tie a jug onto it for future use.
We played the rope game tonight, and I was tied up to Lacy. During the intro briefing today I introduced Tommy as Dogfox, and we acted completely serious. People are still calling him Dogfox tonight. Lol!
Day 200 Sun 10/28/2012
Tusa Canyons
“I got to drive the boat today. Han Solo also went for a dive with me today. Our first dive today was at Tusa Canyons. This is an epic dive site. Massive pinnacles & walls. Drop-offs. Turtle. Shark.”
Tusa Canyons is really a great site (we actually went to Tusa yesterday). There are massive swim throughs and the most colorful reef. The site is huge too. There are some very deep spots. We even found some caves. I really wish I had some advanced divers with me on this first dive so we could get some depth. Maybe next time. We begged Richie to let us do the second dive here as well.
There were two Americans, Adam & Emily, on the trip. They are from Colorado. Adam wore the most ridiculous swim bikini bottom. Emily was so embarrassed. It was hilarious.
Tonight we changed things up a little bit as far as the Sunday session goes. We went to the Courthouse and had dinner. I get a message on Facebook from one of the American girls who had been on the boat a few trips ago. She informs me a friend of hers has just arrived in Cairns and gave me her number to call her if we get into anything. Her name is Meg, and I send her a text to let her know we are all at the Courthouse eating. She is coming to meet us. Bart is trying to guess what she looks like.
When I see this hot gal walk outside where we are sitting and look lost I think, “This can’t be her.” Sure enough, Meg is a great looking female. Turns out she is pretty rowdy too. She raised almost as much hell as the crew did. These Philly girls can party. 
Day 202 Tue 10/30/2012
Hairless Skipper
 |
| Sisters Paula & Cecilia with their dad in the water |
“Team Uruguay! Amazing family from South America. Paula, Cecilia & their dad, Alvaro. These 2 sisters are gorgeous. They were very worried about their dad diving. He had been certified years ago & openly admitted he was scared to dive. He just wanted to snorkel. So instead of having two great looking Uruguayan ladies as my buddies I get to hang onto dad. I might have to go to Uruguay to see Paula.
I caught Rishie stroking the waxed part of his leg whil driving the boat. When he saw me catch him rubbing his leg he immediately stopped, shook his head & cursed Sarah & Alice. “Damn girls.” He also had multi-colored nail polish on his nails from his daughter painting them.”
It was sooooo funny catching Richie rubbing the hairless spot on his leg. Hahahaha! Alvaro did great on his first dive, but he was content from here on with just snorkeling. The girls took turns missing a dive in order to keep their father company while out in the water. These are very sweet ladies. I think their dad really liked me too. ;)
Somehow I cut my head during the night dive, or right before the night dive. Then I found $10 (that’s for Chelsea in case she reads this ever). |
| Nudibranches |
Day 203 Wed 10/31/2012
All Nighter
“Today I received a text from Luke & Candy, the German couple I hung out with in Kalgoorlie, WA. They came to the boat & we played some Pictionary (on our whiteboard where we do the dive briefings). Bart & I end up staying up on deck all night. We were jamming Stone Temple Pilots when Richie walked up to get fuel for the boat (the next morning).”
 |
| Some wild man, Cindy, Gwen, Laura, & another wild one |
How do I explain this? Well Luke & Candy came to the boat with some vodka I guess. Gwen is working and staying at the Wood Duck Hostel in town, so she has brought girls from the hostel to the boat. So we fire up a multilingual game of Pictionary. It was hard to verify answers belted out in German. How the heck do you say “golf cart” in German? I bet it is something hilarious!
 |
| Lukas & Candy |
I remember Cindy, the manager at the Wood Duck, really having an attitude with me. Attitude in a good way though. Nobody told her what to do, and she was the most competitive woman I had eve met. Pictionary was war. It was girls versus guys too. There were three of us and six girls. Lukas’s English was OK. Bart was too many beers deep to know any language. I could draw alright, but I couldn’t guess anything my team was drawing, so I was equally worthless. There was some cheating involved somewhere along the line, but only because the girls were picking the hardest crap to draw. We were handing them fun and creative items to draw. One example was “futbol” and/or “soccer”. For our turn we had to draw “The Declaration of Independence”. I drew Lady Liberty holding a book with arrows pointing to the obvious book in her hands, but neither the Dutch or the German were going to get this.
After everyone left, Bart and I decided to stay up and drink beers while giving the marina the pleasure of hearing Stone Temple Pilots all night. I am surprised Julia didn’t come up topside and kick our asses for this. Good times Bart! How did we scare six girls away though?
Day 204 Thur 11/01/2012
Fuel Trip
 |
| Julia & Bart on our way to get fuel |
“Fuel trip on boat. Richie blasted the bird to a CDC boat we passed. Hah!”
CDC is a rival company here in Cairns, and Richie straight up flipped them the middle finger on our way to get fuel. It was so funny. He made himself laugh as he gave the sign to the other skipper. Tomorrow is our first charter trip. Supposedly the boat has been booked by a large group of American students. I am not sure what I think about this.
Day 205 Fri 11/02/2012
.JPG)
100% USA Trip
“Our boat has been chartered for 3 days by a bunch of American Uni (University) Students. We weren’t sure if we should be extremely excited or what. My 200th dive happened, naked of course. USA rashie was worn by someone every dive.”
 |
| Chris |
I can’t believe we ever doubt a group of American college kids. They were an awesome group. To our surprise they didn’t party the whole time either. Every one of them took every bit of the boat, reef, and overall experience in. They took over on the tunes and played all of their own iPhone’s tunes. The crew had to tend to them very little. Lots of the time passengers are in your face the whole time asking questions about the boat, travels, the GBR, and so on. This group almost had nothing to do with us, which was OK. They entertained themselves nearly the whole time. We would offer times to go diving, and the ones who wanted to dive could hop into some gear with any of us DMs and have a go.
I’d like to see something one of them wrote about the trip, because my notes were not too detailed. I know we went to a different section of the Great Barrier Reef for this trip, called Milln Reef. The visibility was outstanding. I am talking about 25 meters of visibility (70+ feet).
Day 206 Sat 11/03/2012
2 Naked Divers
This morning’s our wake up dive was number 199 for me. Next dive was going to happen naked. Is this traditional? I don’t think so, but why not. Tommy and I were going to jump back in and go for it. Julia ended up getting three of four divers into the water for another dive. Two dudes and two gals were going to be following her. Tommy and I just brought up the rear and before the group knew I was naked we split ways. Tommy and I saw a pretty large shark and many nudibranches on this dive.
Tommy and I made the mistake of getting caught front flipping into the water in full gear. The next guest decided he had to try the front flip as well. We do not recommend this form of entry at all. The guy nailed it though.
If I remember correctly it was during one of the night dives on this trip when Julia did her 100th dive. Without being reminded she was in the water naked before anyone on the boat knew. She led the night dive and no one even noticed in the darkness she was full on naked. She had “Dive 100” written across her butt and “Rum Runner” down her legs. Good job on timing on the night dive too, Julia. Too bad there wasn’t more bioluminescence in the water to blow your cover!
Day 207 Sun 11/04/2012
Bond at Sea
There is a picture of Tommy in the tender from today that is top notch. I hear the James Bond chase music whenever I see the photo. This English fool LOVES Bond too; it is perfect. Well according to the time stamp the photo was taken yesterday. I love your AUSTRALIA ROCKS shirt, Tommy.
My Santa Cruz came out on this trip for some reason. I think Tommy had been riding it, and since he came on the trip last minute it was either leave it at the docks or throw it up on the roof in the spare tender. Who can say they ride a bike that has been out to the Great Barrier Reef? How random! I actually forgot all about the bike going along, so taking pictures can serve many purposes, including detailed memory of events over a year span.
The crew were very thankful for the group we had this trip. We needed a nice relaxed and laid back bunch after the last few weeks of no stop action and party. I think the kids even pooled together some change and left us some money in the tip jar. Remember that change over here can consist of $1 and $2 coins. We definitely had more than enough in tips to buy a round of beers for the crew at the Pier Bar after the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment