Day 179 Sun 10/07/2012
Now THAT’S a knife
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| Above: the knife Daniel gave me Below: the knife I found on the ocean floor |
I found more lost items this morning, this time at the Lagoon. As I am finning through the water across a sandy area I see something down on the ocean floor. I dip down to get a closer look and see an almost brand new dive knife in its carrying case. This is a big score. I have strapped the knife my brother Daniel bought me for Christmas years ago on my leg for every dive I have done. It is so rusted and beat up from the many dives that it might not even cut warm butter anymore. I still carry that knife on every dive, but now I have a newer sharper knife at the ready on my BCD. If there are any Michael Jackson knife fights at sea I will be one knife up on a fool. I think I overheard the guy from Alabama, Eric, a few weeks ago saying something about losing a knife, but I may just be making that up.
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| Frank, Gwen & I at Pier Bar |
Tonight we are going out with Frank! Roel has flown over to New Zealand on his way home and Frankie wanted to come back to Cairns and party. Hahaha! He showed up with a good looking lady friend as well, Gwen from Germany. Nice work mate!
They were at the docks when we pulled in to the marina. We got the boat cleaned in record time and toasted to seeing old friends again. To the Pier Bar we went. Tommy I don’t know where the heck you were but there are pictures of my kissing Emily with my hand covering up the contact point. I have no idea bro! Jasper made an appearance as well, just like old times.
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| Gwen (GER) & Frank (Holland) |
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| Great picture of Kate! (with Tommy) :) |
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| Julia, Frankie & Gwen at PJ's |
Day 180 Mon 10/08/2012
Babes in the Lagoon
It’s Monday, so we played at the lagoon all day again. What a life. When we are working we are playing and when we are playing we are floating in a salt water lagoon trying not to fall asleep. There are more Dutch babes running around too. Seriously!
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| Add caption |
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| Ok there WERE babes in the pool, but here is Frank showing off his water aerobic skills |
Day 182 Wed 10/10/2012
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| Nemo is actually a Clown Anemone Fish. These two above are Striped Anemone Fish |
Finding Nemo
We had a family on the trip with a little girl, named Julia. Today at our last dive site I told her dad, Mark, where to go find the clown anemone fish, Nemo, since I was with divers and they were snorkeling. After the dive I climbed back onto the boat and found Julia with a long face.
“Julia, did you find Nemo,” I asked her.
“No,” she replied.
I asked Jase if we could go back into the water to find Nemo for Julia. He reluctantly said “OK, but hurry.” I told Julia to go get her fins because we were going to find Nemo. I have to admit it took me longer to find him than I thought it would. On the dives I am down on the reef structure and can navigate right to it, but from the surface everything looks two dimensional down below. We finally found the outcropping where the clownfish swims in and out of his anemone home.
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| Bart! |
Day 183 Thur 10/11/2012
Free Ride
Tommy took a picture of butter at dinner tonight and tried to pass it off as art. I do love butter, so here is the picture. We saw a turtle on one of our dives. Katie, from the DC area in the US of A sported the USA rashie for her dives. She got tired I think, because according to my notes I had to drag her back to the boat. Maybe she just wanted a free ride though. I was happy to help get her back to the boat.
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| Tommy's butter picture |
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| Working? Nah! |
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| Kate from DC. Nice USA gear! |
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| Julia on lookout |
Day 185 Sat 10/13/2012
Frank & Gwen on the Rummy + Torch to the Chin
“Guess who is coming on this weekend’s trip. Frankie! Hell yea good times. He has travelled up by air from Sydney with a good looking German chik, Gwen. Atta boy! There were lots of girls on this trip, & most of them were seasick on the way out to the reef. One of them was from Greece, named Rosie. She was looking for a similar gig like Julz’s cooking & diving. Getting seasick on the way out is not a good sign though. Meanwhile Frank, Bart, Gwen & I took some cool pics with my GoPro. Frank couldn’t believe it still worked after dunking it in the Litchfield Falls. This evening we also took a good picture of Bartolomeu jumping off the roof of the boat. Then we took the pictures of bart & I holding the Rum Runner life saver ring. Thanks for the pic Bart.
Tommy was also our dive instructor on this trip, so we murdered some XXXX beers & Carlton Mids on the reef tonight. Richie was our skipper so we knew we were in for a hell of a good night when we noticed he was drinking special coffees. Time stamps on pictures say it was after 1AM when I stopped taking photos.”
We saw sharks on every dive today! Wicked! While swimming through the 3 Sisters portion of 360 I came face to face with a reef shark as I finned up on the reef maze. Before I could even react another shark was approaching from the right as well. It was AWESOME. |
| Frank back on the Rum Runner |
After our night dive:
I got into the tender to pull the motor up & secure it for the night. Usually we never fooled with this, but due to some choppy, rough weather we needed to get it out of the water. The mechanism (that allows the motor to pivot up and out of the water) was being a pain.
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| Frank, Gwen & I heading out to sea on the Rum Runner |
“Richie, get me a torch so I can see this thing,” I yell back to the boat. I am about 8 meters out from the back of the Rum Runner floating in the tender & Richie fires a lit torch out over the water at me. No way! I’m bouncing in a boat on rough seas& he just throws it at me. Well the throw is short. I cannot see anyways. It nails the front of the dingy & bounces straight up to blast me in the chin. Blood flows. The torch goes into the water. Shit. Richie apologizes. Julz & Bart are already in the showers. I got back into my dive gear o get this lit torch in the water. Torches sink by the way. Of course. So I rock up to enter the water fully geared up again.
“How deep are we sitting, Richie?”
“About 20 meters,” he replies.
“OK, hand me a torch please,” I laugh.
“What for?! There’s a torch down there.”
“Nah! Are you serious?” I ask.
He was dead serious. No way! By this time everyone is watching the wreck we have going. OK, my chance to look badass for the boat. I take the giant stride off the side of the boat.
“WAIT WAIT WAIT MIKE!” Richie yells. Too late! My weight has shifted out over the water. I have no idea what has happened to have him keep me from going in. Did they see a shark in the water? On the surface or down by the light beacon on the ocean floor? Rogue wave? Or worse, a salty (saltwater crocodile). Holy shit all that went through my mind as I am free falling 8 feet towards the water. I dump all the air from my BCD (Buoyancy Control Device or the vest divers wear) so that when I hit the water I sink like a stone. I figure whatever might be in the water is at the surface. I have no torch either
I lock onto the light on the ocean floor. I realize it is sitting in coral. This keeps getting worse. I dig into the reef and retrieve the flashlight. I sit there and scan the water all around me. The light has only attracted little gnat looking varmints. Thanks God. I’m in 14 meters of water directly under the boat. Scary as hewl!
On top of all of this I have to remember I just did a dive. I must be extra slow & careful ascending. There might still be nitrogen in my blood from the previous dive. By the time I get to the surface I am so ready to get back on the boat I am shaking.
So what ahd Richie yelled about? He laughs so hard. “Nothing, I was just messing with you.” What a turd. Hahahaha that ASS! I did look like a badass though.
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| Tommy's Bunny Ears |
Day 186 Sun 10/14/2012
Deep Divin’ with Tommy2T
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| Nitrogen Narcosis???? Nah, just Tommy being Tommy. |
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| Tommy aka Dogfox |
“This AM Tom asked me if I wanted to go on a fun dive with him over off the backside of Nolan’s Wall. Yes! Bart was leading the certified divers & since he was still very new to this site we had him follow us over to the reef where they needed to go. Once there Tommy2T & I broke off for the deep. 20 meters… 30 meters… 40 meters… I started feeling the nitrogen narcosis around 25 meters. I’ll have to check my logbook for all the details, but once down the wall over on the backside (40 meters or so) Tom turns around to ask if I am all good. I signal “OK” & he immediately yanks his fins off, puts them on his head like bunny ears, & does some dance. I laughed so hard while taking photos my mask flooded. When narc’t, similar to being drunk, some things are much funnier. Next Tommy went into a sick Eddie Van Halen guitar solo on his knees on the ocean floor. My primary reg & 1st stage on my gear started honking big time. It is really not an issue, but it is very scary at this kind of depth. I signaled to Tommy I need to ascend a few meters until the noise quit. We turned & raced back across the ocean floor & gradually rose to 25 meters. All was good again. Thanks for a great dive, Tommy. We will celebrate this dive tonight. No trip tomorrow! Yea!
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