Noon Report:

• Location: S 16° 55.65′, E 145° 46.83′
• Speed: Docked
• Course: Docked
• Weather: Rain
• Temperature: 24º C, 75º F
• Wind: SSE 8 knots, 9mph

Interesting morning. Cheryl’s cough/sinus issue has moved down to her chest. (This sometimes happens, and it’s never a good – or quick – thing.) So…On the way to breakfast we stopped by guest services and cancelled her participation in today’s snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). After breakfast, while I got ready to leave she visited the doctor’s office on Deck A (deep in the bowels).

She returned with an inhaler of sinus clearing stuff (and a negative COVID test) just as I was leaving. I tucked her in and headed down to join 150ish of my shipmates for the short walk to the GBR tour boat.

We boarded, got settled in, got safety briefed, got oriented and headed out for our 8 hour tour to North Hastings Reef.

Along the way I took a few photos of the boat.

Also as we motored out we (most of us) got ‘stinger suits’ – one-piece lycra suits with hood and mittens designed to protect us from jellyfish stings. It’s Box Jelly season on the reef. Note – didn’t see a single jelly today, but better safe…

Eventually we arrived at our mooring station and hooked up to lines attached to mooring blocks on the sea bed. Access to the reef is tightly controlled and mooring locations and times are highly regulated.

We donned our stuff and slipped into the water. Here’s a sample of what we saw:

Sadly the fairly active surf along with the effect of recent storms has significantly clouded the water – creating less than ideal conditions. Translation: didn’t see a lot. The good news is that the reef in this area appeared to be pretty healthy.

As fatigue set in (had to swim constantly to counter the current) I headed back to the boat for lunch (a bountiful feast of steak, fish, and salads) and conversation with tablemates. The conversation lasted past last call for lunch, the call for the afternoon SCUBA dive, and eventually the announcement that we were leaving to head back. So that was the day.

The ride back was somewhat less ‘active’ and we were soon docked and on our way back to the ship.

I found Cheryl in bed, but in better spirits, so after I had a nap we headed up to dinner. There was no BBB tonight so we returned to our stateroom to settle in with a book and a laptop.

Cheryl’s Factoids:

• Captain Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef by running his ship aground on it!
• There is an inner north/south coastal channel (which can be up to 100 miles wide in places) where all ships are required to have a Reef Pilot to help guide them through and past the 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands.
• There are only a couple of straits from the Pacific Ocean (east/west) in through the reef to access land.
• The GBR has lost about 50% of its corals due to warming and more acidic oceans, plagues of Crown of Thorn Starfish, and more frequent cyclones (also due to global warming) which pound the outer part of the reef and deluge the corals with fresh rainwater.

So that’s the day. If I had to guess (and there’s room in our travel schedule down the road) I’d guess we’ll be back to try this again. The GBR is just too special not to have an exceptional experience with.

Tomorrow’s a sea day before our last stop in Australia. Cheryl commented that this is a significant point in the trip. We are leaving the part of the world where English is the first language and moving to the more exotic side of the planet.

Onward with the adventure! R

PRO TIP

You can do the cruise with just a smartphone or a tablet but I wouldn’t want to. There are certain things that a computer does better/easier. And along the lines of a computer…

I should note that we both brought computers. Cheryl uses the desk for hers and I prefer one of the other chairs with said lap desk (and my feet up on the coffee table).