More Shark Stuff

Here is a link to a Youtube video shot by Kim from Texas.  I was about 10 feet away from the action taking still pictures. In Cairns now waiting to go to the airport. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POCEwINP8W4

North Horn – Shark Feed

What a Hoot! This is the signature dive of the Spirit of Freedom. It is done at the North Horn of Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea. The same site as the last dive. At the end of the mooring line there is a kind of natural amphitheater in the side of the coral reef with a raised pillar of coral in the center. The tourist divers sit in a semi circle at 50feet and our Dive Masters set up a pulley system on the raised pillar where they will pull a garbage can full of Tuna heads down from the surface. That’s when the fun begins.

As soon as things start getting set up the sharks know what’s coming and they start cruising in. When the food flys, things get a bit crazy while about 40 sharks compete for the goodies.

One got himself wrapped up in the chain and had to thrash about to get free.

After the sharks are done gorging themselves on tuna, we swam out to get close to the stragglers. We still had a good bit of air so we finished the dive in the same area. My dive buddy Pascal, who is French and speaks very little English, communicates very well underwater. He found a little tunnel in the coral and we went in exploring and found the Giant Cod that was in about the sharks. He ran out of his home as we entered but after we realized we were at a dead end he was coming back in as we were going out. Made for some great pictures.

All for now.  It is Sunday and the last day of diving.  We have already been to Steve's Bommie and expect the "DIVE TIME" call any minute now.  I get inbound email but no outbound.  Internet is spotty.  Dont send me any large files. I have to pay for bandwidth and it takes forever.  Dial up Speeds.  Boat should dock at 5am on Monday (Aussie Time)  Donna, See you soon.  Miss you.

North Horn

Slept soundly on Friday night and woke around 6am. We were advised that it was important to be on time for this mornings dive. The North Horn site is at the northern tip of Osprey Reef. The tide had to be timed just right so we would not fight too much current getting onto the reef and be able to ride it back to the boat. The crew strung a 200 foot line at the surface to the reef so we could pull ourselves to the reef without getting swept away by the current. Good thing too, we needed that line. As we began the dive I looked down to see several reef sharks – 5-6 feet in length – swimming below us. Once on the reef we were between the reef and cruising sharks.

We swam north along the reef and down to a 100’ depth. Even at 100 feet there was plenty of blue water under us. They say the bottom is somewhere around 3-4000 meters. Not someplace you would want to go. The dive was short for a GBR live aboard dive, about 40 minutes instead of the usual hour. We spend more time at depth here and that will cause you to use more air. At about 100 bar, or 1000 psi we turned around and made our way back to the line. If you missed the line and came up off the reef, it would mean that they would have to send the tender boat out to get you. If they saw you that is. This is not a good place to get swept away as it would take the rescue helicopters a few hours to fly the 100 nautical miles to search for you. Even then they would not have much search time before having to head back to land.

On the way back to the boat we did our safety stops at 30 feet (two minutes) and 15 feet ( 5 minutes ). We did not even have to kick a fin to get back. The current pushed us right along with a loose grip on the rope.

Admiralty

Fourth dive of the day starts out at 40 feet with a swim through a long tunnel. Inside the tunnel there is an old anchor imbedded in the coral. I was diving with Kevin, another single diver on the boat and we were both following Claire, one of our dive guides. It is very easy to follow Claire as she goes slow and also has a noisy regulator, so even if you cant see her you can hear her. After the anchor there comes a fork in the tunnel.

The left fork dead ends while the right one gives you your exit. After the anchor I turned around to take some photo’s of Kim and Jay from Texas…. And found that they were behind another two divers. Just then I saw a four foot moray come out of a hole and swim past me. Tried to get a few photos’ but it was too dark and it did not come out.

Later in the dive we saw a 5 foot reef shark lying in the sand. This one did not spook too easily and I was able to lay down in the sand bottom and get quite close to it. I was happy to get that close to a shark. Little did I know what was coming.

Pixie Garden for Two Tanks

Pixie Garden for two tanks in the afternoon. We have heard from the Captain that we are going to try for the Coral Sea. I are really glad that Donna is safe and sound at the Hilton in Cairns. I want to get this post out before we go out of internet range. Posting two pictures. Here is that Shark from the first dive.

And a few Macro shots from the second dive.

Lizard Island

On Wednesday evening we moored in the Bay at Lizard Island. This allowed us a very calm and gentle sleep. After dinner, the Captain of the ship spent some time feeding a large Tawny Nurse Shark. It was about a six footer.


 The crew broke out some extra wine and opened the ship’s gift shop so that people could purchase hats and stuff with the logo. Donna made the decision to leave the ship and fly back to Cairns on the small commuter plane. Thursday evening is when we will leave the protection of the GBR and head to the open sea. Our destination (if we make it) is Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea. It has been rough in the ribbon reefs and there is a chance we may not make it to the Coral Sea….. So I am glad that Donna decided to go.




Heard from Donna via email and she is going to stay at the Hilton in Cairns until I get off the boat. Then we can travel home together. We have another group of divers that joined the boat and are between dives at Pixie Garden. We saw a nice sized reef shark and his remora buddy. I will post those pictures soon. They are still in the camera which is still in the underwater housing and in the dunk tank on deck.

Lighthouse

The third dive of the day was at “Lighthouse”. The reason for the name is that the reef rises up from a max depth of 90 ft to within 5 feet of the surface. You start the dive by going to the bottom and then circle your way up. The bottom was full of Lionfish! Donna had to pull me out of the way of one of the baby lionfish while I was taking a picture of its daddy. The spines on the fish have a venom that will not kill you but will give you a pretty painful sting.

As we circled up we found a good size turtle that was very happy to pose for a few pictures. The current was ripping pretty good and quite a few divers were around trying to get a picture of him.

Pixie Pinacle and the Clownfish

We are two days out on the Spirit of Freedom and I have come to the realization that this little blog of mine is a mess. Yesterday I did four out of the five dives offered. I skipped the night dive because I was really tired. The first and second dives were at the world famous “Cod Hole” followed by Princess Bommie and Challenger Bay. You have already seen the pics of our Codfish pal. The seas were a bit rough on Tuesday and Donna was fighting the good fight… and losing. Fortunately, in the evening the sea flattened out like a pancake and we had a pleasant dinner followed by hitting the sack early. I was exhausted and slept soundly for the first time since getting to Australia.



On Wednesday morning we were the first ones up at 5:30 am. The crew of this boat does a very nice job of taking care of the divers. The food is fantastic and there is hot coffee available at the touch of a button. The sun played hide and seek all morning while we dove the Pixie Pinnacle site. Here is a picture of the dive boat

We saw tons of Clownfish and Anemones on this dive. Got what is so far the picture of the trip.

So with 4-5 dives a day and fiddling around with Photoshop and spotty Internet access....... it's tough posting things on a regular basis.  I have realized that it is pretty silly to bitch about spotty internet access while on a boat at sea.  So, here are the first part of today's posts.  I hope you enjoy them!