Australia 9/2/2019 - 9/22/2019

Saturday, 9/14/2019 - Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, Enjoying an Aussie Barbie

Breakfast at the Mantra Port Sea was complete chaos. Pretty much every guest staying at the hotel was leaving for an excursion at the same time, so the buffet was packed with people. We found an empty outdoor table right next to the entrance. We would have preferred to have been indoors where it was air conditioned, but at least the table was in the shade.

The buffet was stocked with standard fare, but it did contain something we have never encountered before: an automatic pancake making machine. The staff fills it with a bag of pancake batter, and you dial in how many pancakes you would like. You position your plate under one end of the machine, and after a certain amount of time, a pancake rolls off a conveyor belt onto your plate. They were surprisingly good! By the time we got back to our table, it was now in the sun. It was suddenly very hot, so we quickly ate breakfast and were on our way.

Our group met in the lobby and then got onto a shuttle bus which took us on a very short drive to the wharf. We walked down the wharf to the Calypso Blue catamaran for our Great Barrier Reef snorkeling expedition. Even though we were on time, we seemed to be among the last guests to arrive. We could see people relaxing on the bow as we approached.

Craig was afraid of feeling seasick, as we had heard reports that the water would be a bit rough today. We each took some motion sickness medication. The lower deck of the boat was pretty crowded, so we walked up a staircase to the upper deck and found some room to sit at the stern.

The crew were already handing out snorkel gear. They handed Craig and me each a pair of fins and a mask/snorkel. Craig's fins fit perfectly; mine were too small. I told them that Craig and I have the same size feet, so I needed a pair like his. They said that they would get them and they would be right back. By now, all the fins had been distributed, and they only had a single unmatched fin in my size. That certainly wouldn't work; I would be snorkeling in circles!

They said that they would go to another boat to get a pair in my size. They returned a few minutes later with a pair...but it was again too small. They said it was the largest that they could find. I was getting worried - the whole point of the excursion was to snorkel. Would I really be the only person onboard without proper fins, having to make due with a single well-fitting fin or else shove my already vulnerable feet into fins that are a size too small?

Luckily, a crew member managed to find the right size in someone's inventory, so I had a proper pair of fins after all!

Next the crew handed out wetsuits for those who thought that the water temperature was too cold (or who needed some extra bouyancy). They explained that it is not jellyfish season, otherwise we would need to wear sting suits that cover the entire body. The wetsuits that they had for us had short sleeves and shorts. Craig and I didn't think that we would need them, as we assumed the water temperature would be fine for us. Also, wet suits tend to make Craig very hot when on the boat. The crew told us that if we changed our minds after getting in the water, just let them know.

It was a beautiful sunny day. The weather was a bit windy so the seas were slightly rough, but it was sunny and cool...absolutely beautiful!! We had been a bit worried that it might be really hot, but it was in fact quite comfortable with the breeze. And the rough seas weren't bad enough to make either of us feel seasick.

I enjoyed lounging in the sun on the back deck. Alison joined me for a while. Craig opted for the shade, and chatted with Eric and Allison. Captain Solly took us 30 knots off of Port Douglas to the Opal Reef over the course of 90 minutes.

We arrived at our first snorkel spot. The water was turquoise blue, and you could see where the reef was by the color differential.

We went downstairs and gathered at the aft of the main deck. Crew members sprayed our masks with soapy water and we dunked them in a water bucket to prevent fogging. They had Vaseline for men with facial hair, which Craig always finds makes a good seal between the mask and his moustache.

Instead of ladders to get into the water, the entire width of the stern was actually a hydraulic staircase. As the boar got into position, they lowered the staircase into the water. We sat down on the top step, put on our fins and mask, and simply walked down into the water. The water was a bit chilly at first, but nothing compared to ocean temperatures in New England!

This was our first time seeing the Great Barrier Reef in person, and unfortunately, the impact of climate change was immediately apparent. Some large swaths of coral were white and dead-looking, the victim of bleaching.

Other coral looked at first glance to be quite healthy, in beautiful fluorescent shades of pink. But actually, fluorescent colors are a symptom of heat stress. Healthy coral actually look more natural, in subdued earth tones.

Only 3 weeks before, the government downgraded the reef's health from "poor" (last assessed in 2014) to "very poor." A large cause is climate change; a rise in water temperature of only 2 degrees Fahrenheit can cause bleaching.

A study of coral bleaching on the reef, published in the journal Nature in 2017, found 91% of the coral reef had been bleached at least once during three bleaching events of the past two decades, the most serious event occurring in 2016.

A fourth major bleaching struck later in 2017 after the Nature study was published.

Bleaching occurs when corals are stressed by unusual environmental changes, such as increased sea temperature. They respond by expelling the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing the coral to turn white. Without the algae, the coral loses its major source of food and often can't survive.

-CBS News

Coral can recover from bleaching events if their stressors are removed, but each successive event weakens the coral and can lead to death.

Nonetheless, the reef was amazing. There were so many visually distinct varieties of coral. It had a fractal-like quality; the more closely you looked, the more detail you saw.

The water was incredibly clear. The sunlight made the colors of the underwater world seem magical especially in the shallower areas. Calypso staff photographer Gary positioned us in one such photogenic spot for some pictures. At one point he suggested that we take our snorkels out to smile. I attempted this, but stupid me didn't keep my mouth closed when smiling, so I ended up inhaling some sea water and promptly coughing it out. Needless to say my snorkel-less photos were not keepers! While Craig was getting his photos taken, he was photobombed by a sixbar wrasse, a colorful reef fish.

We explored the reef, seeing parrotfish munching on the coral and watching the intricately decorated bluelined rabbitfish.

One of the most amazing things for us to see were the giant clams. We have never seen these in person before; they have huge shells, which are sometimes embedded in coral. Some of their shells even look indistinguishable from the coral and rock on which they sit. The inside of the clams is often a brilliant blue or turquoise color flecked with black. As with coral, the giant clam gets its coloration from algae. The more vibrant the color, the more healthy the clam.

They can live to be 100 years old in the wild and can weigh up to 200kg. When you swim over these clams, they sense the change in light and close up. They are absolutely fascinating! There are legends about their ability to devour humans, but there is no scientific evidence of this.

When our time was up at this spot, we got back onto the boat (the staircase is so much easier than a ladder!) While the captain set a course for our second snorkel spot, we went down to the galley to make a cup of tea and re-energize with some delicious freshly baked snack bars.

Our second snorkeling spot was equally impressive. We saw

parrotfish
giant clams
coral rabbitfish (yellow with orange spots)
ornate butterflyfish (yellow and white with black and orange stripes)
striped sweetlips (stripes on their body and spots on their tails and fins)
saddleback butterflyfish (yellow snout and a white body with a black back resembling a saddle)

There were some huge fish deep in the coral chasms. In the shallow water, the sun reflected so nicely, giving us a great view of all the natural colors around us.

As we got back onto the boat, we noticed some large fish hanging out under the stern.

We had lunch: sandwiches with cold cuts and some salads. We purchased soft drinks as well. In the galley, there was a poster of the lyrics to John Denver's ode to Jacques Cousteau's vessel, the namesake of this boat, "Calypso."

The crew gave a talk about marine life on the bow, and we listened in.

We saw a sea turtle from the boat, but we didn't see any when we were snorkeling.

By the time we went to our third snorkel spot, it was later in the day and the ocean was getting choppier.

We attempted to join a guided snorkel led by one of the boat crew. They were going to lead us off to follow some sharks and give us information about all of the marine life around us. However, we quickly aborted. There were too many people to make it effective. We were heading against the current, which made it difficult to keep up. We couldn't hear the information the crew were giving, and with so many people trying to go in the same direction all at once, we were inadvertently kicked in the face by other people's fins.

So we decided to snorkel on our own, as we had in the previous two locations. We preferred our independence anyway. The coral here seemed more bleached than in the other locations, but maybe it was just that it had turned cloudy so any colors appeared more muted.

Here we saw the oblique-banded sweetlips fish, which has yellow lips, yellow fins with black polkadots, and a body with black stripes and polka dots. We also saw more giant clams.

The current here was making my legs tired, and I was starting to get cold in the water. By this time, my waterproof camera had suffered a breach, and water had gotten into the lens. So any photos I tried to take here came out with moisture spots on them.

All in all, the third snorkel spot was a bit disappointing. This is not very surprising; snorkeling is almost always better early in the day. Once noon comes, conditions deteriorate.

Great Barrier Reef Snorkeling on the Calypso Blue

When we got back onto the boat, we felt the satisfied exhaustion of a day spent in the sun and sea. Craig had had the stamina to snorkel in all three locations, and it hadn't been hot enough to bother his MS. We also hadn't gotten seasick. We had seen the Great Barrier Reef up close and personal. It may not be what it once was, due to climatic conditions, but it was still a once in a lifetime experience.

As we cruised back to Port Douglas, we relaxed. The water was definitely rougher than on the way out; even the stable catamaran was pitching side to side a bit. Craig wanted a beer, and it was certainly too rough for him to move around and go downstairs to the bar. I carefully made my way to the staircase, choosing my route so as to avoid a young lady sunbathing laying on the deck. One false move and I could stomp on her face! There was nothing to hold onto and as the boat pitched, I was thrown into Forrest. We all had a good laugh!

I made it down to the galley and bought Craig a Hemingway's Brewery Pitchfork Betty's Pale Ale. Then I carefully made my way back to him.

I met with Gary the photographer to look at the photos that he had taken. He was very low key and didn't give me a hard sell. "I get paid whether you buy them or not." This seems to be pretty common in Australia; people are laid back and there's no real pressure. The photos looked great, so I bought digital copies on a USB drive. I did explain that my USB drive from the Sydney Bridge Climb was empty, and asked that he please be careful to make sure that the photos were actually on the drive. He laughed and said he would. He also stressed that if anything at all was wrong with the photos, we should contact Calypso.

The drives were shaped like fish, and options included a "Nemo" and a "Dory." I chose Nemo, but when Gary distributed the drives at the end of the trip, he had given me a Dory. He immediately offered to change it, but I decided that Dory was better anyway. We had seen Dory fish here (surgeonfish / blue tang), while we had not seen Nemo (clownfish). The photos were indeed present on the drive, as promised. In addition to the photos of us, it contained photos of marine life that he had taken today, as well as a directory of his best marine life shots from other trips.

When we arrived back at the wharf, we got onto the shuttle bus which took us back to the Mantra PortSea. Craig and I walked across the street to the bottle shop, where we bought some Lumber Yak cold brewed mountain cider and Hemingway's Doug's Courage IPA. We also bought some kettle cooked potato chips to contribute to tonight's dinner.

When we got back to the room, we enjoyed the air conditioning while relaxing and sipping our drinks. We took showers, and I realized that I had gotten a sunburn despite my liberal use of sunsecreen. I suppose that's one other advantage of wearing a wetsuit...less skin is exposed. Nonetheless, the burn wasn't that bad, and it was the only one that I suffered on this trip. I pretty much expect to get burned when snorkeling.

Our guide Britney is also a professional caterer; she really enjoys cooking for people. She had offered to cook us an Aussie barbie tonight, which we all thought was a lovely idea. We all chipped in money, and while we were snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, she bought supplies and prepared a lovely meal for us.

We gathered plates and silverware from the kitchenette of our respective rooms and met at the appointed time at one of the barbecue areas on the grounds of the hotel.

The table was already set with beautiful salads: pasta pesto salad, mango avocado salad, and Britney's grandmother's cole slaw. They were artfully presented, and Britney had made separate nut-, seed-, and dairy-free versions to accommodate people's dietary restrictions.

Britney lit the barbie and cooked chicken, lamb, kanga bangas (what a fun nickname for kangaroo bangers, or sausages), and veggie burgers. There was only one minor explosion, when the lighter fell onto the surface of the grill.

When the meat had finished cooking, we all sat down to share this meal which was prepared with so much love and care. It was a feast for the eyes as well as the palate. The flavors were incredibly complex, and as promised, Britney's grandmother's cole slaw was some of the best we have ever tasted.

We ate our fill (there was plenty of everything). There were even leftovers, which Britney gave to the hotel staff! And just when we thought things couldn't get any better, Britney emerged with mini-pavlovas and lamingtons (sponge cake dipped in chocolate and coconut) for dessert!

We were amazed that she had whipped up such an elaborate meal while we were playing in the ocean. She made it all seem so effortless, and it was clear that she really enjoyed herself. Talk about making more work for herself when she could have just taken a well-deserved rest. She is a multi-talented woman and we are so lucky to have her as a tour leader.

It was such a perfect way to cap off the day...we were all quite tired, and we didn't even need to leave the hotel to have an amazing home-cooked meal! Thank you so much, Britney!