Our first dives on the Great Barrier Reef. The trip began with a well-organized pick-up from the hotels and a very scenic flight from Cairns up the coast to Lizard Island where we caught the dive boat as the 3-day people departed. Oh, and yes, a monitor lizard did cross our paths as we walked from the landing area to the beach where we piled into tenders and were zipped to the dive boat where we will live for the next four days. We’ve been on other dive vessels and to be honest, while this one is nice, it doesn’t have some of the amenities that we are accustomed to, although it’s nothing that we can’t adjust to. There were two dives today on a part of the Great Barrier Reef with some of the fish we hadn’t seen since being in Fiji and our first time to see a bearded cuttle fish. I didn’t see it initially when the dive master wrote it on her slate, but I was looking for something smaller. It was about four times the size of what I was expecting and once I focused on it, it was an interesting variation on the cuttlefish that I had previously seen. Clown fish, of course, and husband saw a reef shark that I missed (didn’t bother me to miss it). It is amazing how many types of fish are found in warm waters all over the world – the rainbow parrotfish being a great example. They are throughout the Caribbean, Florida, and the South Pacific. On to those that we don’t get though – triggerfish (infrequent for us), unicorn fish, some additional varieties of angel fish, and then those that we can’t identify. They have a book on board for reference, but there are two factors to consider. First, is that despite all the effort of researchers, you can’t include all the fish in a book. There are simply too many. Also, juveniles of a species often look very different as they pass through one or more distinct phases in becoming an adult and so their appearance can change dramatically. Unfortunately, visibility was reduced today due to some recent winds and there is a better forecast for tomorrow. There was a lovely sunset, however.

There is quite an international mix of passengers – Australian, English, Spanish, German, French, Danish, American, and naturally, a mostly Australian crew. We haven’t met everyone yet, mostly the four day people as we had the transit time together. There is normally (as seems to be the case here), a group dynamic of “we already know each other”, and it will be interesting to see how long it takes to have full interaction. I imagine that will begin tomorrow. Oh, no photos for a bit because of connectivity issues. Sorry, but those will come.