Lass the boat, and Reef the Great

Our journey to the sea started on a boat named the Solway Lass, a schooner built in 1902 with and amazing history (click link to read). This ship was not designed to carry people, and even after a redesign in the 1990s, its 102’ was jam packed with 32 passengers and 6 crew. It is what they call a Tall Ship, and sailing on her was quite an experience. The plan of the trip was to take us around to some of the endless beautiful beaches for snorkeling and sun bathing. These things were good fun, but just being on the ship was a great experience. Some of the features of the boat were; no privacy, little to no personal space, shared, tiny bathrooms and showers, and the funk of being constantly damp. In fact the key words about the boat were shared and tiny! The down side to this was of course that things were a bit cramped as well as a bit stinky at times! The up side was that every meal, snorkeling, trip to the bathroom or simply sitting in the shade meant you met someone new. It quickly coalesced into a feeling of family of sorts. This was quite nice and meant lots of opportunity to get to know our fellow travelers, all of whom had interesting stories of their own to tell. It was a far cry from what most of us think about when we think about taking a cruise, and that was what made it so much fun. Also, I would be remise if I didn’t mention the food. It was not only homemade, delicious and plentiful, but the cook made special veggie meals for me!

Our cabin was shared by the 3 of us and 3 of our closest friends, who we just met. It was in the very bow of the boat, no windows, no ventilation, and after a few days it was more then a bit musty! The boat also included a rope swing, which we all thoroughly enjoyed (see picture of Bayard in mid flight from yesterday). The Solway’s course took us in and around the Witsundays islands. The islands were named by Capt. Cook as he believed it was Whitsunday when he discovered them, although the joke was on him as he had crossed the date line and it was really Whitmonday. After 3 days on the Solway, we had reservations to jump over to the Andacona III, a sleek and modern sailboat. While still a bit tight at 101 feet, unlike the Solway, it had been designed for passengers, and in comparison it was like a luxury hotel. Stairs down to the water, bathrooms in each room, big air conditioned cabin with TV, very nice. The down side was that for some reason the family spirit never took root. We had a new group of about the same size, but I doubt if we talked to more then a quarter of them. It wasn’t unfriendly, just somehow never got much past hello.

The good news was that this boat took us out to the Great Barrier Reef. We had seen some nice stuff on the first boat, colorful coral, lots of fish, good stuff really. But all of it at been off the beach of little islands, which limited it’s size, and technically was not part of the barrier reef. Unlike the Rio Grande, the Great Barrier Reef earns its name! It is stunning to the point of being indescribable. The reef lies a good 30km (20 miles) off the shore, and so there is nothing visibly obvious that tells you that you’ve arrived, but you start noticing that there are waves breaking in the middle of the ocean ahead of you. Then you see these very light colored patches in the water. Upon looking a bit closer you notice that some of these light patches stretch as far as you can see, which is quite a ways.

These patches are giant coral reefs. The ocean floor is a good 20 to 30 meters deep, but the reefs create giant islands that reach within a couple feet of the surface. We anchored for the night near Bait Reef, and in the morning it was time to hit the water. Wet suits are required as it’s deadly jellyfish season here. They took us out in tenders (small outboard motor boats) and dropped us off at the far end of the reef edge so that the current would carry us back to the boat. You commando style roll backwards off the side of the tender, hit the water, put your snorkel into place and dip your head into the water to see what lays below. ‘Holy crap’ is your first though. We’ve all seen pictures of the reef, and they are amazing, but like most pictures they don’t do justice to the true beauty and awe of a place. Fish everywhere. GIANT fish. Fish of more colors and types then you could imagine. A sea turtle swims by and everyone gets excited. Literally mountains of coral.

You feel afraid of heights if you drift off the main coral as the sea floor is 25 feet below and the water is so clear. Giant sea slugs on the ocean floor. BIGGER fist. Coral in every color of the rainbow, and every shape and pattern imaginable. Baby jellyfish in giant clouds. And still more and different fish. Fish eating coral, fish cleaning other fish, fish eating other fish. Truly amazing. We spent the entire day in the water!

After the initial wow factor wears off a bit, you do start to realize that something is wrong though. As amazing as everything is, you start realizing that it’s not as amazing as it once was. There are large patches of white (dead) coral, patches of coral covered with weird gunk looking stuff. When you really look for it, you realize the most colorful spots are at best 75% alive, while the average is closer to 50%, and some spots are nothing but white. I think I’m glad I’ve come when I have, as much longer it’s hard to say how much will be left.

Today we spent the day on an 11 hr bus trip from Airlie Beach traveling north to Cairns. We hope to see some crocodiles and rain forest in the Cairns area, and then we have a plane flight scheduled back to Sydney in 2 days.