North Queensland - Day 10

And so to our second, and more focussed trip to the Outer Reef. It was Agincourt again, and with the same Company - Quicksilver. This time though it was 80 people on a high speed Catamaran, and instead of berthing at a pontoon for the day it made 3 roughly 2 hour each stops at places of interest. The focus here was also much more on diving with the snorkellers as hangers on.

The first stop was excellent, with the usual myriad supply of beautiful fish. We even managed to find our own Giant Clam, with Caitlin now practised enough to dive down and touch it. I really hope she retains these memories and they don't fade as she moves through adolesence.

Sharon and I took turns supporting Ciara, who was just about beginning to get the hang of the snorkel. One of the highlights for Ciara was when one of the crew started throwing bits of fish off the back of the semi submerged platform at the back of the boat. When our very own pet Maori Wrasse appeared, all 5 feet of him, Ciara initially had the "we're gonna need a bigger boat" look from Roy Schneider in Jaws, but quickly settled down to stroking this monster as it hung around the boat for 10 mins.

The second dive site was a bit more challenging, requiring a fair amount of swimming to see around. There was also a drop off with a pinnacle rising about 60 feet up and we were assured there were Barracuda here. In the end I just spotted some but couldn't quite get down to their depth. The fish were again good when you could find them, and it's where I took most of our photos (having now worked out how to use an underwater camera - http://www.flickr.com/photos/36445314@N08/sets/72157622387117133/), however you could feel family fatigue beginning to kick in.

The 3rd and final drop was becoming a swim too far for us. We started moving through a gap in the reef to the open Ocean, the boat rocking in the heavy Ocean Swell. The top divers were dropped off here in a very military style operation: 1 after another dropped off the back of the boat until a line of 15 bobbing people could be seen snaking out in a line.

We then back through the gap and settled against the reef for the next hour. The swimming though was fairly brief. Sharon and Caitlin went with the guided tour, but there were about 15 people instead of the 4 we had on the previous trip and they cut it short. There was also a heavy current to contend with, coming through the break in the reef a few hundred metres away.

An hour later the open Ocean divers caught up with us, and a tired group headed for home, with some great pictures and memories.