Lower levels:
Wombats
Hats and Fillies
Feeding Frenzy

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When it comes to Fishes - some are curious, others defensive, and some are plain hungry.  Most are beautiful, some are downright Ugly.

On the motley ship Aquarius 3, Iso and I went to meet all three varieties, in abundance. However, we also met a few whacko characters into the bargain.

On stepping aboard, we were greeted by our hosts who numbered as many as the passengers due to a freak lull in bookings that week.  This lull worked to our benefit in that we gained a stateroom rather than bunks below decks at short notice.

My first 'chat' was with two Scottish gents, Mark and Willie.  The former quiet and reserved, the latter chatty and ostentatious. In fact, I could not understand a word Willie spoke owing in large part to his extreme Scottish accent plus his habit of giggling inanely at his own incomprehensible jokes. I later learnt that Mark could not understand a word either... 

Our other passengers included Eva from America - a dive master who was being chased by multiple men, and allowing them to catch her - Jan, who we nicknamed 'yawn' in a wicked moment and a Slovak called Vlad "az in ze impaler".  The crew consisted of tuna killer dive-master Sonny, Paul the foul tempered video man, Mick the Chef and womanising Maori and a lecherous old sea dog called Dave Cooper as Captain.

Heading out of Cairns, we travel overnight into the Coral Sea to the edge of the Barrier Reef and a particular spot known as Holmes Reef.  Whether there is a Watson Reef I'm not sure, but Morriatti Reef definitely was not on the ships electronic chart.

At around 7am, seven bleary eyed eco-tourists suited up, completed buddy checks and took a giant stride off the back of the boat and into the clear waters over a dive site known simply as 'Amazing'.  Even the most hardened sceptic would have difficulty disagreeing with the sites designation.

That day we did four dives and, after a just one beer slept soundly until the following dawn when the process was repeated - this time four day dives and one night.

Over the next several days and evenings we dived sites with highly discriptive names such as 'Cathedral', 'Abyss', 'Floral Gardens', 'Turtles Graveyard', and 'Predators Playground' plus some less obviously named such as 'Wals Wall' and 'Nonki'.  Each dive was subtly different and fin by fin we got to see all of the common 'fishes' we should have plus some less common.

A lot of my time was spent learning the PADI advanced diver course while Iso formed a girly relationship with Eva and got all the gossip (a surprising amount in fact) on what the other passengers and crew were up too.  Much of this revolved around Mick the Chef and her and their clandestine under and over water activities - sordid stuff which lasted exactly three days beyond the end of the trip.

Meanwhile, Willie continued to communicate by repeating everything three times to his victims (before they gave up saying pardon and just conceded an agreement).

From time to time the boys threw a fishing line out and ran the boat up and down the line of the reef - with some considerable success.  On day two Eva had the pleasure of pulling a Giant Trevally out of the blue. And the next day Sonny hauled in a monster 35kg Tuna which rapidly became Sushi for us (delicious) and shark bait for our penultimate dive.

Having 'mastered' this diving malarkey by the end of the week, our underwater manoeuvres were becoming increasingly bold - gliding close to the coral and rising and sinking effortlessly over precipices.  Swim throughs (going under overhangs or through caves) were becoming more frequent. But the last dive, I confess, included one swim through too many - we followed Eva and Micks path into a cave and found ourselves with three choices - safely back, or suicidally left or right.  Iso chose the former and disappeared through a dog leg left which looked way to small...

Unsure of her fate, and being a good buddy I followed her.  She'd made it through but I discovered that I am a little wider and larger perhaps than she. My passage was a series of close scrapes. Now while I did not (thankfully) get stuck, bits of equipment did - I slowly untangled hoses from rocks and breathed out to squeeze the tank through the gap.  When I emerged, in a small cloud of white sediment, I was covered in white skid marks.  Paul, our video man, had seen the whole thing and wagged an accusing finger. Naughty boy and girl...  We cleaned up underwater and whistled on the way back on board innocently...

Then all too soon we found ourselves heading back to Cairns - and it really was all to soon for Mark and Vlad who had booked to continue a further week on board.  As had Willie, but then that was no great surprise really as this had been his sixth trip in a row...

For Iso and I, it was not quite time to say goodbye either - in a drunken moment at the Cock and Bull - the post trip pub - we agreed to join Captain Cooper and WIllie at the Horse Races the next day.

And that's another story.

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