Wow. The live aboard ship experience is literally a life changer. It was only for one night so all my dives were one right after another. 6 dives in total and a snorkel boom boom boom. Each dive was 40 beautiful, magical minutes where I turned into a badass mermaid. It took me the first two dives to get into my groove. I was having trouble equalizing and this dive trip was my first time diving outside of my certification dives but after that I was good.
The reef was phenomenal. Words can’t describe the life that was all around me. 15 meters of bright coral, “Nemos,” “Dorys,” Turtles(!), Sharks(!), and so many colorful parrot fish. It was so cool to hear the parrot fish biting the coral. I saw a reef shark on every single dive and a turtle on about half of them. I even fed one turtle on one of my last dives. The other cool part of the dive series was the night dive.
It was so dark out in the middle of the ocean and we were throwing pork chops off the side of the boat and there were about three reef sharks darting around in the black water. Basically I jumped into shark infested waters. Ugh but it was so awesome. The torchlight pierced through the water and illuminated a good circle of reef. The funny/creepy part was the giant black tuna that started hunting in the light. At first there weren’t that many but by the end of the dive there were at least a dozen. The rest of the dive was so calm. Beady red shrimp eyes lit up in the coral and we accidentally woke up a sea turtle and it had to go up for air. If you can ignore the sharks, it felt like being in a womb maybe. Black, calm, and floating. It was really peaceful.
10/10 would dive again. Underwater footage coming soon!!
Reef Encounter– Great Barrier Reef live board trips
-Angela