Australia - Part Three - Dive drama

Signed in at the diving desk in the Reef Fleet Terminal about 7:14 and were first in line – grabbed our boarding passes and headed to the boat, where we had to wait to board. The Down Under Diving ENCOUNTER leaves earlier than yesterday’s boat – but they were just a tad behind this morning.  After loading up supplies, they escorted us up to a nice booth to fill out our paperwork and check our dive cards (apparently there are only 5 certified divers in the 80 customers on board). We grabbed fins and a snorkel, set them in our assigned locker and helped ourselves to coffee and a muffin.

Again, we skipped breakfast – and were again VERY grateful for having done so when the puke fest began. I felt so bad for these people for not being taught by their dive instructor about BONINE – if you’re on the boat, you’ve waited too long to take it!  The sea was rough again, though not as bad as yesterday, and the boat was filled with snorkelers of all ages - all of whom were congregating on the back of the boat vomiting into little baggies handed out by the crew.

Our dive master today was Indy, a tiny little Australian gal with long brown hair and a great smile. She told us our trip didn’t include a dive master – so we were welcome to jump in when the boat stopped and look around, or we could pay $10/dive for her services. This was WEIRD to me as I've never been on a dive boat that didn't include a dive leader – but since we knew nothing about the reef, we quickly agreed to the cost – wanting to see the highlights on our last day of diving.

We got ready VERY early because I hate being yelled at. Let's just say that cramming my carcass into a wetsuit is neither a graceful nor a quick task.  The weird thing was nobody helped. Usually, the dive master will help make sure you’re good to go, turn your air on – nope, not here. During the briefing, she even said – turn on your own air (which I did) and check on your buddy. So it was a very different experience than yesterday. 

Jumped into the water correctly weighted down today, but visibility was not nearly as good as yesterday. Still beautiful – but didn’t get to see any more of the beautiful purple fish I was hoping to capture with my rented camera. Didn’t see ANY giant clams (amazing!) which was a highlight of yesterday.  Got some pictures, had a lovely 45-minute dive and then headed back up to the boat – only to find it covered with 80 snorkelers sitting on the steps everywhere, blocking the ladders, unwilling to move so I COULD GET on the boat. I tried swimming over to the other side – no luck and got bonked on the head pretty badly by the boat as it bobbed up and down. I descended again to the safety line and sat there wondering what to do, when someone grabbed the back of my tank and dragged me to the ladder. I think it was indy. When I got to the ladder, I struggled to pull myself up with my bad knee and all the extra weight I was carrying to balance my buoyancy. I made it up the ladder but still had to make it up the steps to the scuba deck – which were covered entirely by resting snorkelers. I finally just said, “move please.” “move please. “move please” “I need the rail to get up the stairs, move please.” And found Damian already removing his gear at the top.

I was so frustrated. I felt completely unsafe, and had a massive headache from being hit with the boat.

Damian noticed that something was wrong – he said I was just sitting there staring off into space. I don’t remember anything but NEEDING the safety of having my gear bungied into the spot. I was literally shaking from shock. From fear. From anger. Once my gear was in place, I made a beeline for the safety of our booth upstairs and began crying. 

The dive master came up and asked if I was okay, and I just kept repeating, “I'm okay. I’m okay. I’m okay. But I wasn’t. I finally calmed down enough to tell 
her what happened – she said they are supposed to keep the left landing clear for the scuba folks – but that didn’t happen. And I told her I felt completely unsafe diving in these conditions. She asked what she could do – I told her to take Damian out for an amazing dive, but I didn’t want to risk an injury on our second day of vacation – especially with my VIP day at Australia zoo coming up. So I turned in the camera, ate some lunch, and helped Damian into his gear (and some other random guy, since the staff wasn’t helping anyone) and then went upstairs to blog – but instead ended up taking a nap again.  The drama of everything just wiped me out emotionally and physically.

We got safely back to the dock and went straight upstairs for showers and room service. Except, I couldn’t figure out how to call an Australian number from my cell phone. I’m not kidding.  Damian, my sweet companion, volunteered to go downstairs and order food to go. We had some authentic Italian pizza and weird bruchetta and went to sleep around 7. Slept relatively soundly for about 12 hours, not counting the interruptions of Damian’s phone going off, Damian’s alarm going off, and my bladder needing multiple trips to the toilet.