Conneticut to the Coral Sea

Judy Haynie

by Judie Haynie,

Old Broad's Dive Club

I first met Mike Ball in Connecticut on a cold winter night in January 2007. Snow was piled up about three feet, around the local dive shop. About thirty of us ventured out to hear about diving Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. And we weren’t disappointed. His presentation to the dive club stirred the imagination, and raised the desire to make a journey to that far off land down under. There was no question about it, we were going to Australia.

Old Broads Dive Club posted the trip, and we signed on... Finally November 16 arrived and we were off to Australia for three weeks. Our fellow travelers included the Huessners, the Blythes, and Sal from Rochester, NY. I don’t know anyone who relishes a 15 hour flight; however, the trip to Brisbane was unusually comfortable. Qantas flight was half empty, so Tony and I had room to spread out and really sleep. We cleared customs and caught a flight to Cairns (pronounced Cans) where we would begin the fun. First night was spent at the magnificent Shangri-La Hotel, right on the water front. Our rooms overlooked a large Marina full of luxurious yachts. A good night’s sleep and we were raring to go.

We were picked up at the hotel with all luggages in tow. Once at the Mike Ball land office we stowed luggage that wasn’t needed for the diving, signed release forms, and got a warm welcome from the office staff. The vessel Spoil Sport was going to be home to four OBDC members and our three Sherpa’s, along with twenty other divers from around the world.

The Spoil Sport, a one hundred foot Catamaran with, twenty-eight passenger capacity was our triple decker home for an over the top week of diving, marvelous eating, and meeting some veryinteresting people. Day one started mid afternoon, when we settled in, got our emergency briefing, and unpacked dive gear. Shortly after, we cast off for the Great Barrier Reef. Our week long odyssey would take us nearly 700 Nautical Miles out into the Coral Sea, then back to the Ribbon Islands...

We saw a lot of fish, but they didn’t seem to be as concentrated as we’ve seen in other areas of the world. Perhaps because we were quite far off the coast, and there was a lot of reef for the little guys to hide in. The reef was perfectly gorgeous. Very diversified and healthy looking, including very large coral growth sprinkled about with Giant Clams. Nowhere did we see signs of coral bleaching. We could do five dives a day if we so desired. The fifth dive was a night dive, which started right around sunset. I did one night dive with three Australians as dive buddies. It was thrilling, as we were surrounded by giant Trevallies. Everywhere we shone our light there was a hunt in progress. The big fish used us to find prey. Two of my dive buddies were old friends who had been diving Australian waters for years. The third, Sandra, was a lovely young Tasmanian woman who was relatively new to the sport of SCUBA. Sandra and I were happy to be sandwiched between two very experienced guys, Marc and Adrian, while we swam with the Trevallies.

Our three daily dives were always a treat. We were able to dive with many different crew members. My favorite dives with Captain Larry, and Ship’s Engineer, Brendon were some of the best in my years of diving. Captain Larry liked to take a nearly empty bottle of water down below, where he would squeeze it to produce a sound of a distressed fish. We would always see sharks out in the deep when we dove with the Captain. One particular dive, Fast Eddies, started deep, but then he took us up a channel through a beautiful swim thru, and into very shallow water. We saw countless numbers of Dot Dash butterfly, Napoleon wrasse, and Titan trigger fish.
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Diving Cod Hole, Brendon treated us to a big Potato Cod up close and personal. The Potato Cod are large fish, and very dominant predators on the reef. Brendon lured them close to us by sprinkling the water with small bits of “fish food”. Two big Cods swam around and around us for the several minutes. All the divers got to experience the large creatures swimming close yet never touching any of us.

Snake Pit was an interesting dive site. As you would expect from the name it was full of sea snakes. I’ve seen snakes in the Philippians and in Fiji, but nothing like the Australian Olive Green Snakes. These big snakes were the size of Cobras, and there were a lot of them. Their big paddle tail propelled them through the water quite quickly and efficiently. They would cruise along in and out of the holes in the reef. Just when you thought you’d seen the last of one, you’d look down or to the side and a big one would be swimming right past you. Steve Blythe got several really good photos, as he was daring enough to swim right next to them, inches from their heads. Yikes!! They weren’t aggressive.

Day 4 Shark dive. Our tour Director, Kerrin, could have been cast in Monty Python. His morning wakeup call at 6:15 AM, ”wakey wakey” always made us groan or laugh. His dive briefings were superb. When we saw him preparing to be the shark feeder, with chain mail gloves I had to do a double take. The dive started when we were all lead to a spot on the reef at North Horn. We were told not to move from the reef until Kerrin gave us the all clear. A bucket with food was lowered and Kerrin was suppose to pull the lid off so the fish could get to the food. For some reason the lid just wouldn’t come off. Kerrin must have spent seven to ten minutes struggling with the bucket before the lid popped open. By that time there were about forty Whitetip and Grey Reef Sharks circling as well as one big Potato Cod. Frenzy ensued once the top was off... A fish head was hanging on the chain supporting the bucket. Sharks and Cod alike had a go at trying to rip it off and carry off the prize. We were treated to quite a show.

Five days into the trip I developed a leak in my high pressure hose and had to abort a dive called Pixie Garden. The crew quickly diagnosed the problem, and proceeded to change out my Computer with the bad line for one of their spare gauges. Sadly I sat that dive out, because as the last divers returned to the boat they said there was a Manta Ray down below doing flips for their entertainment. Several of our fellow Italian divers made video clips, and indeed the Manta seemed to be there for their pleasure. Tony was thrilled as he was the first to spot it and enjoyed watching it for some time.

The last day of diving we anchored off Steve’s Bommie. Wasn’t named for Steve Erwin, but another intrepid soul remembered by his friends. Steve’s Bommie was a beautiful site, and was so elected to do two dives there. Tucked into the reef were several large Rock Fish, and we were fortunate to spot a Leaf Scorpion Fish. Nudibranch’s galore, White tip and Grey Reef sharks cruising about and at the very top a lot of Clown Anemone. Second dive Brendon was our guide. Tucked away in the reef Tony spotted a pair of Woebegone. I’d never seen such a strange looking shark. Brendon found a large Octopus that put on quite a display. As we rounded the Bommie, the ships’ photographer, Julia, was there with video camera. Earlier Julia had asked me if I’d ever waltzed under the sea. She and Brendon had planned a little surprise. Brendon took my hand and twirled me around and around as Julia captured on video. I found myself having a little dance down under. What a hoot!! The dive ended after spotting several more Anemones with different species of Anemone fish, many different trigger fish, including a Clown Triggerfish, and I pet a little Sharp nose Puffer.

The Mike Ball live aboard was a wonderful experience! The food was fantastic and the company delightful. The crew, all twelve of them, worked so hard to make sure we would have a fun filled experience and great diving. Having really good people and the good sense to locate a business in one of the ocean’s finest diving areas makes it easy to see why the Mike Ball Live Aboard is regarded as one of the best in the world.

We will remember the experience and hopefully be back to enjoy it another time.

Liveaboard Scuba Diving on the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea

Judy Haynie

by Judie Haynie,

Old Broad's Dive Club