The Great Barrier Reef - Day 1

On Sunday, I went SCUBA diving with Ben and his brother Pete. Harmony and Ben's mom and dad came along and snorkeled. We went with Tusa Dive Compay. They picked us up at 7AM at our resort, Kewarra, and took us to the docks at Cairns. We boarded a boat with about 20+ other people and proceeded about 90 minutes off the coast of Cairns to Briggs' Reef, on the Outer Great Barrier Reef. During the trip, we saw several Humpback Whales blowing air in the distance. I never actually saw one jump out of the water, but some people who saw them earlier than I did said one jumped several meters in the air. During the first dive, I was a little nervous since it has been over a year and a half since I last dove. After I calmed down and relaxed a bit, I remembered why I enjoy diving so much. The visibility was amazing, the coral was beautiful, and we saw many different types of fish. There was a large wall of coral that dropped about 60 feet. We spent some time along this wall, but the current was a little strong so we moved to shallower waters. During this first dive, the only larger thing we saw was a Green Sea Turtle. After the first dive, we had a nice lunch and moved the boat to a different side of this reef. The second dive was awesome. We saw 2 Whitetip Reef Sharks and the head of a large Octupus that was hiding in some rocks. We must have watched the reef sharks for a good 5 minutes. They were about 4-5 feet long and were just swimming around in circles. Both dives only lasted about 30-35 minutes as I managed to suck down all my air rather quickly. I am hopeful that I can control that better in the coming days. On the ride back, we came pretty close to another Humpback Whale. He did not jump out of the water but did show more of his body than the previous whales. The weather was wonderful -- we could not have asked for better. All in all, it was a great day! I'll try to post some pictures of this dive when I get the chance.