FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: From Sunrise to Sunset

Sunrise dive. Apparently a great time to dive as the reef wakes up

Amy with the kids

Starts off pitch black and then brightens as the sun rises

The children were so into diving that they were up and ready for the sunrise dive well before their wake-up call from Amy, and then proceeded to wake us up…so much for a sleep in for me! The rest of the morning was a whirlwind of dives for the Mal and the kids, who completed their 3rd by 11am. The boat had moved to Hastings Reef for the 1030 water session. I had established a routine of lazy leisurely solo snorkels on a bright pink noodle. I would not snorkel any other way now!

Lunch was a surprisingly tasty chickpea salad with grilled chicken. Mal and the children had to study for the theory part of the course and so I had a nap. Afternoon tea was my personal favourite of sweet potato fries. Life was good.

The boat had moved again to a new dive site, “Twin Peaks” of Saxon reef. We opted for a marine biology tour snorkel. Amy led pulling a floatation device behind her so we can hang on while she gives the spiel on what we were seeing. A green turtle swimming amongst us was the highlight! He came within half of metre of us! It was a tough act seeing as the wildlife was colourful and abundant. It really was THE best snorkel excursion we’ve done. Having Amy there helped a lot. We didn’t have to worry about navigation, we knew what we were looking and why they were interesting or cool, and we didn’t have to worry about drowning.

A reward for exercising at sunrise...breakfast!

0830...time for dive number 2 of the day

Thanks photographer for snapping the snorkeler as well!

Trumpet fish seen on our "marine biology" snorkel tour

I'm not sure that being underwater helps with being photogenic...

Lunch. A very yummy salad. Looks are deceiving!

By now, the cold and tiredness had claimed Jonah as a victim who opted out of the night dive. Lara and Malcolm soldiered on! Jonah and I stayed dry and enjoyed hot drinks onboard. Here is the account from of the night dive from Mal:

The night dive was spectacular. The big boys of the reef certainly came out to play. There were lots of reef sharks (half of them bigger than Jonah) but we expected them, and they glided past us without inducing any anxiety. The giant trevally (GT) were probably harmless, but they took some getting used to. We swam through plenty of schools of tiny fish with hundreds of GTs dashing around trying to eat them. Lara and I both tucked our fingers in although Amy didn’t seem to worry. They often swam at full speed right towards us then turned away at the last minute. Occasionally they’d bump into a fin – they seemed to just be annoyed that we were a thing in the way rather than showing any particular aggression. After the initial shock of jumping into a feeding frenzy we swam around and were able to really enjoy the greyscale, eerie wonders of the night-time reef. The little fish trying to hide were ridiculously cute… never thought I’d say that about a puffer fish! It was made even more wonderful, by being welcomed by hot towels, straight from the dryer, as soon as we were back on the boat – thanks Amy!

There was no rest for the wicked. Amy pushed the divers through the last theory session before they sat their exam. Young Jonah top scored the exam with heavy complaining that he would have got a perfect score if Mal hadn't led him astray on one question...and with that the children were officially drained of all energy!