Diving Wrecks and Catching Dreams 

Diving Wrecks and Catching Dreams

Have just got back to land after spending 2-3 days / 2 nights on Dreamcatcher and having a great time with crew and fellow passengers. The weather was varied from brilliant sunshine to a brief storm last night (but that merely added to the fun and the excitement especially as our esky never seemed to run out of beer and wine). Tried my hand at maritime navigation and steering - no problems there and went snorkling and exploring around the beautiful uninhabited beaches of the Whitsundays. The food provided onboard the boat was top notch, the only complaint would be it did get a bit hot below deck at night (still 27-28 degress at night with high humidity, Mel ended up sleeping on deck both nights). I would recommend the experience to anyone - Click here for info.

Previous to our nautical adventures in the Whitsundays we went to Townsville and Magnetic island for a night each and squeezed in between a good couple of dives on the SS Yongala Wreck (see here for details). During the 2 dives Mel and I completed the Naturalist (that means we studied the sub-aqua ecosystem, not that we dived in the nude!!!) and Wreck divers components of the PADI Advanced qualification. We now need to do the Deep Dive, Navigation Dive and one more to apply for advanced diver status. I was told that Deep Dive apparently is only >20m and not >30m as I previously thought - this should be straightforward as we have already dived to 28m on several occasions. Although I believe >30m would be better in order to learn the correct decompression procedures needed below this depth.

Off to Fraser Island tomorrow evening (catching the overnight bus) for a 2 day/1 night tour of this strange and unusual island. Then onto Brissy, where will probably be my next blog. Still trying to arrange the trip to the Cook Islands from NZ, but due to lack of phone reception at sea and time-differences have yet to finialise this.

Out tonight to a bar down the road for loads of drinks with our new friends from the DreamCatcher. Have also lots of photos of Perth, Red Centre still to upload but may wait until New Zealand to sort this out as the schedule is so hectic at the moment - please be patient. TTFN.