Day 201 (Sunday 29/05) - Great Barrier Reef - Diving Lessons 3 - Open Water 1

Wake up at 6:50am.
I take my breakfast with Emily, the German girl from the room (she's going on a tour today, so she's also up early).

I get picked up at 7:45am by the bus to go to the office where we have to check-in and receive our ticket to get onboard the boat (and drop my luggages).

After that, we head to the marina, where we embark on the Sea Quest, a boat from the company.

The boat leaves the marina and goes to the sea.

After 1.5h cruising (I almost got sea sick, but was ok), we stop at a site where we will do some snorkeling (diving only with a tuba, a mask and fins).

There we swim around, already seeing many wonderful things in the water.
The water temperature is perfect, the visibility under water is incredible, and everything is so beautiful ... (corals, fishes, shells, etc.)

After this snorkel, we get back on boat, and after a quick briefing by Olaf, we put our gear on, and get ready for our first dive in the sea !

During the dive, we have a set of exercices to accomplish to see if we're capable.
(establishing buoyancy, cramp removal, exchange from scuba to regulator 5 times at surface, remove and replace the scuba at the surface, remove and replace the weight belt at surface, emptying our mask of the water that is in it while geing underwater, swimming around while staying at the same depth, etc.)
We all manage to do the exercices well, and go for a bit swimming around.
It's fabulous ...

One of the first fish we see is Nemo (the Anemonefish), but we also see many other species, it's just unbelievable !
We also see some Lion Fishes, an Elephant Trunk Fish, and a White-Banded Cleaner Shrimp, it's really cool ! (as we put our hand on a rock, the shrimp comes on it and starts cleaning it, eating the dead skin ... Really cool !
(dive at 12m deep)

We then get back on board the ship for lunch (self service cold buffet).

After lunch, we get ready for our second dive.
This dive is more relaxed, we have less exercices and more exploring.
We still have to do the emergency exercice where we use the regulator of our buddy and go together to the surface slowly.
Appart from that, once again, we swim around, seeing fantastic things all around ...
The feeling of floating in the water, surrounded by all these beautiful things is fabulous ... There's no word to describe it.
(again, we go at 12m deep)

When back on boat, we have to get our stuff ready, as we're going to be transfered to Ocean Quest, a much bigger boat than Sea Quest, on which we will stay for two nights.

We move to a different site, called "Sharks Playground" (nice name ;-) ).
Once there, after the security briefing, we put our things in our cabins.
I have a cabin for myself.

Soon, we get back in the water for our 3rd dive.
This time, we have to do the CESA (heading up to the surface when we're out of oxygen in a secured way).
Again we go exploring ... Amazing.
(once again, we go down to 12m)

I am now a certified diver (but not yet ready to go in the open water - I still need to do some more dives).

For dinner, we have a huge warm buffet, with many delicious meals ...
It's really nice.

There's also a desert, some apple crumble with ice cream.

In the evening, we chill on the deck with the others, watching the sunset, and the fishes around the boat (as well as sharks !).

Olaf stays with us. He is really cool, an excellent teacher, and a really interesting and funny guy.

We go to bed quite early as tomorrow will be a long day.