Great Barrier Reef

Sunday was spent on the great barrier reef, one of the natural wonders of the world. The reef stretches over 3,000 miles, but we were able to explore a small part of it. We had a nice tour via a catamaran out to the reef.

Once we arrived at our location we were free to explore via our snorkels and masks. I actually had a chance to do a little scuba diving which I hadn't done in years. It was fun to go down 20-30 feet and explore around the reef. I then joined Judy, Pop pop and the boys for snorkeling the rest of the day. Mee Maw decided it wasn't for her, but joined us on the boat and a small sandbar island.

We enjoyed lunch on the boat and an all day exploring. Part of the time we were able to go out on a small sandbar island which was underwater by the time we left because the tide had come back in.

Everyone enjoyed the snorkeling. Our first site, the water was a little deeper and had more reef to explore. At the second location the water was pretty shallow and you could explore around easily. The water in most places was probably 10-12 feet deep ... what was amazing is that we were about 25 nautical miles offshore. Because of the reef the water is very shallow is some areas ... its just amazing that the ocean is that shallow at that distance from shore.

We saw many colorful fish and coral. Zach and Andrew saw a stingray. I saw some giant clams ... these things were enormous ... probably 6 feet in diameter. I had never seen anything like those before. The water was just that beautiful south Pacific blue. This picture really does not do it justice.

On the way back, we crossed paths with another boat from the same company we were using. They proceeded to get into a water fight between the two boats, using a firehose to squirt water from one boat over to the other. Naturally, I had to participate a little and make sure that our hose didn't get kinked up ... allowing us to get maximum distance.

Everyone was worn out from the sun and the water. The temperature was probably about 90 degrees, but by being only 16 degrees away from teh equator where we were, the sun was really intense. I used the wetsuit that I had used for diving to help protect me from the sun part of the time, or I would have been fried to a crisp very quickly out there. With the sway of the boat as we crossed the ocean and the nice warm breeze blowing across the bow, it was easy to catch a little shut-eye on the way back in to port.