Sailing & Diving the GBR

So we had a 4-day long weekend for Easter. The Australians do it right, they take Good Friday and Easter Monday off even though general secularism is increasing in Australia. Anyways, I flew up to Cairns with a friend from work Thursday after work, overnighted at the Hilton overlooking the marina, and then boarded our boat at 8am Friday.

Here is our sailing vessel, the Santa Maria, built in the tradition of Caribbean rum runners from the 1800's. It was actually built in 1982 by a father-son combination in New Caledonia.

Here she is in action:

Here she is at meal time (with me sucking in my gut):

And then the diving began. We did 8 dives in the 3 days were aboard, including another night dive. Overall, the visibility was great and I think the highlight for me were the 3 sharks we saw as well as the interesting shapes, cracks, nooks, and crannies of the bommies we explored along the Great Barrier Reef. I still think Sharm El Sheik in the Red Sea was the best diving I've done to date the GBR that I've seen so far is impressive, although I can't claim to have seen the best it has to offer. Here are some underwater pics our dive master took along the way.

At one point we dove/swam through a massive "android" colony... they sort of look like jelly fish but are totally harmless. But there were so many of them it was like swimming into that jello dessert with the fruit suspended in it, whatever that's called.

At night, after dinner, we delved into the cask wine. We even had an official blind taste testing to see who could identify the various brands. The shirtless Swede won this round...

We arrived back in Cairns Sunday arvo, showered up, then joined the crew for 2 for 1 happy hour at a joint on the marina. From there we headed to the Woolshed for some (in)famous $8 steaks. After dinner the Woolshed turns into a full-on casual/backpacker'esque club complete with dancing on the tables and bars, of which I participated gleefully and thankfully there is no pictorial evidence.

I sort of wish we went here though... anywhere that advertises Beer, Steak, and Good Times is tops in my books.

The next day (Easter Monday) we bumbed around the town before our flight back to Brissie. Eventually ended up at the mall and were delighted to stumble upon Melville's Farm petting zoo with some funky ass chickens.

And how better to close out a weekend of diving and sailing than with an eight minute go on the mall's ever popular massage chairs? Good times. Erin appears to enjoying the massage chair a little too much...