Somewhere in the Great Barrier Reef, QLD – 7 January 2011 at 10pm
Kansas City, USA – January 7, 2011 at 6am
Kansas City, USA – January 7, 2011 at 6am
Today I left a little piece of me in the Pacific Ocean ……….… my guts.
I woke up at about 5:15am...wasn’t feeling sick but took a motion sickness tablet at 5:30am just to be on the safe side…Ross started the boat around 5:35am…we were headed out to sea by 5:50am.
I was hanging overboard puking my guts out by 6:30am. Classy.
Picture it…I’m in the kitchen making coffee. The waters are so rough due to all the rain and flooding that I’m literally in a basketball defensive position, legs wide, knees bent, butt low, arms spread trying to stabilize myself as I add milk to Ross’ coffee. At this point I’m feeling okay. I drank a few sips of coffee myself and then I realize I’m starting to get a little nauseous and a slight headache. I was in the front part of the boat (or bow for you boaties) so I go out on the back “veranda” (or stern) where it is less rocky and to get some fresh air. Paul is sitting out there also and informs me he is not feeling so great either. He goes on to tell me that he gets seasick (nauseous) on every boat he has ever been on but he just deals with it because he loves the ocean so much. He suggests I hang out there until we get to more ‘smooth waters’…in about 2 hours…oh geeze.
Ross takes notice and makes me some toast to help settle my stomach. I eat the toast because at this point I’m really starting to feel sick and start to think maybe I should have something in my stomach to go with the tablet I took earlier.
Then…
There she blows…literally. Minutes later I’m hanging over the port side of the boat praying that Ross is not watching this on the overhead camera (what a disaster…I’m sure he is thinking, “who invited this nutty American anyway?”) and making sure I do not get any vomit on the side of this brand new 3.5 million dollar boat that just touched water in November.
I felt like I was in a giant washing machine on the maximum cycle.
Ahhh, relief. I feel so much better after that little saga.
Ross comes back with a granola bar and some water. He swears he hasn’t witnessed what just happened but wanted to make sure I was feeling better. These Aussies are really nice and thoughtful. I eat the granola bar. Not even 20 minutes later I’m hanging over the starboard side of the boat puking again while Ross and Paul are three feet away from me rigging up the fishing lures…complete humiliation.
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| Paul rigging up the lures |
They are oblivious…or so they say. I really just think they are being polite trying not to embarrass me but it’s a little too late for that at this point…
What a start to the day…vomiting two times before 8am…yep, that’s me…keepin’ it classy, Rand....nice work.
All I keep thinking is, I will not let a little throw up will not ruin my fun (it became my mantra)...I am bound and determined to overcome this…I’m trapped like a rat for the next 8 days, so I’ve got to get my sea legs at some point…
I just kept thinking, things could be worse…it could be raining while I’m throwing up, then I would be wet and miserable…at the moment I’m just miserable but at least it is sunny.
After that episode I took one of Ross’ motion sickness tablets and I was good to go the rest of the day. .... Whew.
Once we made it to Lady Musgrave Island (about 5 hours later) we found a place to anchor the boat for the night, made some lunch and then headed out in the tender for some snorkeling.
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| Putting the tender in the water |
This is my first time EVER to snorkel...and not only am I snorkeling for the first time but I’m doing it at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and getting a personal tour of the creatures under the sea from Katie who is a Marine Biologist…I’m feeling very blessed today.
The view was amazing. God has quite the creative imagination, there are some interesting looking characters living below the surface.
There were hundreds of different types of fish and coral…we found a purple starfish, a huge clam shell, mother of pearl, a sea cucumber….the list goes on and on.
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| mother of pearl |
We even swam with sharks – two to be exact! Before I left the states I was warned about sharks numerous times by a friend of mine but as always, I paid no attention to him because I figured he was just being over protective…then I saw one with my own eyes about 10 feet away and it scared the living daylights out of me…my heart was racing…I think I actually grabbed onto someone's leg….it was great though, what an adrenaline rush!
According to everyone on the boat, they are harmless…well this particular type of shark is anyway. I trust them but if I lose a limb I'm going to be ticked!
After we snorkeled for a couple of hours we headed back to the boat to wash up and prepare dinner before we took the tender boat out to explore the island.
We walked around for awhile looking at the wildlife and vegetation. Paul is very knowledgeable about…well heaps of things…but definitely Australian wildlife…he was pointing out everything.
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| sea turtle tracks |
At this time of year, the sea turtles are laying their eggs in the sand. Check out the tracks of the big momma turtle. You can see the imprint of her shell in the middle and flippers on the sides. It looks like big tire tracks.
Paul found a few broken turtle shells…he said the birds had probably eaten them. Aren’t Mother Nature and the circle of life amazing?
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| sea turtle eggs...broken |
After clowning around for a few photos we headed back to the Aroona for dinner and bed.
Additional Photos: Day 2
Numbers at Random:
# of sharks: 2
# of purple starfish: 2
# of meals with fresh fish: 2
# of purple starfish: 2
# of sea cucumbers: hundreds
# of times vomiting: 2
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