Some views of my journal do not allow back-dating of posts. This entry should be dated 2005-10-06.
Queensland Holiday, days 1—2 — sunburnt and stung
I'm two days into my holiday and dive trip. Our first dive was
short, and included some time in getting the proper amount of
weight for my new wetsuit. By the second dive we were feeling
more confident, and by the second day things were just superb.
We've been collecting some great photographs, although we forgot to take the camera on one of the best dives so far, a massive 25m high bommie with crystal clear visibility.
So far I've discovered two important things, albeit a little too late. One is sunblock, I now have two very red shoulders where my wetsuit doesn't cover me. The other is the use of stinger suits. During today's night dive I got stung part-way through, giving me some rather-painful looking marks to show off to the rest of the passengrs and crew when I returned. As much as I hate wearing a stinger suit, the idea of being covered in nasty red sores is even less appealing.
Tomorrow we're diving the Yongala, an almost 100-year old wreck in an exposed position. It's often touted as "Australia's Best Dive", and all the people I've spoken who have dived it before seem to agree with that statement. Apparently the wreck is open to rocky seas and strong currents, and with our planned dive taking us down to at most 28 metres and then working upwards, I expect my air consumption will be pretty high. Unfortunately we only have 12-litre tanks on board, filled to only 200 bar. I've been spoilt with bigger tanks and 250 bar fills.
Food on the boat has been fantastic, and I think us vegetarians are eating better than the rest of the passengers and crew. Jacinta and I have a lovely double-cabin. The only downsides, besides from the small tanks, have been the bathrooms: there are only two of them, and they contain both a toilet and shower. One can spend quite some time waiting for someone to finish a long shower, even if one's personal needs are quite short.
Our equipment has been holding up very nicely, although there have been a couple of hiccups. I accidently lost my surface marker buoy on one dive, but another diver thankfully recovered and returned it. Jacinta also had a personal marker light flood on a night dive. It's probably our cheapest and least important piece of equipment, but salt-water and batteries sure make an awful mess! We still may be able to repair the light, but it will probably require quite a bit of scrubbing to do so.
Our Yongala dive is at 6am tomorrow, and I've been told one of the highly coveted showers is free, so I'll write more later when I can.
