Rough Seas and the Great Barrier Reef

As the big dive boat violently rocked back and forth, bashed through rolling waves at full throttle and the sea spray rained down on us, I began to question just how resistant I was to sea sickness. It turns out... not as much as I previously thought.

We have spent the past couple days in Cairins, Australia. As some of the locals have told us, there's tons to do here as long as you get out of Cairins. Needless to say, we were excited to get out on the reef today.

Naturally, we picked the cheapest tour boat we could find, a large boat that carried around 80 to 100 divers and snorkelers. As we left the harbor, we realized just how rough the seas were going to be. I had only been sea sick once before at a young age and had this misconception that I had the sea legs of an old sailor. When I started to fidget in my seat, hug my knees and the feel the blood drain from my face, Christine looked at me with a concerned expression. Luckily I asked her to grab me a "souvenir" bag as the crew put it right before losing it. My only solace was that nearly half the boat seemed to be in the same condition. It should be noted that Christine does have the sea legs of a sailor and was completely fine the whole ride.

When we arrived at our first dive site, there was nothing I wanted to do more than get off that boat and into the water. Unfortunately, the sea wasn't any calmer at the site. Christine and I stuck together since it was so choppy and the current was pulling pretty hard.

Even though the snorkeling conditions were less than ideal, we had a great time after getting comfortable in the water. The Great Barrier Reef was amazing, huge and teaming with sea life. Our second dive site was even more beautiful than the first too.

One of the highlights of the day was seeing a large sea turtle that we were able to get really close to. Unfortunately after downloading my pictures, I realized that the fish eye lens on my go pro doesn't focus underwater so most of the shots didn't turn out too great.

Is this thing on?

We are planning on snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef again in Whitsundays and will hopefully have better conditions there. Some precautionary Dramamine may be in order just in case though.