We were picked up by Sam in a Calypso Reef Cruises van and driven to the Port Douglas Marina.
Note the blue/green patterns off shore – the Great Barrier Reef – and the ocean bottom drop farther out.
Port Douglas looked a lot like Marco Island in Florida: flat land with golf courses, many, huge gated communities, exclusive resorts and swimming pools. Only difference – salties cause the disturbances rather than alligators. Signs are everywhere.
The marina was impressive, hundreds of expensive looking craft, several imposing fishing boats with long rods and improbably tall search towers.
This Little Green Heron wasn’t as impressed as I was. Maybe a little confused, though.
Dwarfing the other boats was our Calypso catamaran, actually two of them – clearly the big dog in the bay. There was a huge, attentive, and highly skilled young crew that did a numbers check at the start, and every time we were going to move.
Big part of the initial briefing dealt with barf bags. We were heading into 15 knot winds with 28 knot gusts, that started about a quarter mile off shore and didn’t end until we came back in the afternoon.
[Those with weak stomachs may wish to avoid this next section]
[I had taken a pill the night before and again in the morning, and helped myself to the always available water and ginger pills. And I went to the rear of the boat where there was less motion, and fixed my gaze on the horizon, as I have learned to do.
We were not too far into the breech when a migration from the front to the rear happened. Roxanne, the crew chief, had told us to move to the rear if we got sick so it would not start a chain reaction. Problem was that all the sick folks congregated in the back, perpetuating the reactions. The crew was amazingly attentive with barf bags. Undoubtedly the worst aspect of their jobs.
I managed to avoid the reaction (but for a gag or two) by focusing totally on the horizon, going up front to get water and ginger, and mustering obstinate will power. Dana is somewhat immune, but she did take a tablet, drink some water and take a ginger pill – the latter at my urging.]
Our destination was Opal Reef, and when we stopped there the sea was a little calmer, but still quite rough, and the visibility was not the greatest. We spent an hour there, then moved a little while the crew put out snacks (yes, everyone had them – even the barfers). The second site was about the same, another hour, after which we moved to the third spot where we had a huge buffet lunch. I have no idea why we were so hungry in those circumstances.
A very good thing was that as we got away from shore we had increasing sunshine, especially at the last place. The water was warmish, but we still got cold when we got out, and so we clustered in little sunny spots all over the boat.
The coral was spectacular – easing our fears generated by the dire news of the bleaching of the GBR – but because of the turbulence and lack of clarity the pics from my Coolpix were disappointing, and the vids more-so, because it was difficult to hold the camera steady. There was an excessive bluish/green tint to all of them. I’ll include a few – not sure which of the three spots each came from.
Dana chose to skip the 3rd spot, as did others – too nice lying in the sun and too much hassle to get the sting suit back on.
The sun was with us almost all the way back…
and then the clouds were waiting for us as we neared shore, a reminder of why the rainforest here has persisted for 180,000,000 years.
Sam got us back to the lodge and we took hot showers and regained our land legs, although I still noticed a slight unmoored feeling for a moment at dinner. Since we had the complementary self-serve laundry, I opted to do a load, but mis-timed the wash and still had the spin cycle when we went to dinner. So I skipped that and dumped the really soaked clothes in the dryer. Learned a lesson – took three dryer cycles.
A little surprise at dinner: there were repeat items on the menu, plus there were new faces in the dining room, lending credence to Dana’s theory that Silky Oaks is a three night place. We broke the rhythm by staying four.
Deciding we wanted to drop our second snorkel trip I sent an email to our Aussie tour company to do the cancel and book us for a little trip to Kuranda instead – our attention shifting now to the next little leg before PNG.
Dana and Roger Travels 