Oceandate- 6212014
I was awake before my alarm this morning. I was so excited and admittedly a little nervous. I packed everything the night before so all I had to do is eat breakfast and wait for my ride. I ate breakfasted and talked to an older Scottish woman who was waiting to go skydiving (made me question why I was nervous). She was a pretty cool lady. My ride arrived at 6:50am. We first headed to the dive shop to fill out paperwork and get our first briefing. I met my dive buddy for the first time... Frank. He was from Germany. We got on the Reef Kist boat that would take us to the Kangaroo Explorer where we would be staying for the next three days. We first had to pick up and drop off people at Fitzroy Island. It was a beautiful trip, the sun was shinning and the sea was calm.
I talked to Frank and Charlie (an instructor) for most of the way there. We had to go through another briefing once on board and then we were able to go to our rooms.
Then we had time to relax before lunch. I sat at the bow and looked out at the reef. I was too excited to do anything else. Well, I did talk to Frank and Steve (the crew's funny man).
Lunch time!! It was homemade mac and cheese, chicken, and salad made buy the boat's chef, the Flying Scotsman. It totally beat PB&J! We had our dive briefing and then we suited up and got in the water! I had so many butterflies, but we were in a group following Charlie for our first dive. I felt like a little duckling being led around. It was incredible dropping down into the edge of the reef. We used the bow's mooring line to descend. Immediately I could see the corals. It wasn't as spectacular as I was expecting but it was still beautiful. I was struggling to find my neutral buoyancy the entire dive so that was frustrating but I saw hundreds of fish, some were checking me out. I also got to hold a massive sea cucumber. It was smooth on the outside but pretty dense. I also got to feel a giant clam!
Frank holding the sea cucumber
Giant Clam 
Sea squirts or Ascidians 
Christmas tree worms
We stayed under for about 40 minutes. I wish we didn't have to go up. Right after I surfaced and showered I headed up to the "sun deck" and told Frank I can't wait to get in again! At 3pm was "the best part of the day..." cake time. Then I filled out my paperwork to get my advanced open water certification. I went through the class part and got briefed on my next dive. I was partners with Frank and Fred (a Frenchman). It was another great dive.
I found a brain..
At the end of the dive my camera started acting up. It got flooded, so I was frustrated about that but luckily I had my other camera to take pictures on land. We watched the sunset while we waited for dinner after our dive.
After dinner we had our briefing for the night dive, which was also part of my certification. I was excited but very nervous at the same time. Charlie was diving with me though so I felt a little more comfortable. I saw little shrimp that reflected a red spot when the light hit them. Most of the fish had gone to sleep as well. At one point in the dive Charlie signalled for us to turn out our light. We saw bioluminescent plankton. IT WAS BREATHTAKING!! Blue, glowing blobs filled the ocean around us and we swam around. I also was a little squid, corals, and more fish. I was on top of the world we we surfaced. I got debriefed after cleaning up and Charlie went over what my morning dive would entail. It was my deep dive for my certification. I relaxed in the saloon and talked to the crew and other divers. To finalise the evening I headed to the bow to look at the stars. The black night was flooded with a sea of stars. It was marvellous. The warm breeze off the ocean and the rocking of the boat calmed me down after an exciting day. I went to sleep smiling@
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