Hither to Hamilton Island

The Crew of the Spirit of Freedom 

Feb. 20, 2018:

Thank you, Dear Readers, for your patience!  I left you dangling in Queensland, Australia, but our journey didn’t end there.  For those of you who are curious, I’ll try to finish the story now.

Yesterday (Feb. 19th), we bid a fond farewell to the Spirit of Freedom and her crew in the port of Cairns. Then we went back to the Cairns Hilton, where we basically spent all day by the pool in the shade resting and reading after our vigorous dive trip (and having laundry done).  At dusk, we had fun again watching the resident bats (thousands of them) take flight across the skies of Cairns.

Cairns at Dusk

This morning we flew to Hamilton Island (about an hour’s flight from Cairns), where we are staying at a super resort called Qualia. We’re still just off the coast in the northeast part of Australia, and the closest coastal town to us would be Airlie Beach. This island is probably the most developed in the Whitsunday Islands archipelago located at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef. The whole island was owned and developed by one company, Hamilton Island Enterprises, which probably explains why there is no piecemeal or junky development here. HIE still owns most of the property and about 97% of the businesses on the island. They even own the tour boats, which go out to the other islands, the reef, and the mainland. The island was pretty hard-hit by a cyclone about 18 months ago, but it is amazing how little reconstruction remains to be done.

The resort where we are staying is a real gem, and features individual units positioned so most of them look out on the channel between Hamilton Island and Whitsunday Island. Surprising, the island is fairly large, but cars are essentially forbidden here so everyone gets around by golf carts (“buggies”). Upon checking in, Jim and I were issued our own buggy for the duration of the stay. Since our room wasn’t quite ready, we hopped in and took off the tour the island.

Right outside the resort is the highest point of the island, which offers some stunning views! Photography bug satisfied, Jim and I lingered a while at the cute little bar/café located there. I ad a blast watching the resident cockatoo strut around. It turns out that there are hundreds of them on the island. Then we returned to the hotel to enjoy a quiet afternoon at our little casita gazing out on the channel and reading.

Our room and deck

This evening, we enjoyed a fabulous meal down by the harbor at the restaurant for the yacht club which is called Bommie. As you might guess with our proximity to the ocean, the menu was almost entirely seafood oriented. It turned out to be one of the best meals we have enjoyed here in Australia and we were blessed to have amazing service, as well.

Amazing Cave, Cathedrals and Nonkies Bommie

Feb. 18, 2018:

We did not have so far to travel last night to today’s location off Holmes Reef. The downside of that is that we anchored about midnight, and the swell caused the boat to pitch hard from side to side. I don’t think many of us slept much for those last six hours until our wakeup call.

We are still out in the Coral Sea, but today we are diving the sites around Holmes Reef. It’s a bright sunny morning, and we all scramble to get ready for our first dive today at Amazing Caves, whose name says it all.

 

Some kind of Sand Goby

Some kind of Surgeonfish or Tang

One of the Amazing Caves

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Jim and I swimming through one of the crevasses. Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Staghorn Coral

Coral Canyon

Hawk Anthias?

Some kind of Banded Goby

I can’t find the identification for this one, but it might be a Three Spot Wrasse

Princess Damsel?

Juvenile Blackfin Damsel?

Squirrelfish

Orange Soft Coral

Then we moved to another of the Holmes Reef site; called Cathedrals.  I spent most of my time here chasing a Coral Cod around a coral head trying to get a good picture of him.

Anemone on right; coral on left

See all the baby black finned damsels hiding in the coral?

Hawk Anthias

Trumpetfish

Scissortail Chromis

Ocellate Damselfish

South Seas Devil Damsel & Pacific Half and Half Chromis

Hole in the coral reef wall

Spiny Oyster?

Princess Anthias

Parrotfish

Striped Surgeonfish

Blue Damselfish or Blue Chromis in a head of fire coral?

Mimic Surgeonfish

Golden Damsel

Humphead Maori Wrasses

Bird Wrasse (on left), Slingjaw Wrasse (in center), Golden Damsel (on right)

For the final dive of the trip, we moved a short distance to a dive site called Nonki’s Bommie. Legend has it that Nonki was a Japanese diver who discovered the site. A Bommie is a coral head that rises up from the ocean floor in a free standing hill. This was a very special because it has crevices you can swim though and some more great soft corals and fan corals.

Pyramid Butterflyfish

Fan corals and sea plumes hanging under a ledge

Barrier Reef Anemone Fish and Half and Half Chromis

 

Juvenile Mimic Filefish

Nudibranch

Fire Dartfish

Blue Tang

Feather Star

Pencil Surgeonfish

Dotted Sweetlips and Cleaner Wrasse

Slender Grouper

Longnose Butterflyfish and Big Longnose Butterflyfish-Dark Variation

Barrier Reef Anemonefish in a Magnificent Anemone

Arc-Eye Hawkfish

Coral Beauty Angelfish

View at the top of the Bommie

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Sadly, it is now time to head back to Cairns. We really treasured our time on the Spirit of Freedom.  The entire dive team was very well professional and experienced, but also very attentive to ensure each guest enjoyed a stellar experience. We would go back in a heartbeat!

SaveSave

Bouganville Reef

Feb. 17, 2018:

Last night, the Captain moved the boat out to our furthest point eastward, and we’re about 200 miles off the coast on Bouganville Reef. Today, we have four dives on tap. The first is at a dive site called Dungeons and Dragons; named after all its caves and twisting crevices between coral outgrowths. The site is rich in soft corals and fans, and hosts tons of tiny tropical fish. Although we weren’t too adventurous going into the caves, we did have fun swimming through the crevices. We just loved this dive!

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

 

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Two-spined Angelfish aka Coral Beauty Angelfish

Brittle stars inside coral head

Blackfin Barracuda

Orangefin Anemonefish

Anthias and Damselfish?

Longnose Butterflyfish

For our second dive of the day, we moved a short distance to the site of a wreck, the Antonio Terrabocchia. The ship itself isn’t that old, having sunk in 1961. However, after it went down, a tug attempted a salvage operation to pull the wreck off the reef with catastrophic results.  The back of the ship broke and the ship disintegrated, and is now spread widely over this reef area.  The wreck is found on the oceanward side of the reef, and above that area is a much shallower reef area where the fish life is pretty interesting.

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

However, the sun has disappeared, and the Captain joined our dive briefing to warn us that there are rain squalls nearby and the winds might shift suddenly, which would drive the boat back onto the reef. In that case he will have to weigh anchor, and we will have to get back to the boat via tenders. To keep us safe from the boat’s propellers, we are instructed that if we hear the boat’s engines, just to stay down and finish the dive and then come up normally.

Wreck of the Antonio Terrabocchia

In addition to creating a great environment for smaller fish to shelter, there is a huge potato cod that frequents the area, and as you can see, we found him! There are also some giant anemones, which have there own schools of “Nemo” clownfish. Overall, the dive site is just gorgeous! However, about 20 minutes into the dive, we can hear thunder crashing overhead, and the boat’s engines revving up. As we ascended to do our safety stop, we can see the surface is very roiled by the hard rain obviously falling above. When we hit the surface, we were initially disturbed to find that the rain had caused the visibility to reduce sharply, and we couldn’t even see the Spirit of Freedom! Nonetheless, the tenders showed up quickly, and we beat feet back to the boat.

Spotted Pufferfish

Orange fan coral

Giant Clam

Clown Triggerfish

Giant Humphead Maori or Napoleon Wrasses

Red Sea Fan

Chevron Barracudas

White-cheeked Surgeonfish

Dusky Butterflyfish

Shaded Batfish (front) and Pyramid Butterflyfish

Half & Half Puller (in back) and Ring-eyed Hawkfish (front)

Table Coral

Dot and Dash Butterflyfish

More of the Antonio Terrabocchia-Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Speckled Butterflyfish

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Pink Soft Coral aka Tree Coral

Fan Corals

Two-Banded Anemonefish atop Anemone

Striped Surgeonfish

Earl’s S;ender Anthias in foreground 

Diana’s Hogfish and Golden Damsel

Dian’a Hogfish

Princess Anthia (?)

School of Bi-color Anthias(?)

Two-spined Angelfish aka Coral Beauty Angelfish

SaveSave

Osprey Reef

Feb. 16, 2018:

As dawn broke over the Great Barrier Reef, we were awaked by the crew for breakfast, and then another exciting day of diving. As we finished up “Brekkie No. 1” (first breakfast), we got our dive briefing for our first dive of the day at the aptly named Around the Bend dive spot.

As a general note, we found the captain and crew to be incredibly knowledgeable about each of the areas we visited, and happy to share that knowledge. In fact, I’m going to use their charts from the dive briefings to show what we did for each dive, and that is at least going to be the starting place for these blogs. The dive briefings were very detailed, and the crew was hyper-aware of the potential for changing conditions.

In this case, the dive is essentially a drift dive along the outer reef face or a sea mount, with a stop mid-dive to watch out for sharks and other large predator fish that gather at a break in the reef wall to hunt. Then a swim across the opening, gradually ascending to a shallow area called the Grotto where you can do your safety stop and gaze at a coral reef while you do it. At least, that was the plan …

There are some big challenges about this dive spot. First and foremost is the current, which is very strong. Also, because the current is so strong, you must descend very quickly in order not to miss the place you hang out and watch for the big fish. Next, also because of the current, it was really tricky to latch onto the opening in the reef where prior dive companies have erected a rope into the reef face for you to latch onto. Finally, making the ascent across the reef opening with its increased current made for a tiring end to the dive. In short, this turned out to be the most challenging dive of the whole trip! Jim and I didn’t have any trouble making the descent and doing the drift dive, but that whole latching-on-to-rope-thing was fraught with peril. Jim and I got separated by the current. By the time I had made it back to the reef wall and latched on to (literally) one of the dive masters, I had pretty much missed the opportunity to see any of the hunters in action. Then came the hard swim to our ascent location. What can I say?! Another eff’g opportunity to learn! Our takeaway: if the dive plan goes to shit, you can always latch onto something long enough to make your safety stop and then ascend. If you’re too far away from the boat, that’s what those inflatable safety sausages are for!

Two-banded Anemone fish

Blue-spotted grouper

Daisy coral

Dot and Dash Butterflyfish

Various Squirrelfish

After a really hearty “second brekkie” while the captain moved the boat (and we recovered from our harrowing first dive), Jim and I were ready for the main event of the day; a shark feeding at North Horn.  This is a totally cool area which features a natural amphitheater at about 40 feet which looks down at the top of a seamount about 15 feet below it. The crew has filled a metal cage with pieces of frozen tuna heads threaded through a metal cable and attached to some buoys.  as we took our places on the ledge of the amphitheater, the cage is slowly lowered onto the top of the seamount and tied off.  Then the sharks and other predators began to gather.  When we had amassed a sizable crowd of sharks, the crew member with the short straw had to latch the metal cage and then a food fight broke out.  The best pictures from this came from our onboard photographer, Vili, who took up a position right on the edge of the seamount about three feet from the cage.  My photos are the definitely less interesting (but safer) ones looking down on the scene.

Me filming the spectacle-Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

We stayed in place for our third dive of the day, which gave us an opportunity to do more diving along the reef wall of North Horn. This was a very cool experience, because there are all sorts of nooks and crannies to look for fish, and we saw types of fish I have never seen before. Now the challenge is to try to identify them from the pictures I took! Tomorrow, we’ll be diving further south off Bouganville Reef.

The dining room of the Spirit of Freedom-Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

brand X cod or bass

Giant Clam

Orange Lined Triggerfish

Orange Spot Surgeonfish

Moon wrasses

Moorish Idol

Saddled Butterflyfish

Best guess-some kind of damselfish

Palette Surgeonfish

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Coral Princess Palace and Challenger Reef

Feb. 15, 2018:

Jim and I set off this morning on a four day trip to the outer Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea aboard the Sprit of Freedom, and it was a fabulous experience! The ship is fairly modern, with some very nice amenities, like a huge dive deck, and a dedicated indoor area for camera and computer use. The cabins are fairly small, but serviceable, and always spotlessly clean. However, there are plentiful public areas indoors and out, and the ship is very comfortable.

Our Intended Journey

On the Cessna Caravan flying to the GBR

Leaving Cairns

Cairns Bay

First view of the Great Barrier Reef

Approaching Lizard Island

First views of the Spirit of Freedom

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Credits to @ViliPhotography, Vili Maitaiwai

Because this trip goes to the outer Great Barrier Reef, the reefs are in deeper water, and thus influenced by slightly cooler ocean waters, which means sea life is very plentiful. In fact, all the reefs we visited were very healthy and we saw no evidence of reef bleaching at all. The coral colors were just amazing, and the fish variety was mind-boggling! Add to that average visibility ranges of 100-150 feet, and you can see why this is a diver’s paradise. Once aboard, you are given 4-5 opportunities to dive each day. The food was yummy, and the chef always had a fresh offering ready each time we came out of the water. Therefore, our life for the next four days will consist of “Eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive and sleep”. Let’s get started with a dive on the Coral Princess Palace!

 

Dive Briefing for Coral Princess Palace

Best guess–some kind of wrasse or hogfish

Elephant Ear Sponge on left

Soft corals and Royal Gramma

Parrotfish upside down

Bicolored Angelfish

Moray Eel

Giant Clam

Then we moved the boat to Ribbon Reef No. 9 in order to dive at Challenger Bay. We actually did two dives here: one in the late afternoon, and the second at night.

More Elephant Ear sponge and dwarf stag horn coral; Bi-color angel and golden damselfish, five line cardinalfish

Jim perfectly “trimmed out”

Lionfish

Fiveline cardinalfish, golden damsels, and checkerboard wrasse

Shaded Batfish

Goby

Giant Moray Eel

Then came the night dive …!  This night dive is all about seeing the big predator fish (and sharks) which come out at night to feed.  Because the boat stops weekly in this spot, the local fish have adapted somewhat to the divers.  Our first clue about this is when the boat turned on her floodlights aimed down at the ocean to help guide divers back, and HUGE Trevellys started jumping out of the water. Think hunger big tuna and you’ll begin to get the feel.  Another way the predators have adapted is that they have learned that our dive lights are a helpful way to locate their prey. Accordingly, our dive leader instructed us not to shine the lights directly on the fish you are viewing lest they get eaten.  He cautioned us “only 1 kill per diver”, and not to cause any of the “pretty” fish to get eaten; only the ugly ones.

The thought of getting into the water with all these hungry fish was a little daunting!  Then you get into the water, and these fish and the sharks are so thick you can hardly see anything else.  However, the dive was really cool, and many things were active that you never see in the day.

White-tipped reef shark

Big-eyed Trevelly

From left: some kind of Hawkfish? , a Half and Half Puller, &  Scalefin Anthias

Sailfin Surgeonfish, aka Sail-fin Tang

Soft coral feeding

Paddletail snapper?

Some kind of branched murex moving very slowly across the seafloor

Purple Coral and Giant Clam

Golden Damsel on a plate coral

Another Day Among the Anangu

Feb. 14, 2018:

 

Happy Valentine’s Day, dear Readers! This morning we were scheduled to go do a hike at Kata Tjuta (about a 45 minute drive away from Uluru) followed by a visit to the Anangu Cultural Center at Uluru. However, we didn’t feel like doing another dawn wake up (and it was still pouring down rain at dawn), so we opted just to visit the Cultural Center later in the morning. Besides, if possible, the Kata Tjuta stone formations are more sacred than Uluru. So sacred, in fact, that non-Anangu peoples are forbidden to even learn about the sacred stories and traditions surrounding that rock formation. Fortunately, the sun (and heat) came back before we left for our visit, so we were able to place our sopping wet shoes out to dry.

Dawn views of the rain still pounding Uluru

and also on Kata Tjuta

The Cultural Center was really fascinating, and also featured some workshops by some of the local artists. There were some videos made by some of the community elders about the time the government decided to turn Uluru back to the local Anangu tribe, which was only about 30 years ago. Most interesting to me was learning that, in addition to being one of the oldest land masses on the planet, this area of Australia can trace its human habitation by these tribes back more than 58,000 years. When you see the facial structure of the Anangu today, it is easy to see how human evolution worked because their features are so ancient.  Sadly, the Cultural Center is also considered sacred so no photos were allowed. However, it was well worth the visit!

Entry to the Uluru Park. Apparently, there are wild camels here, but we never saw them.

Final views of Uluru with water still cascading down the sides

Then it was back to the resort and a final meal before catching the flight to Cairns, which will be our gateway to diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Jim and I can barely wait!!!!!!!!

Oohing and Aahhing at Uluru

Feb. 13, 2018:

Jim and I were up before the sun this morning to do a hike around the base of Uluru, and to learn more about the aboriginal culture of the local people who call themselves the Anangu. We got some killer shots of Uluru at sunrise, walked the Kuniya Walk (involving a sacred story about the snake goddess, Kuniya) and then were able to see some of the ponds that form at Uluru’s base called the Mutitjulu Waterhole. Learning our lesson from last night, we were all garbed up in our fly hoods because with the sun came the flies! I lasted about a third of the way around the base, and then gave up to the heat and flies. Jim, however, trooped the entire way around the base (a distance of about six miles).

The stone formation said to represent the goddess Kuniya (as a snake curled on top of itself)

Stone pictographs in the Learning Cave at the Kulp Mutitjulu 

Mutitjulu Waterhole

Following that, we rested during the heat of the day, and then reassembled for another expedition of Uluru; this time to focus on the sacred areas of the Rock, and to learn more about the myths of those places. Rain has been threatening all afternoon (and in fact rained for a short time this afternoon while we were swimming), but it is so blasted hot, Jim and I left our raincoats behind, and just carried umbrellas. Once again, cocktails and canapés awaited us at the end of this excursion. However, about halfway through the trip, the heavens just opened up.

Normally, you would think this was a bummer, but a fabulous thing happened. The top of Uluru is basically a giant flat rock with some pools in it. When it rains really hard, the pools fill up, and waterfalls start to cascade down the side of Uluru. Usually, this can take up to two hours, and may not even happen if the rain is not strong enough. However, in this case, the rain was so violent that we were able to see the beginning of the waterfalls within about 20 minutes. In fact, the rain was so hard that it looked like water was exploding from the top of Uluru.

We finally left when it started thundering and lightning right overhead, and we had a very wet hike out of the park, but it was still a magical experience. Back at the resort, we enjoyed a spectacular lightning show while we ate dinner.