Lying Face Down in the Ocean . . .

. . . can be an adventure. I don't care if that tube is supposed to stick up in the air (usually) above my head, it just doesn't feel totally natural for me to have my nose and mouth under the water surface while I am taking full breaths. (Dave here...) But the trade-off for the view was more than worth the effort.

Fish of every stripe and color... some looking like zebras, others like a repetitious rainbow, still others hovering in formation like a collection of thick grayish arrows, and many more! Blue and yellow, striped and plain, they swam leisurely by in front of my dive mask singly and in small schools, some so close I could easily have touched them. But a slow fin kick allowed me to be among them as an observer to be tolerated more as a curiosity than a threat. It will take me a couple of weeks with Sarah's marine guide to identify half of what I saw.

And then there was the coral! Some (hard coral) stood in colorful and stately confusion like the branches of a deciduous tree in winter while others (soft coral) swayed gently with the currents like spaghetti or a bulbous rippling sponge. More shapes and sizes, not to mention several colors, than I can ever remember. The naturalist said there are about 1500 different types of coral. We took pictures from the glass bottomed boat and the semisubmersible that gave us a nice view of things. But no view was as good as lying face down in the water over one of the outer barrier reefs in the Great Barrier Reef off of Cairns (pr. Cahns). I didn't have an underwater camera for that one... wish I had... and scuba is a ways beyond me, so I'll just have a few images and some great memories of a day out on the ocean with my sweetheart, Becky, and Aussie niece, Becky, and about 300 other folks from all over the world.

The tour boat (right) took 90 minutes to get us to the anchored pontoon platform (to the back) where we also found the semi-submersible, glass-bottom boat, helo platform (costly rides!), and all the gear for snorkeling.  A delicious buffet lunch was provided in the cost as was all the gear and boats, but not the helo.

Glass-bottom boat gliding above the coral.

View of some coral from the semi-submersible.  The colors are hard to capture through the glass.

Yours Truly, face down in the water... what a view!

At a rest station with niece Becky Andrews.  Becky could spot me among all the swimmers by my white hair!

Relaxing on the back upper deck as the day at the pontoon wraps up.

Viewing station at stern of the pontoon held display of live coral and fish in the open ocean.