Diving (Take 2)

So I went back to Magnetic Island on Tuesday to do my Advanced Open Water dive course. Finally! It started early Tuesday morning. The Advanced course consists of 5 specialty dives. Because I was the only student it was only me, the instructor and the dive master, and the skill stuff that I had to do only took a few minutes, so most of the dives were basically fun dives. The first one we did was the Navigation Dive in Alma Bay, where you learn to use and navigate by compass underwater. Pretty easy when they just make you swim in a square. I'd still rather follow a pro around the sites though. Second dive of the day was the Wreck dive. We dove on a smallish wreck just off shore of Alma Bay. It was intentionally sunk for some purpose or another, but sank in the wrong place. Third dive of the day was the Underwater Naturalist dive where you go around and identify fish and animals. This was again in Alma Bay. Saw a HUGE ray and also swam behind a turtle for a while which was pretty cool. Lots of fish too of course. Wednesday was the big day. We took a 2 1/2 hour boat ride out to the Yongala shipwreck in the middle of the Coral Sea. Check out this link for more info Basically, it sank 97 years ago with 120 people (and a race horse!) on board in the middle of a cyclone. It was found some 50 years later or something, and is now totally encrusted with coral and is one of the best dive sites in Australia. As my instructor put it, "It's like everything on the Yongala is on steroids". So true. All the animals are pretty big or scary (like sea snakes!) and there are ALOT of them. And also some really beautiful coral. The first dive of the day was my Deep Dive. We went down to 28 meters which is about 90 feet. It didn't really feel any different than 10 meters, and it wasn't too much darker. But I got a headache later, which my instructor said could be because the air you breathe at that depth is more dense, and so sometimes air gets stuck in your sinuses and is looking for a way out. Whatever. I also got totally sea sick after that dive which sucked. It was kind of interesting watching the giant trevalli's (1-2ft. long big black fish) fighting over people's puke. Going into the water made me feel instantly better, so the second dive was great. This was my Boat Dive, which really wasn't anything new since that's all I did in Thailand, so it was mostly for fun.

Anyways, I don't have a casing for my underwater camera. But Mike 'The Pirate' McCallister was kind enough to let my use some of his pics from last semester. Thanks Mike! I did see everything you see here! It's pretty amazing swimming around a huge wreck that you know so many people died on when it went down. But at the same time you are looking at all this amazing underwater life. Tragic, but absolutely beautiful as well. I have to say, I am a HUGE fan of wreck diving! Enjoy the pics...

Batfish...There was a whole school of these under our boat

Sea snake. Apparently they are curious/friendly and like to swim around you and check out out. My instructor said "Don't try to touch them. If they bite you, you will die." That seems to be a theme with alot of animals in Australia! Luckily I only saw a sea snake from afar.

The bow of the boat. Check out all the fish!!

Yes, I did get this close to quite a few turtles! So awesome!

Professional shot I ganked off of google image search.

Maori wrasse. BIG fish.

Check out this fish's gill getting cleaned by the cleaner wrasse!

Moray eel. Got super close to these too!

I think this is also the bow of the boat. And a HUGE fish.

Puffer fish with cleaner wrasse.

Shovelnose ray. OK, I didn't see one of these, but it's a cool pic!

Looking into the wreck.

The first class toilets.

Another pro shot.

HEAPS of fish!

Here's your clown fish Eric!! ;-)

This is a great shot of what the underwater world looks like... It's like another planet!