A Cairns Evening and the Great Barrier Reef

After arriving in Cairns last night, we checked into The Heritage Cairns hotel and took a shower and nap.  What an exciting start to our adventure! Later we met with our host Laurie Pritchard for a walk around Cairns and a bite to eat before attending a reef marine lecture for today's adventure to the Great Barrier Reef. Yesterday they told us how nice and sunny the weather has been the last week.  Naturally, of course, today is cloudy and overcast.  We walked from our hotel to the Esplanade and on the boardwalk along the waterway. This is a beautiful walk with the water on one side, park areas, and shopping along the Esplanade. They also have public gas grills set up for barbies and a really nice public pool. We made it to our vessel, The Sea Quest, and got ready to start our day. Along with the cloudy day came a nice strong wind making the water a bit rough for the 1.5-hour trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. There were a lot of people brown bagging it and I don’t mean bringing their lunch. Once we made it to our first dive/snorkel spot, I got suited up.  I chose to make two dives, while my traveling companions, Marylin and Yvette, chose to snorkel. I donned my wetsuit, geared up, and jumped in anxious for all I may find! The coral life was simply amazing. We spotted a blacktip reef shark resting on the bottom and a bit later another shark, not sure what kind, swimming amongst a small school of fish. Unfortunately, with the clouds and waves came poor visibility. I saw Nemo and several kinds of butterfly fish, parrotfish and wrasses. Brain coral, staghorn coral, plate coral, and so much more!  As my tank was running a bit low , I climbed aboard, removed my dive gear, and joined my cohorts for a snorkel.  The colors of the corals and the fish were amazing. After a quick lunch, we moved to our next site with great expectations.  Unfortunately, the visibility was even worse. It was still remarkable, but the surges made it a bit dangerous to get too close.  Regardless, it was still an amazing reef experience. We tied up briefly to the Ocean Quest, the companies Live Aboard vessel, to unload a few of our passengers and to give a few others a ride back to Cairns.  We had a chance to explore the boat.  It seemed very comfortable with spacious outside areas, nice sized rooms with a great view, and a really nice bar area for relaxing.  Then we settled in for the ride back to Cairns.  On the way home, we spotted two humpback whales breaching.  It was amazing! This evening we had dinner at a local Greek Restaurant.  It was very entertaining with quite good food as well.  Tomorrow we are off to our first Rainforest adventure.