This story is no joke. We are still shaken by what took place out there, and I think Rayann may never set foot in a boat again. It is a real account of what happened when we visited the Great Barrier Reef on a 2 day/ 1 night sailing trip. Janice & Julia (mom's), I would advise that you don't read this blog post!
I will start out by saying that our captain did an amazing job of getting us back to port safely. He stood at the wheel for 4 1/2 hours in grueling 20 foot seas to get the boat back into the harbor in one piece. OK, now for the cast and crew:
Captain, Radar (30 yrs old)........1st Mate & Dive Instructor, Russel (28yrs old).....Hostess, Leena (26yrs old).......Rayann & I.....3 Couples from various countries, one of which lived in Colorado but grew up in MA and NJ!.........2 guys form Germany......1 strange guy from NZ.
To say the least this was a very young and inexperienced crew. The boat had just been commissioned and had only been out on the reef for about 4 months. Not exactly comforting when you are facing an angry ocean.
Now for the exciting part. So we board our vessel, which is a really nice 35 foot sailboat fully restored and are introduced to the crew and everyone else on board. It was raining and wasn't the ideal weather to begin a 2day/1night sailing trip to the Great Barrier Reef but we didn't really have a choice as the weather was forcasted to get worse later in the week. As Radar is giving his safety instructions, he asks if anyone has any bananas. Aaaaand of course one of the couples had 2 bananas, which they were immediately told to eat so they were no longer on board. For those of you that aren't familiar, there is a fishing superstition/folk lore amongst sea-goers that bananas bring bad luck to those boats that have them on board. Now I can truly say that I believe in this superstition full heartedily. Once the bananas were eaten, the captain took the peels and discarded them in the 5 foot rubber dingy on the back of the boat as not to litter into the ocean. Remember where he has put the peels as this comes back later in the story!
The ride out to the reef was very rough, or what we thought was rough up to this point of our journey. The waves were probably 5-10 feet with intermittent rains & high winds. It really wasn't too bad as the boat was encased by plastic that kept most of the bad weather out. It also gave Russel a chance to explain some facts about the reef along with the different corals & fish we were going to see. Unfortunately, Rayann's motion sickness was in full effect and spent a good chunk of the ride hunched over grasping her barf bag. The good news though, was that she wasn't alone, as about half of the people on board got sick. Not exactly as the brochure described it.
So we finally get out to our first stop and moored off of some really fantastic snorkeling spots. There were about 4 or 5 good sized reefs that we could swim above and around. The amazing thing was that surrounding the reefs are huge drops down to the ocean floor hundreds of feet. We had the chance to see tons of varieties of fish ad vibrant corals at this first stop even though the seas were rough. A good thing about the reef is that once near it, it acts as a barrier against the ocean making it much calmer that the ride out. After lunch, we moved to another site about 500 yards away to explore a huge U-shaped reef formation. This was by far the highlight of the trip. Again, tons of fish and coral. We even got to see a school of squid, giant clams that were as big as a trunk of a car, lobsters and even some clownfish hanging out in the anemone.
While we were all snorkeling, Radar had gone over to the other sailboat that was anchored near our boat to see where they were planning to spend the night as the weather was declining. There were 2 options; one was to go to the nearest island and anchor near it to use as protection, or move back to the first snorkeling site and ride out the night there. Radar, along with the other boat, chose the latter. We ate a great meal on the boat and went to bed fairly early, as most people were pretty tired from about 4 hours of snorkeling combined with a rough boat ride out to the site.
Day 2 we awoke to a VERY rough seas, even though we were protected by the reef. We all had a pow wow with the crew and decided it was best to cut the trip short and head back to Cairns. The weather was bad and was forcasted
Now that the raft was secured we could head out. The major problem now was that with the seas so rough and visibility extremely low Radar could not spot the hundreds of "reef bombs" scattered all around our snorkeling site. "Reef bombs" are areas of small reef formations about 10-15 feet in circumference that shoot up from the ocean floor acting as 'bombs' that can easily rip a hole in the side of a boat. Not even two minutes after we pulled up anchor our boat slams right on top of a 'bomb'! To avoid a catastrophe, Radar had to crank the wheel around and spin us off of the hidden reef as not to grind through the piercing coral. Thankfully it was only a small reef and we managed our way off quickly without puncturing a hole in the hull of the boat. It was right about this time that everyone's mood went from joking to serious. People were beginning to realize that the situation was not good and was only going to get worse! About half of the people on board moved to the inside of the cabin to get out of the weather as the crew had to open all of the plastic windows to increase visibility. By this time Rayann had already moved to her bed so that she did not get more motion sick.
As soon as we left the protection of the reef all hell broke loose, and we saw what we were in for for the next four and a half hours of our lives. Huge white capped waves 15-25 feet high crashing over the bow of the boat, 40-50km/hr gale force winds and pouring rain!! It was the most terrifying experiences of our lives. Straight out of the movies. Our 35 foot sailboat was at the mercy of the ocean getting knocked in every direction. Waves were constantly crashing over the boat throwing tons of sea water in our faces along with the unrelenting rain. Everyone on the boat was holding on to whatever they could to avoid being thrown off into the ocean. Radar was doing all he could to keep the boat heading either into or with the crashing waves so that our boat would not tip over. On a few occasions we all thought the boat was going to capsize as it got loose and knocked from side to side. Just a little more in either direction and we would have certainly tipped over. At one point a rouge wave 25 feet high came right up on us and our boat climbed up one side and down the other. Almost everyone on the boat had gotten sick, and were all extremely terrified.
Radar stood at that wheel and fought the wind, rain and waves for 4 1/2 hours! Even though he was young and inexperienced he did an unbelievable job of navigating us back to Cairns Harbor. Did I forget to mention that our GPS navigation system broke 1/4 of the way back? We were all on the look out for landmarks and islands to guide us back to the mainland.
Needless to say this was not the Great Barrier Reef experience we were expecting, but certainly one that we will never forget. One thing is for sure though: I will never bring bananas on board a boat ever again!!!
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