Scuba diving: BONUS IMAGES AND COMMENTARY

When you last left us, we were underwater on the Great Barrier Reef.

But let's back up. We took a boat out to the reef to live aboard for three days with 38 passengers and crew. One of the coolest things was on the way out to the reef, when false killer whales (not dolphins) began following the boat and playing in the wake.

Part of the fun was being on a cool boat in a beautiful spot, but we were there to be underwater. Much of the joy of scuba comes from the cool sense of weightlessness, and the ability to float in the water while observing so many interesting things.

As noted earlier, the navigation underwater is by compass. Charlie's navigation skills underwater are worse than on land. This led to an underwater argument with Sophie, his dive buddy. Obviously one cannot speak underwater, so there was a lot of gesticulating and eye rolling (which is magnified slightly by the mask and water). For the record, Sophie was correct.

When one gets totally lost, the last resort is to surface, look for the boat, and then swim. If you are really far away, there is a signal for calling the "dinghy of shame" that is dispatched from the boat. Charlie had lots of long swims, but never had to summon the dinghy. In fact, CJ and his buddy were the only ones picked up when they went for a snorkel that went on longer than anyone thought possible.

Here are some of my favorite images. To put these in perspective, we only had the underwater camera on 3 of the 11 dives.

This guy was the size of a bicycle.

And this one was the size of a nickel.

Sometimes you have to pay attention. Can you find the peacock cod?

How about now?

Can you spot the cuttlefish lingering on the bottom?

Now?

I promised some scary stuff.

Which brings us to the night dive. Two of them for Charlie, one for the others. Let me set the stage. After the sun goes down, the boat turns on two bright underwater lights, which attract lots of small fish. The small fish attract bigger fish, which attract sharks. So all of us on the boat go to the upper deck to spot the reef sharks (8-10 feet). Shortly after that, the dive coordinator does the briefing for the night dive, which involves jumping into the dark water (with the aforementioned sharks).

Unfortunately no camera on the night dive, but we saw some majestic sharks gliding by above and below us. And a beautiful moray eel that had come all the way out of its cave. I'll finish with a bizarre incident from the last dive of the trip. We spotted a remora (or slender sucker fish) swimming by. It's noticeable because it has the same shape as a baby shark. These are the creatures that attach themselves to sharks.

Charlie got closer for the photo . . . and this guy decided to attach himself to . . . Charlie's leg. That's why we wear those attractive stinger suits.

Bye to the Barrier Reef. On to Hong Kong.