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.

Scuba diving: SHORT VERSION

We've just come back from three days living on a boat in the Great Barrier Reef. When I say "just come back," I mean that the room is still rocking back and forth because we are not yet used to being on land. So this is the quick and easy post.

We went scuba diving. (Katrina is on a different boat with her friend Bevin.)

CJ and Sophie were successfully certified.

We saw beautiful coral.

We saw yellow fish and blue fish.

Skinny fish and fat fish.

Fish with stripes and fish with spots.

Also, cool coral AND cool fish.

So what more could there be in the NEXT post?? Sharks, barracudas, jellyfish, the night dive, a moray eel, giant clams. And the slender sucker fish that attached itself to Charlie's leg.

Also, all the dives were done with underwater compass navigation. What could go wrong? (Hint, Charlie has a bad sense of direction on land, and it's worse underwater.)

Alas, there is no Google Maps underwater.

More to come!

Reunited in Cairns with Katrina and Bevin

We leave in the morning for three days on the Great Barrier Reef. Meanwhile, Katrina (whom we last saw in Tasmania) has turned up here in Cairns with Bevin McDevitt, her friend from Hanover who has flown half way around the world to spend her winter break from college traveling in Australia. The two of them will start a scuba course tomorrow. Tonight we all gathered in Katrina and Bevin's Airbnb apartment (minus CJ, who went to bed early with a cold). We will next see Katrina in Saigon.

Australian animals in their natural environment . . .

If one assumes that Koalas and jungle pythons typically live on the top floor of Australian casinos. Yes, we shamelessly paid for the souvenir photos. On a positive note, the casino has much better wifi than our hotel and they haven't kicked us out yet.

Also, it's not quite as pathetic as this, which is going on beside me as I write.

On a more authentic note, we've left Hobart, Tasmania, behind--a really fun and beautiful city. Much of the downtown must have been built in a fairly narrow period at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th--old enough to be interesting and new enough to still be functional. As a result, the city is an architectural treasure.

I have not done justice to the buildings, because most of the time I was not walking around with a nice camera, but one of the fun things is how classic buildings have been re-purposed.

We start our scuba diving class tomorrow (2 days) and then 3 days out on the reef. Hopefully we'll be back in a week or so with great underwater pictures.

UNCENSORED: Behind the scenes

I am able to carefully cultivate the photos we post. But eventually one of the kids will release the undocumented "behind the scenes" look at the trip. So I'm going to get out in front of that, with some more unglamorous images. We are now in Hobart, Tasmania, where our budget allows us a single hotel room, about the size of my Dartmouth office.

Sophie eventually chose a more comfortable option: in the corner, on the floor.

CJ took a science exam in the morning. It's not a pretty site, especially that absurd neck pillow, but he did well.

The final images of 2016

What better way to spend December 31st in Tasmania than on the beach.

As we were driving home, this guy jumped across the road.

Just after midnight, Katrina captured the night sky in the Southern Hemisphere. Not much light pollution here in Beauty Point, Tasmania. Happy New Year to all!