Found Nemo ~ and all his cousins

It's no secret that ever since I dived Palau, clown fish (like Nemo) have been my favorite. So, when Blake and Lauren invited me to join them to dive the Great Barrier Reef, I accepted excitedly. After a day recovering from jet lag in Brisbane, I met up with Blake and Lauren at Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast, and headed to Byron Bay. We made the best of a rain storm; since I hadn't planned for such weather, I purchased an "emergency poncho". On Saturday, we flew up to Mackay. We then drove to Airlie Beach - the gateway to the Barrier Reef, and enjoyed the glorious weather on the Sunshine Coast. Lauren and I got hooked on blueberry mojitos; I got the recipe from the bartender. Our adventure on the Kiana (which means "have a good day" in Inuit) started Monday morning, when we motored out to the Whitsunday Islands with 6 Czechs (one- Jana - spoke English), Team France -4 great people, and Team USA!

In the afternoon we anchored, went ashore and hiked to Lookout Point for an incredible vista, then sprinted down to Whitehaven Beach and the purest, finest sand we've ever seen. We were required to put on our stinger suits to protect us from the box jellyfish (invisible), and all we wanted to do was race out to the water. During our entire adventure, our scuba guide snapped photos, including an almost disastrous pyramid on the beach.

We spent the night at Hook Island, and feasted on what Lauren believed was steamed Wallaby (ok - I was gullible too). The steamer was an ingenious contraption of a converted keg, with layers of wire baskets of lamb and vegetables. Day two, a 7 a.m. the 4 certified divers (team USA - Blake, Lauren, Katchy, and David from team France) experienced their 1st dive in a beautiful cove. "Disco" Dave, our guide, asked what we wanted to see - I immediately shouted "clown fish!"; once on the dive he took me to a gorgeous pink anemone with matching clown fish. After the dive, we checked in with Brent, our skipper, who had alerted us to rough seas that might prohibit heading to the outer Barrier Reef. We all crossed our fingers, and he said - "If we can get you out there safely, we will". After an hour or so of motoring, Brent told me we'd passed the point of no return (a good thing), and we were on our way to the outer reef! We were underwater again before lunch, and this time our guide called me over to a a spot on the reef with 5 different species of clown fish (there are 43 in all)! He took pix of each of us behind a "Nemo" clown defending his anemone. We also saw a white tip reef shark (asleep), rays, turtles and incredible corals. The reef community consists of countless types of sea life that we had the privilege of experiencing. We became very comfortable in our stinger suits (and hoods); Brent said they made you feel invincible like superman. We made a 3rd dive that afternoon; that night we spent on the reef, and enjoyed a slide show of our adventures and antics on land and underwater.

Once again, on the last morning, Blake, Lauren and I were on a dive at 7 a.m. - this time at the "stepping stones" spot at and the visibility was incredible. We just enjoyed drifting from reef to reef watching the sealife. We relunctantly left the Great Barrier Reef and started our sail back to Hayman Island for lunch on the boat across from one of the most expensive resorts in the world. I was happy to be out on the the Kiana! The crew was fantastic, the food inventive and welcome for starving divers, and the experiences memorable. We had dinner with "team France" last night, shared email address with our new friends, and are driving to Mission Beach for snorkeling and the rain forests. Getting to the Great Barrier Reef is not easy, and I feel very lucky to have shared the experience with Blake and Lauren, and to have been a guest writer on their blog. Can't wait to read about the rest of their adventure! Kiana - have a wonderful day with "no worries". Katchy