Here is a slideshow of all my reef pics




On Sunday afternoon our yacht sailed to the Outer Great Barrier Reef, about a 4 hour sail from the Whitsundays, and after very rough seas and a good 4 hours of being seasick, it was like an oasis coming upon the reef. As the name suggests, turns out it is a really good barrier, the huge waves were breaking over the edge of the reef, then the water turned perfectly calm over the expanse of the reef...pretty awesome to see. After suiting up in my scuba gear, I got the chance to take 2 dives on the barrier reef and see the most incredible sights I imagine I will ever see in my lifetime. The coral and fish life were breathtaking, and was so amazing to see all the sea life that I have grown in my tank back home the past few years actually at home on the reef, makes a 60 gallon tank look a little unimpressive compared to what was in front of me..sigh. We were greeted on our second dive by a huge 5 ft parrotfish that came a couple feet away from our faces and slowly checked us out, but the biggest surprise came as I was heading back to the boat.

Let me spell out the situation here...so the reef is very very shallow, only a few feet of clearance as you are drifting over it, then suddenly it comes to a complete drop off into deep ocean where you can't see the bottom, and this is where I found myself treading water as I was waiting my turn to get back onto the boat. It was in this moment that I saw a large shadow move under me, and as I put my face underwater and looked below me, it was in this moment that I watched a 10ft SHARK pass directly under me, and what made this moment even more spectacular was that its top fin just about grazed my foot as it passed. Somehow fear never really came into my mind; seeing something as unreal as this, my brain just shut down and I just watched in awe as the graceful creature swam into the darkness below... and probably went and ate one of the snorkelers nearby, but for my purposes, it was a beautiful moment.
We then saw a second shark in the video above, but wasn't quite as menacing, but the fact that we were in such close proximity to sharks was stunning. After our 2nd dive we put our snorkel gear on and they tendered us out to the edge of the reef, and with a strong current moving over the reef all you did was make yourself as flat as possible to not scrape the top of the coral, and enjoy as I floated back over the width of the reef, whick took about 20 minutes. This is where the 2nd video above was from, so all the coral and fish were about 2 ft from your face and in such shallow water, the colors and formations were beyond words.
And as I was floating, the only thing I kept thinking about was God's love for us, that the Creator of the universe would take time to make something so beautiful, full of colors and such incredible complexity and balance, all for us to admire the beauty of His work; just a small glimpse for me of how He loves us and if he would go to such complexities just to make something most people would never see, I can only imagine what lengths He would go to in providing for all my needs and desires...all in all, it was a great day :)