Living Out My Dream in the Magical Sunshine Coast!: Rum Runner, Cairns!

On Wednesday, Sam had work so Amy and I spent a few hours going around to different stores. I had broken both pairs of my sunglasses (I sat on my very favorite pair :( and I still have no idea how the other pair broke but it was probably because it was a super cheap pair from Claire's that I bought years ago) so I shopped around for a new pair. I couldn't find any cute ones so I got a $5 pair for the time being. Then we went to the lagoon where I started my new book and relaxed in the sun all day. Then we walked around looking for a cheap restaurant to eat at that night, but the three of us ended up eating at the same pizza place we had already eaten at a few times. Then we went to find the marina where Amy and I were supposed to meet for the Rum Runner the next morning. We found a marina but couldn't find the name of it so I decided to ask a guy we saw standing there. He laughed at us and told us we were at the right marina. I explained why we were there and told him we were meeting for a sailing trip the next morning at 7am. He asked what boat we were going on and we said the Rum Runner. Then he told us that was the boat he worked on!!! So crazy! He introduced himself as Bart and asked if we wanted to come see the boat. Of course we said yes and got super excited. He took us down to the Rum Runner and we got onboard. He introduced us to Michael, the dive master, and their friend. Once we started talking, Michael told us he was from Tennessee, which is where Amy is from. Such a small world! He's actually from Chattanooga, which is where one of my best friends from App, Bailey, is from! And he almost went to App! We all sat and talked on the boat for about an hour. We found out that there were only a few other people going on the boat. I couldn't decide how I felt about that- part of what made the Apollo so fun was that there were so many people, but this way we'd get more help with scuba diving and everything. We also found out that some of our friends had just been on the Rum Runner, which was cool. After saying goodnight and telling Bart and Michael we'd see them at 7am we headed back to the hostel. I grabbed my computer and took it to the same place I went the last time and caught up with some of my friends from home. Then we all went to bed early since we had to wake up early the next morning.

We woke up at 6am Thursday, got Mackers, and headed to the marina. We boarded the boat and met the other 4 passengers, Miriam (she's from Sydney and is just a little bit older than us), a couple from California, a man from Florida (I feel horrible for forgetting their names but I met SO many people on our trip and I have the worst memory ever), and four crew members, Michael (dive master), Bart (dive master trainee), Richie (skipper), and Julia (host/cook and dive master trainee). We sat around and talked and drew pictures on a white board and ate yummy snacks that Julia made. Then we got a safety briefing and learned about scuba diving. We learned that all of our dives would be in the Thetford Reef. The two men on the trip were certified divers, the woman was only snorkeling, and Miriam was a beginner. After sailing for awhile we arrived at our first dive spot- Blue Lagoon. Diving was awesome!!! We saw a Hawksbill Turtle, which I had never seen before. I just looked them up and they're actually considered to be critically endangered, which makes it really special that I got to see one! He was eating and Richie went up to him and pet him and so then I did the same and it was absolutely incredible! I swam along with him for a moment or two, which was awesome! We saw a bunch of incredible sea life and then got back on the boat for lunch. The food Julia made was DELICIOUS! I couldn't believe we were eating it out in the middle of the ocean. It was definitely some of the best food we had all break! Then we went to another dive spot called Nolands. We didn't see quite as much here and my face hurt a little bit from my mask, but it was still so magical!!! Then we had more snacks and headed to another dive spot. Amy and I were only signed up to do 4 dives so we decided to just snorkel at this spot. It was so incredible! I told everyone I wasn't getting back on the boat until I saw a shark. I stayed in the water for about an hour and a half (about an hour longer than everyone else!) and saw a turtle, a pufferfish, and right when I was about to give up I saw a SHARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So so so so so so so cool!!!! It was small and swam pretty fast but it was still so unbelievably magical! I was the only one in the water at that point but it didn't actually scare me. By the time I got out of the water everyone was laughing and telling me I had grown gills (I wish!!! hahah). We watched a BEAUTIFUL sunset and then had a big dinner. Then a few of the guys who were certified went on a night dive. SO jealous! They saw an eel and everything! It was cool to watch their bright light moving around underwater. Then we played the kinds of games we play at camp, like mafia and this hilarious animal movement game. We were all cracking up the whole time; it was a lot of fun! Then the crew told us we could sleep outside on the top of the boat, which Amy, Miriam and I were SOOOOOO excited to do. The moon was so bright and beautiful and the rocking of the ship rocked me right to sleep... for a few hours until it got SO windy it woke me up and I was shivering. I eventually fell back to sleep but then Amy woke me up shortly after because it was RAINING!!!! I couldn't believe it! We grabbed our tiny mattresses and blankets and went under cover. Miriam went and slept in an actual bed but Amy and I curled up under the roof on the top of the boat and fell asleep for a few more hours.

We had a bit of fun drawing on the whiteboard and getting to know each other!

Richie, the skipper who took us diving and was one of the owners of the boat!

Livin' the life!

Amy and I with Michael

Titanic pose!

Hahaha Michael decided to get in my picture

We were both so excited!!!

Richie helping Amy feel comfortable underwater. She couldn't equalize her ears so she couldn't dive very deep :(

These are called Christmas Tree Worms and they're SO cool!!!

Hawksbill turtle!

Richie petting the turtle

Me petting the turtle!!!

Michael has an American flag rashie and he made Amy and I play rock paper scissors to see who got to wear it for a dive and I won! :)

Yummy lunch!

So many fishies!

This was one of the certified divers- he got to go lower than us non-certified divers! Jealous!

Such a cool looking fish!

Notice how there's a huge wall of coral and then open ocean next to it- it was like this everywhere- so crazy!

I learned in my scuba diving class that thumbs up means you want to move up so I did the okay sign instead haha

Richie gave me a sea cucumber to hold- so cool!

Michael thought it'd be funny to take a self picture of him, Bart and Julia and it ended up looking hilarious because my camera was still in underwater mode!

These fish were neon blue- so awesome!

Okay, I know this video is terrible and too short, but I just thought it was so cool how things under the water move like that...

The Rum Runner (water on my lens)

Pretty sure this was a Sealfaced Puffer fish! I was so excited to see a puffer fish!!!

Best way to watch a beautiful sunset!

Pretty sure this is a Whitetip Reef Shark but that's just a guess from the white-tipped fins haha

After an hour and a half of snorkeling!

(taken while my camera was in super vivid mode)

Night diving! Can't wait to get certified so I can do this!

Sleeping under the big bright beautiful moon!

Michael sleeps up there almost every night! So awesome!!! (notice the shiny white dot- that was the moon)

The next morning we woke up around 7. Obviously, I didn't sleep well the night before, so I was EXHAUSTED. Everyone told me that diving would wake me up and man they were right! As silly as it might sound, there's no better way to wake up. This dive was at a spot called Mystery and it was AWESOME!!! There were a bunch of coral tunnels that I got to swim through. I dove a little deeper than the rest of my group and could turn over on my back to look up at them, which was really cool!

After lunch, we went to another spot to dive called Lagoon. This time Amy and Miriam didn't feel like diving, so Richie and I went with Bart and one of the certified divers. This dive was amazing too! After diving I of course decided to go snorkeling. This time I saw some sort of ray, but it was too far away and too fast to tell whether it was a stingray, eagle ray, etc. I also saw another turtle! I snorkeled (by myself) until they blew the whistle at me to come in! I never wanted to get out of that water!!! On the way back to Cairns I relaxed in the sun and talked to everybody on the boat. Bart, who is from Holland, told me all about how he doesn't get paid but he gets free board and food and is getting his dive master training for free and gets to dive everyday. I told Richie to remember me because I'll be back in a year and a half to work on his boat and do the same thing! :) We took a group picture when we were almost back to Cairns and exchanged email addresses. Amy and I told Miriam, Bart, and Michael that they should come out with us that night and we exchanged numbers!