Diving and Snorkeling Nathan Reef

Overnight we sailed to Nathan Reef, where we were able to stay for water play all day. Diane and Nance took a morning dive with Robbie and the Gallagher family of three (from Rockville, MD!). During our half hour below, we gave a wide berth to a sting ray with a strong, sharp-looking tail lying on the bottom. We saw lots of different coral formations, giant clams, sponges, clownfish in the anemone, some shrimp and other colorful fish. It was a great dive. The Great Barrier Reef really is special for its varied coral formations—check out all the varieties we’ve seen in the photo of Dani’s slide talk.

In the afternoon, Darryl and Nance went diving and Sande and Diane did a ‘drift snorkel.’ We were taken out in the tender boat about 10 minutes away from the ship, and we drifted with the current along the reef edge. Similar views as on the dive, but with better lighting near the surface. The photos don’t always do justice to the colors we saw. Darryl has been enjoying the diving a lot.

In the evening, we finally saw some of the migrating humpback whales we’d been hearing about. They were pretty far in the distance, so no good photos. The captain was nice enough to follow them for awhile, even though it was against our direction of travel.

This was our last night on the ship, so it was time for another trivia quiz. Diane was drafted to the Gallagher family table, in a trade for 11-year old Austin. The Gallagher-Douglas table came in first place!Read more