SCUBA Diving in Komodo National Park

The dive boat picked us up at 0730. The boat is really nice by Indonesian standards. Like most Indonesian boats we have seen, it is all wood, but better maintained than most. It is relatively quiet compared to the majority of the boats around here, which seriously sound just like helicopters with their super loud one cylinder engines. We went with a company called Dive Komodo. There were two dive masters, two deck hands, and 9 passengers. There were some sweet rolls out, as well as coffee and tea and a cooler with water and soda.

The ride out to the north side of Komodo Island took 2 ½ hours. We anchored and looked at the site. It was a large rock. You could see Continue reading

Cook’s Look Hike and More Snorkeling

Pete and Fern picked us up at 07:30 to go on the Cook’s Look hike up the mountain to the left of us. In 1770, Captain Cook mapped the Queensland coastline. He was trying to make his way to the open ocean and couldn’t find a pass through the reefs. He sailed to Lizard Island, anchoring in Watson’s Bay, and scaled the mountain. At the top of the Continue reading

Diving Cod Hole & No Name Reef

Everyone was coming at 07:30, so we were up very early to get ready. Kosmos was a mess inside, since we have been more focused on the exterior than the interior since getting out of the yard. We ate a quick breakfast, did some tidying, and got our own tanks filled and our diving gear ready.

Everyone was on board and ready to go by 0800. There were 11 of us total — 4 snorkelers, the instructor and his two students, and another couple that would be diving with us.

Cod hole is 10 miles southeast of Lizard Island. We were happy to see there was a mooring available. The reason the spot is called Cod Hole is because gigantic Continue reading

Snorkeling in Watson’s Bay

We headed over to the beach a little before 13:00 (1:00 pm). Everyone was gathered around a small picnic table under a tree on the beach. There were about 16 people there, all Australian retirees. We listened to the horse race on the radio, then hung out and chatted with everyone for a couple more hours. Everyone was really nice. Politics was at the forefront of everyone’s mind since Continue reading

Diving the Barrier Reef and Eating Bugs

Continued from yesterday”¦..

After the second dive lunch was served. It was a nice lunch with salad fixings and sandwich fixings, pasta salad and potato salad. We scarfed our food while the boat traveled to the next site, called Gone Again.

Forty minutes after finishing the last dive, we were back in for the third dive. Talk about pushing the limits on the surface interval between dives! This was another Continue reading