It took me a lot of work to finally be able to get on a dive boat. I have been trying for a couple of days now - originally, I was planning on doing a 2 day live aboard - but the boat I wanted to be on was booked. And so I tried a different boat, but because I didn't have my card on my, they were going to charge me a fortune for it. So finally, I just decided to do a day trip.

I woke up at 645 this morning, to call the Cairns Dive Centre - only to find out that they were completely booked. This is not good. Once again, I give in, and pick a different company... but I managed to get a spot on their boat today, which was both good and bad.

Yesterday, I had a slightly sore throat, and by the time I went to bed, my nose was stuffy as well. "Oh well, I'm sure it will be fine by morning" I told myself. No such luck. I woke up feeling like crap this morning - achy and grumpy, sore throat, swollen glands and all. But I still got on the boat, after paying my 150$

I tried the first dive, but I couldn't equalize at all. I descended about 6 meters, couldn't get any further, came back up, and repeated. The second dive went the same way. But this point, I was almost in tears: I waited all year to dive the Great Barrier Reef, and this was probably my last chance.

Finally, for the third dive, one of the dive masters descended with me, slowly, along the mooring line, and I had more success (it also didn't help that I was freaking out in pain from the pressure in my ear, and sucking down air like I had never breathed before!) It was actually a pretty good dive - saw some clown fish, tons of other fish (like a lion fish!), saw a cuttlefish or squid, and some other really neat things. Exactly as wonderful as I'd expect it to be. However, ever time we changed depth, even by just a tiny little bit, my head would feel like it was going to explode from the pressure. Not a fun way to dive.

Overall, huge disappointment. I was planning on 2 fantastically amazing dives, and instead, I ended up with one painful dive. I might have to try it again tomorrow if I feel any less sick.

Not what I was hoping for =(

And my head still hurts. I think it will be an early night for me. Maybe I shouldn't have stayed up so late last night with such an early start for this morning.