Day 112

Just got back yesterday from my liveaboard trip with Deep Sea Divers Den!  The trip was amazing, exhausting, and I would absolutely do it again if I get the chance.  The diving was awesome, the food was delicious, and everyone on-board was fantastic.

Let's start with an overview of the Oceanquest, the boat I was on.  It's a 36-metre catamaran, and the info site says that the boat has 3 floors, but that's a lie!  There is actually a fourth psuedo-floor in the pontoons (that's the floaty long bit at the bottom, think of pontoon boats) where the hostie quarters are.  A hostie is (to the best of my knowledge) an Australian word for housekeeper.  The job of a hostie is to change beds, clean bathroom, wash dishes, vacuum, etc.

To get to the crew quarters, you go outside on the main deck...

Open the hatch...

Hostie quarters!  It's air conditioned and the beds are pretty comfy.  There's no
bathroom though, so we had to go to the dive deck to use the toilets and showers.

The boat was roomier than I expected, which was good because it took me a while to get my sea legs and I spent a fair bit of time smashing into walls.

Sitting room on the mid (second) deck.  I'm not sure what the theme is supposed to be... but there were lots of pointy masks
on the walls that posed a bumping-into hazard.  For me, anyway.

The dining room.  Lonneke, another hostie, is probably filling out her dive log.

Sitting area on the wheelhouse (top) deck.

On the wheelhouse deck.

The dive deck.

Where I spent a lot of my time: in the kitchen.  This is Reuben, the chef on-board for my first few days.

Lonneke and I spent a lot of time eyeing the desserts in here.

I could alternatively call this a cultural immersion experience.  The passengers and crew came from all over the world, and I met people from Canada, France, Britain, Germany, Holland, and Japan.  Actually, a lot of the passengers and crew were Japanese, including my adorable boss, Nanako-san.  If I go back, I will re-learn some Japanese and try to use it more.

The diving was great!  I made 15 dives during my 5-day stay, and I took my camera on all but two of those.  My camera doesn't take amazing photos, but it's all about the memories, right?  :)

Coral.

No idea what fish this is.

Lionfish!  This was just a little one, he was cute.

SHAAAAAARK!

Less dangerous: the sea cucumber.  This guy was at least 3 feet long though!

Giant clam, at least two feet long.  It's hard to get perspective in these pictures!

Christmas tree worms, with a little fishie.

I believe these are pink anemonefish.

From farther away.  This anemone was really big!

Scissor-tail sergeant!

Blue-spotted stingray!

Durban Hinge-Beaked Shrimp!

This is a hermit crab with anemones attaches to him!  Cool!

More prawns.

MORE prawns!

It reminds me of tire tracks for some reason...

Lionfish!

Cute fishies!

Green sea turtle!

A butterflyfish and a parrotfish.

Clownfish in a mushroom leather coral!

Napoleon wrasse!

This guy was very large, about 4 feet long.  He's got a cleaner fish on him here.

The patterns on these guys are awesome.

They aren't afraid of people, so you can get nice and close to them.

A little white-tip reef shark!

Some type of butterfly fish, with a damselfish on the left.

Melon butterflyfish.

Seriously, sharks are so exciting!

A juvenile Midnight Snapper.

No clue what this guy is!  I saw a lot of them, and they're very cute.

From farther away.  See the coral on the left?  This guy is very small!

No clue what this is!

This is called a Diagonal-Banded Sweetlips.

It's a spotted unicornfish!

More anemonefish.  Kinda cute, aren't they?

I have another liveaboard trip booked at the end of the month, and I might do another with Deep Sea Divers Den if I get the chance.  The only trouble is that I'll need to take care of my seasickness problem.  Does anyone know of any reliable treatments for seasickness?  I didn't sleep at all (literally, not even for five minutes) my first night, I was so sick.  I got lucky and traded sudafed for sleeping pills, and after that and life got much better, but I want to come better-prepared next time.

That brings me to the three big lessons I've learned from this trip:
1) The quickest and surest cure for seasickness is to get in the water.  (Preferably to go diving.)
2) Be prepared for every possible illness you might encounter, especially when you are going to a remote location, such as the ocean.
3) Find out what OTC meds are prescription-only in other countries and bring TONS of it.  Sudafed is prescription-only here and my small stockpile of it has proven useful.  I'm not encouraging illegal trading of drugs here, but in the event that you need something and can't access a doctor, it's good to have bargaining chips.

More photos and a few videos will be up soon, so check here again tomorrow!  :)

Cheers,
Ashton