The Not So Great Barrier Reef

THE NOT SO GREAT BARRIER REEF!

By Ira Teller, Marina del Rey, CA 6/28/2018

As Marina del Rey residents, my wife and I are fortunate enough to have a clear, unobstructed Condo balcony view of the approximately 90 sailboats that race each Wednesday at 6pm , from April to September, as part of the California Yacht Club’s Sunset Sailing Series. We are not boaters, but the sight of so many full sails filling the Marina as the sun descends is truly breathtaking. So we love looking at the sailboats, but we don’t love sailing on them. My wife is prone to seasickness and just the rocking of anchored and moored boats can bring on an attack. And yet, on our 3-week trip to Australia this May, we included a day sailing to The Great Barrier Reef. I mean, after flying 8000 miles over 16 hours, how could we not experience this promised aquatic wonder?

We did our homework. Most US sponsored tour companies’ deposit their clients in Cairns. But, we were not doing a standard tour. We wanted to spend time in Darwin and visit Kakadu National park to view Aboriginal Rock painting believed to be 40,000 years old. So we planned each city visit to meet our own tastes and pace. To explore the Great Barrier Reef, friends recommended staying in the much prettier resort town of Port Douglas, which we did. Next, we found a local cruise company that went to the closest Island, of which there are about 20: Lizard, Magnetic, Green, Daydream, Brampton, Haggerstone, Fitzroy, Dunk, Bedhorn, Hook, Heron, Lady Elliot, Pumpkin, Hamilton and Hayman, among them. Some were 20 and 30 miles away, which meant a long, long sail.

Happily, we found a company that went to Low Isles, a mere 9 miles from Port Douglas. Low Isle was first discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770, officially named in 1819, used as a base for scientific study of coral in 1928 and became a cruise destination in 1979. The Lighthouse on the Island was the first in Queensland to have porthole windows and a few years ago the island converted to solar energy. All this we got from our guidebook, not from the Sail Company crew.

Now, the day before the cruise, I called the company, because I heard that there were wind advisories and explained my wife’s susceptibility to seasickness. Their response: “No Worries.”

Loaded with Dramamine, ginger pills, ginger gum, wristbands and the skin of a green apple, we boarded the Sailaway Catamaran at 9AM. By 9:15, my wife was throwing up. The wind was fierce; the water choppy, the sky overcast and the sail time was an hour of agony. Now, when we took a similar rough sea voyage from Cape Town to Robbins Island in South Africa to see the prison that held Nelson Mandela, once off the boat my wife recovered in about 30 minutes. So, we were hoping that she could rest on Low Isles and hopefully be up to taking the Glass bottom boat in calm waters and so see the magnificent coral and sea life advertised. But the company had a different agenda. Snorkelers (obviously, not us) and Glass Bottom Boaters had to disembark immediately upon arrival, so the crew could prepare their “gourmet” lunch. There was no way my wife could stay at sea and the Captain did take pity on us and ferried us in the Glass Bottom Boat to the Island, where my wife was able to rest under the shade of the only Thatched umbrella we could find. Ironically, as I held my wife’s head in my lap, during this short journey, I studied the underwater kingdom below and saw…nothing, but brown coral. You see, without any sun, there is no reflective light and hence no variation in the color of the coral. Later, we spoke to one of the snorkelers and he told us there was very little marine life to be seen and what he did see wasn’t very spectacular or colorful. Obviously we got back alive and my wife was fine that evening. Surprisingly, upon our return to Marina del Rey, when we related our exploits to friends at the California Yacht Club, they told us they had similar experiences, both with seasickness and the disappointing underwater display. So, what advice do I have for future travellers to Australia? By all means go…go to see The Penguins at Phillip Island near Melbourne, the sunrise and sunset of the sacred Uluru rock formation at Ayres Rock, the rock art in Kakdu, the sky rail over and train ride through the rain forest at Kurunda and the harbor and Opera House in Sydney. These will all be memorable and well worth that long flight. As for the Great Barrier Reef, you have to go, but don’t expect it to be so great.