The Final Dives: Helm's Deep and The Wreck

Yesterday, I did my final dives on the Great Barrier Reef. While Connie toured Port Douglas, I went out with Quicksilver Dives to the Agincourt Ribbon Reef. Quicksilver was about twice the cost of the other dive companies, but they went to a portion of the reef no one else did and the locals kept recommending them. Even as I was boarding, I began to understand why. Better then 50% of the passengers were Australian instead of European or Asian.

Quicksilver runs a very complete operation with shark nets and lycra suits for the snorkelers plus a platform permanantly mounted out on the reef. Out at the platform, there is a helicopter, submarine, and several tender boats for running to different locations on the ribbon. They are also among the few using guides who were also naturalists. The platform has above and below water viewing areas so going in the water is not required to enjoy the reef. Everything is fully accessible and my boat had a half-dozen or so severely handicapped individuals onboard. Agincourt reef itself had almost no bleached or damaged coral and it is clear that accidentally touching the reef is more to them than the risk of being sued because a customer might get hurt. Everything about Quicksilver Dive speaks of a level of professionalism one or two rungs higher than most others providing tours of the reef.

We had a perfect day, so I got to do a couple of the drift dives that they usually can't do.

The first was named Helm's Deep. I didn't ask when it was named, but it was a good marketing decision. With a drift dive, the idea is that one submerges to a depth and lets the current do all the work. The drift runs along the north edge of Agincourt Reef 4 which is a helmit shaped section at the north end of the ribbon. There were three of us: Trevor our dive guide, Carrie from Florida on the fifth dive of her life, and me. Unfortunately, Carrie didn't weight herself properly and then got unnerved by the deep blue opposite the reef. This dive is right at the edge of the continental shelf and one could theoretically go several thousand feet down in some places. Imaging using a jet pack to hang 5 ft feet off the lip of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and you get an idea of the effect. After she headed for the surface for the second time, Trevor took her to lip of the reef and motioned me to stay at depth but in sight. The current was much faster down where I was (about 50 feet) and it took some work to stay below them where Trevor could still see me. The scenery was fantastic, but working like I had to made me burn a lot more air. My air was down to the safety margin after 26 minutes and so we went back to the tender.

The second dive, called The Wreck, was between ribbon sections 3 and 4. A few years back a Taiwanese fishing boat had gotten caught out beyond the reef in a storm and tried to run the 40 foot deep gap in the ribbon. Unfortunately, they mistook a bay-like portion of section 3 as the gap and wrecked.

There were three of us again: Trevor, a guy whose name I never got, and me.

Again, my match of the moment dive partner almost messed up the dive. For some reason, he panicked and starting hyperventilating after just a couple of minutes. Trevor took him to the surface, got a tender right there to recover the guy, and came back down to me. He then proceeded to give me a solo tour. Shortly thereafter, we saw a small white tipped shark, probably attracted by the panic earlier. The moment I looked directly at it, the shark doubled back and took off like he/she owed me money. It was amazing how quickly the shark merged into the background and she/he is almost invisible in the picture I took despite being only about 30 feet away.

We continued along paddling gently as the current carried us. We passed some of the most colorful reef I have ever seen. There was very little left of the wreck beyond the metal portions of an old anchor and something that looked like an old engine. After just under 40 minutes of enjoying the beauty, we surfaced and went back to the Quicksilver VIII.

I just got back from getting the photos developed and Connie is taking an afternoon nap. When she wakes up, she will probably put in her Wednesday.