Tale of two reefs

TRADING SPACES

I arrived in Cairns in a downpour and checked into the elegant Shangri-La Hotel, which overlooks the harbor. Cairns is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef — the town has more dive shops than bars. More dive shops than libraries. More dive shops than McDonald’s (yes, even that).

Early the next morning, I was picked up by the Spirit of Freedom’s transfer bus and whisked off to the domestic airport for transport to Lizard Island so I could rendezvous with the live-aboard. The luxurious 125-foot Spirit of Freedom operates both seven- and four-day itineraries. The seven-day trip leaves from Cairns and takes divers to top sites on the Ribbon Reefs, which are along the northern end of the barrier reef on the way to Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea. Divers who opt for the four-day Osprey trip are flown to Lizard to start their adventure.

GET IN THE WATER NOW!

Since Lizard Island is close to the most well-known site on the Great Barrier Reef — Cod Hole on Ribbon Reef #10 — we were in the water within about two hours of boarding, before we’d even had a chance to read all of each other’s name tags and figure out how to use the shipboard toilets.

Ty Sawyer / Sport Diver

Cod Hole is an entire coral nation. The massive potato cods are, of course, hard to miss, but so are the schools of sweetlips, loads of flittery clownfish, passing green sea turtles and napping blacktip reef sharks. The competition for space extends well beyond the obvious, though. Tiger blennies, Moorish idols, blue-spotted lagoon rays, wobbegongs and many more of the barrier reef’s staggering estimated 2,000 species of fish seem to have taken a fancy to the wonderfully clear waters and bommies at this site.

After two dives, though, we were off on the long crossing to one of diving’s most famous bits of coral, Osprey Reef, and it was time for that most-heralded of rituals on live-aboards: overeating. Rob, although officially titled “cook,” was a galley magician, a true chef; he loaded the tables with such incredible food that we were all guaranteed to gain weight. But no one on the boat seemed to care — we all dug in to the “tucker” as if we’d missed a week of meals.

Just about the time dessert arrived, the Spirit of Freedom weighed anchor and we all headed to our large cabins for a night spent dwelling in our own version of the Great Barrier Dreaming.

THE MELTING POT

Slide show   A Mermaid’s Playground Presented by Sport Diver Magazine. more photos

In the 18th century, there was a desire espoused by many great American thinkers and leaders — such as Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, George Washington and (my favorite) John Paul Jones — to become citizens of the world. Kind of like John Lennon’s Imagine, Colonial-style. In more modern times, the notion of being a citizen of the world represents an ideal of a global vision — an ideal that ripples through the nomadic expat dive world. Among dive travelers, wanderlust runs rampant, and the concept of goodbye, even after a short acquaintance, is almost foreign. And if there’s a central core for this global world, it’s Australia.

Looking around the Spirit of Freedom I saw architects from Ireland, teachers from Oregon, bankers and divemasters from England, and Scottish, Japanese, Canadian and Norwegian divers from all walks of life — not to mention an Aussie or two. There was an entire United Nations on the dive boat, all brought together with one common goal: to explore the world’s last real frontier. And that’s exactly what Osprey Reef felt like when we got there.

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