Visit to The Great Barrier Reef

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While in Caines, I also take a fast catamaran boat out to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel and scuba.
We stop at Green Island for an hour, where I get an orientation for my scuba dive and go down into an underwater observing station on the dock.
We go out to a floating pontoon that is anchored on the reef (sorry for the poor picture shot through the window of the catamaran).
While on the reef, I snorkel and take a scuba lesson.  The water is fairly clear (maybe 10 m visibility) but the water is rougher today than it has been most of the week and so visibility is not as good as they have been having. It is still clear enough for us to see the coral on the bottom and lots of fish while snorkeling.  After scuba training, we are tested on skills while on a shallow platform, then we go on a 35 min dive with out instructor (and 2 other divers) going to the bottom (max 8.2 meter or 25 ft depth).  The view is spectacular of fish and a wide variety of coral.  We see an eagle ray and another form of ray as well as a large 4ft long fish that is so tame it allows us to touch it.  In fact it follows us around during our dive repeatedly popping up between us.  Unfortunately I did not have an underwater camera and so I have no pictures during the dive.