Fraser continued…
Brooke took a few pictures that I didn’t include in the last blog. We did a guided walk on the beach the morning that we left Fraser Island. We saw stingray indentations in the sand that were pretty cool. Ty made “tracks” in the sand with his hands so the dingos would know where to find us. Lily looked super cute in Aunt Brookie’s sunnies. And Ty got to help some random dude on the beach plunge yabbies out of the sand. One thing I never thought I would hear come out of my son’s mouth…”I really super bad want a yabby plunger for my birthday.”

Hell.
That is the best way to describe our tour to the Great Barrier Reef and Lady Musgrave Island. We all took our Travelcalm, but no amount of medication could prepare us for what was ahead of us. First warning sign was the shack where we did our check in. Then we had to ride on tinnies to get out to the Lady Musgrave boat. When we pulled up to it, I thought, “oh crap, this isn’t good.” The other boats we have been on have been quite a bit larger and much much much nicer. At first we were going to sit on the top deck outside to be able to get some air, but the crazy old man skipper said we would get soaked. Um. We were up really high. How? But ok, so we went inside on the top level. The seats were literally falling apart. It was obvious that they hadn’t put any of their profits back into the boat. Yikes.

Swell.
So off we went, out of the protected Bay Area and across the bar. Oh crap. It was rough. But I thought it was only rough because we were crossing the bar, but it got worse and worse. 20 minutes in I asked crazy old man skipper how much longer until it smoothed out. He said “a ways longer – not until we get to the island”. Which was at least another hour. Brooke was sick immediately. I fought it off for about 45 minutes then lost the battle. Tansie held out a little longer and then was done for. There was one guy on the crew that was taking good care of us – not sure what his name was but we appreciated it! I was getting scared because my hand and arms were getting numb. And then my hands started cramping up. For those of you that remember this freak thing that used to happen to me, the claw made a comeback appearance. The guide said I needed to get oxygen into my bloodstream, so I tried taking deep breaths. I was starting to panic because when it has happened in the past I needed to get an IV to make it go away. We were a long freaking way from a hospital.

We were cruising along and I heard shouting from our back, and the crew started running around, and I heard “he’s gone” as they were looking over the ledge. I thought they were saying “boy” and my panic increased. The swells were so huge, there was no way anyone would have been able to survive a fall overboard. I looked over at a couple across the aisle and they said “don’t panic” and then we got clarification that it was a life boat that went overboard, not a boy. Thank God. They had to leave it behind as it was too dangerous to go in after it. That added about 20 minutes to our trip. I couldn’t help but think “maybe we should turn back since we are missing our freaking life boat in the scariest waters I have ever been in. Crap.

Pontoon.
But no, we forged on ahead. Awful miserable terrible. When we got to the island, the water calmed a but but was still a bit choppy. I thought we were getting off on the island to snorkel, but they hooked us up to a rickety old pontoon in the ocean, with Lady Musgrave off in the distance. We were supposed to be assigned to the third boat over to the island, but Brooke needed to be on land. I couldn’t swap my introductory scuba dive lesson, so I sent them off to the island.

Scuba.
I learned today that I will never become a certified diver. Not for me. There were 4 of us going together, one of which I had to throw a noodle to earlier because she couldn’t swim and didn’t have a life jacket on, and the lifeguard thought she was fine when she clearly wasn’t. Crap.
We got our weight belts on, and then our air tank (holy cow that is heavy) and a brief lesson. Then we went in the water and had to do 2 “skills”. First we had to let a little water in our mask and then get the water out while we were still under water. Um. I panicked. I swam to the top. That sucked. Salt water in your eyes is no Bueno. And then, even more scary, we had to take out our breathing tube and then put it back in while under water. Oh hell. I did it, miraculously, but I did not like that feeling at all. Then we pushed away from the pontoon and attempted to go out a ways. The four of us were holding hands and we all kept drifting to the surface. We were getting nowhere. I don’t know how long we were out there, but I had had enough. So had our guide. No turtles. No fun.

Island.
When I came out of the water, Tansie had returned from the island but Brooke had not. She wouldn’t get on the boat – can’t blame her. We forced ourselves to eat a light lunch, and I asked if there was any possibility of having a helicopter take us back to the mainland. Unfortunately they don’t do helicopter rides on this tour, so no such luck. Brooke came back over to the pontoon on the next boat. She wasn’t feeling well enough to snorkel so Tansie and I went out. The coral was pretty amazing – better than I had seen on the other tours, but the current was really strong. We got pulled out quite a ways and then a storm rolled in causing big waves. We decided to head back, and let me tell you it was a workout. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. The life guards had to rescue several people that were struggling. So yeah. We sat on the pontoon in the pouring rain counting down the minutes until we could head for home.

Lounge.
The guides all said it would be a smoother ride on the way home, almost like sitting on our lounge (couch). Bullshit. We sat in the lower section this time, and somehow Tansie and I held it in, but Brooke was struggling. They started up the boat and crazy old man skipper told us he had bad news. One of the four engines wasn’t starting. Recall the missing life boat. I started shaking. They said we were going to start to head back and hope we got it started on the way. WTF? I can’t explain how terrible that ride was. Sure, it was better than going out to the reef, but it was still awful. Thinking about it makes me nauseous. When we got to the bar crossing, the crew had almost everyone go out to the front of the boat to help shift the weight so we wouldn’t get stuck on a sand bar. Hell. We couldn’t get off that boat fast enough. I had to stand beside the car for several minutes before I felt ok to drive the 5 minutes back to our hotel. We made it, but I ran inside and lost my lunch. I slept for a bit, had another episode, then slept some more. I woke up around 8:30 and felt not perfect but better. Brooke was asleep, so Tansie and I watched The Bachelor.

So yeah, we survived, but just barely. There were not any smiles coming from the three of us. They probably shouldn’t have taken the boat out in those seas. If I had known that was how it was going to be, there is no way I would have gone. What really sucks is that Jess, Jason, Em, and Bri are coming in a few days and we were planning on doing the same tour. I cannot let them do it. It isn’t worth it. :(. Same with Sundie, Brad and Lucia in a month. We need to find something else they can do, because I wouldn’t put my worst enemy through that torture.

So yeah, crappy blog post. Crappy day. Huge disappointment.