We were one of the 30 people who signed up for Bob and Sandra's organized chartered Seastar adventure on the Great Barrier Reef. The Oceania excursion had been cancelled for lack of participation, so we were very happy that we signed on with this one.
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| On the Seastar |
We met at 6:30 am in Martini's and then walked 20 min. on the wharf to the yacht. it was equiped with sting suits, snorkel and scuba gear. They served coffee, tea and muffins which was nice since we had to leave before there was any food served on board ship. The ride to the first reef was about 1 1/2 hours where we went snorkling in this wonderland of coral and fish. The area was marked with a buoy.
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| Reef shark |
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| Nemo. The guide dove down to capture this photo |
One of the crew took us on a guided tour, pointing out the turtles, the giant clams, and the small anemone fish who live within soft waving coral.
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| We have similar fish in Kona |
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| We never saw this one |
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| What a poser |
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| puffer fish |
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| nemo in soft coral |
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| Another anemone fish |
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| These weird things opened and closed these "lips" constantly |
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| Giant giant clam |
They also found a puffer fish. Barry, the barracuda, stays under the boat when anchored. The guide pointed out a reef shark, but I was the only one that saw it. I actually saw two of them. I came up to tell David where to look and then it was gone when I looked again, but caught it later when it moved over white sandy bottom.
The coral was spectacular. Hard coral boulders and lots of swaying, tentacle like corals. Staghorn coral, some with bright blue algae on them. It seems that all coral is white, but algae will turn them different colors. We saw all colors of the rainbow.
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| Corals and anemone fish |
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| Boulder coral and a tiny fish |
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| Star fish |
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| Yes, that is David and I |
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| I chose to pose as a clam |
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| David posed as a sea slug |
After lunch on the ship, we moved to Michaelmas cay, which is a sand atol housing thousands of birds. The sand beach was beautiful, but we snorkeled mostly. We had a different guide who found more unusual sea creatures.
I took the glass bottomed boat tour as well. I just didn't want to miss any minute of my opportunity to be on the Great Barrier Reef. The Seastar took photos for us and posted them for us to use. These are their photos.
This is a photo of the caldera at Kilauea volcano on the big island which is now bubbling closer to the surface recently. We got this from Facebook.
After lunch on the ship, we moved to Michaelmas cay, which is a sand atol housing thousands of birds. The sand beach was beautiful, but we snorkeled mostly. We had a different guide who found more unusual sea creatures. 
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