Just leaving Cardwell now. I thought it would be good to ell y-all about what a day volunteering on board the Kangaroo Explorer actually entailed.
The days start early on a dive boat in the Coral Sea. I tended to get up at about 20 after five to get the day going. The first duty was to set up the kitchen for the day ahead. Turn on the lights, the fans, make sure the bin is empty, pull in the floor mats from the dive deck where they hang overnight, and grab any things the chef told you the evening before. This was usually a tin of tomatoes and a tin of beans from the depths of the hold on the port side of the boat, as well as a watermelon and some fruit and hash browns from the fridge.
There was a brief respite for tea after that. 15 minutes to relax before the chef awoke. First crew, then passengers filter slowly into the saloon, the largest common room on the boat. When the chef gets there we would ask if he needed anything, and inevitably he did. We would rush around and assemble it by about 5 mins to six while the passengers were getting their dive brief done for the 6:00 dive, then jump into our dive gear and try to be the first in the water so we would be the first out. This time of year the sun doesn't rise quite as early so sometimes by the time we all jumped in the water it was more like 6:20.
Some days we moved the boat to another site between the 6 and 8 dives, so on those days we had to be out of the water by 7:10 or face the consequences. The consequence usually being a big spoonful of Vegemite. The 6 am dive is pretty nice once you get in the water which feels pretty cold at about 24 degrees...The boat rules are return to the boat with at least 50 bar of air left in the tank (bar being a unit of pressure) and no longer than 50 minutes dive time. The first guy I dove with, the volley who was on board before me, was a very advanced diver. We both just sip air which meant we were often limited by time rather than by air on our dives, a nice feeling that I could keep up with the air consumption of a diver with over 600 dives!
When diving one should start with the deepest dive of the day first, then only do shallower dives as the day progresses. I am certified to 18 meters, so on the first dive of the day I would try to find a patch of water where I could get down that deep. Usually by they time I had done that, the sun was starting to shine into the water and as we slowly worked our way upwards it got brighter and brighter. The morning is a special time on the reef as it is when the night fish go to sleep and the day fish wake up. It sounds stupid and simplistic, but as soon as the sun comes above the horizon, fish explode out of every little crack and hole in the reef.
After jumping out of the water at a few minutes after seven we went in to have breakfast. A hot cup of tea was a must to warm up from what I am sure was mild hypothermia, then some toast and eggs and whatever else was on offer. We had to be the first ones done as we were about to wash all the dishes. There is no dishwasher on the boat, so everything is done by hand. By this time the chef has also started on lunch, so there are cooking dishes starting to pile up at an alarming rate.
We usually caught up sometime around eight, just as the passengers were getting their dive brief for the 8 o'clock dive. We were not able to do that dive however as it was time for us to get our clean on and vacuum the public areas, the cabins being vacated, and whatever other areas of the ship were on the daily schedule. While on person did this, the other volley would fill up and put away all the jams and peanut butters, and fill all the butter dishes, and wipe all the tables in the salon, then give all the bathrooms in the rooms being vacated a clean.
This all had to be done before about 9:15 because at 9:30, the day boat, Reefkist, comes to drop off passengers, supplies, crew, take on its lunch, and grab a bunch of dive tanks. This transfer varied every day. Sometimes we had a loaf of bread and some milk come aboard as well as a couple passengers and their bags, and some days we had 12 or so passengers and a couple hundred kilos of supplies, mostly food. The transfer was done as fast as possible so that Reefkist could move away to another nearby dive site to do their first dive of the day. All the crew formed a chain to pass things along. This worked for all but the hot things such as soup or lasagne. I always tried to carry these over because it was the only chance all day to get off the Kangaroo Explorer, if only for a minute.
Storing all the supplies was next, then making sure chef had all that he needed. This could take no time at all, or an hour or two depending on the load. The worst to put away were tins. They weigh 3 kilos, and they must first be moved from the salon to the hall, then taken out of the three pack boxes, then handed down this narrow steep staircase, then chucked into the hole in the floor, then moved up to 20 feet forward in the low sores area at the bottom of the hull, complete with massive stringers and pipes and such. That was a terrible job.
The next dive we did was at 11. Depending on the workload that day we either got to sit around for a while before that, soak up some rays, read a book, whatever, or we were working most of the time. The second dive of the day was usually the brightest in terms of sunlight, and as such, the most colourful.
After drying off sometime around 12, we tucked into lunch, a hearty affair. Again we had to wash the dishes, and again the chef was already into the next meal. If he was prepared, most of the dishes had already been created, so at night there would not be much to do. We had until about 4 to do that little bit of work, so after we finished, there were usually a couple hours of chill out time, and time to watch the passengers who had gone in at one swimming around.
The four was the last dive of the day for us. Shortly after we got out from that one was supper. Again we ate firstish, and then had to do the washing up. By this time of day we were very tired and standing up was the last thing we wanted to do...
The passengers got briefed at about 6:45 for the night dive at 7:00, so after we finished the dishes there was a nice little bit of calm with just a few people sitting quietly. After all the divers were out of the water, we pulled out the floor mats again, scrubbed all the counters and appliances, swept and mopped the floor. Sometimes we would pull a roast or some other kind of meat out of the freezer to defrost overnight, but after that we were free to go.
By this time it was usually about eight, and we were pretty beat. I usually tried to read my book for a while, or just sat and watched tv in the salon. I usually sat up until 9:30 when the hostie closed the bar and went to bed. A nice sleep rocking in my bed like a baby with the waves, and it was all to soon again before the next day started all over again.
It was tons of fun and tons of work. Worth it though! Met some fun people on the boat, both crew and passengers, and it would be cool to run into them again sometime!
I think I am done writing for now, I am going to sit back and relax, maybe play some cards or read a book. I hope you enjoyed!
