Well we have some more pictures on the flickr site of our time on board the Undersea Explorer.  6 days in the Great Barrier reef including 3 days at Osprey reef isolated out in the Coral Sea for those 3 days we were the only boat as far as the eye could see.  We were lucky enough to catch a Manta Ray at a cleaning station twice!  The graceful Manta with a 10ft wingspan cruised in for his daily cleaning and came within 3 feet of Chris!  The Manta looked Chris directly in the eye and for those 4 minutes it was like we were all creatures of the sea.

In addition to the Manta Ray, on Osprey Reef we saw sharks on every dive.  Most sharks just carried on with their business as usual, but every so often one would swoop by for a closer look. The reef also contained some of the most pristine reefs that we have ever seen (due mostly to it’s isolation). 

During one of our surface intervals we spotted some dolphins off the ships bow.  We excitedly alerted the skipper and he immediately started up the engines!  Cruising along towards the dolphins we could see that it was a large pod of about 50 to 60 Spinner dolphins.  The dolphins also began to approach the boat and began to ride our bow wave.  As the dolphins gained speed they would jump up over our bow wave, even 3 at a time!  They stayed with us even when we had to turn the boat!  It was an awesome experience!

 -Beth

Yes.  ..To as Chris mentioned, we are terrible bloggers!  To our defense we were totally isolated out on Osprey Reef for 5 days (not even another boat in sight).  We had a great time and just completed a gruling marathon of diving (6 days at 4 dives a day!).  We are recovering nicely though and tonight we are going to attempt cooking our own dinner on the traditional Aussie BBQ…..  the only thing missing is our friends to join in the fun!