The Cosmos Adventure - News

Report From Joe Dorr -- Received June 2, 2002

Cosmos

5/29/02

Sailing is not the highlight of the trip up the Great Barrier Reef, although the sailing is definitely great.  Inside the reef, we are protected from the large ocean swells.  Cruising here is like sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, where 25 knot winds generate only two-foot waves, instead of eight-foot ocean swells that make holding on to the boat a full time and sometimes difficult job.

Even though the sailing is wonderful and gentle, we do most of it at night, leaving the days for some of the greatest reef diving in the world; we are doing much diving.  While we would have loved staying longer at various places in order to explore each more thoroughly, we have had to move on.

Before I go on, it might be interesting to summarize how we are able to sail or motor along at night, inside the Great Barrier Reef, where islands, shoals, and inner reefs are profuse and unpredictably situated.  We put ourselves safely in the hands of modern technology and vigilant watch-keeping.  Like all cruising boats today, we have Geographic Position System (GPS) computers on board.  One of these is connected to both a Personal Computer with charting software, and to our autopilot.  Before we leave any anchorage, port, or mooring, we first plan our route on the Personal Computer by drawing straight line tracks from one turning point to the next.  Then we load the exact latitude and longitude of each turning point into the GPS computer.  This done, we are ready to go.  The GPS gives commands to the autopilot, telling it where to go next.  The autopilot then steers a straight course to the next turning point.  We simply allow the autopilot to steer us to our next location. 

The technology is so good that it is easier to see exactly where we are by looking at the computer, than by looking out into the dark of night.  We remain confident because the few markers and landmarks that are visible at night are all in the right location, relative to our little vessel.  Before I started on this part of the circumnavigation, I read in numerous cruising guides that it was common to cruise at night on the GBR.  I had no idea how easy it would be using modern technology.

When I closed my last report, I said that we have become sailors hoping for no wind.  We got a good deal of wind, but we are lucky sailors converted to divers, because as we are making our way up the 2,000 mile Reef, the wind has stopped for most of a week, giving us the calm weather that is so suitable for being in and under the water on the reef.  The calm air makes it comfortable to be in the water thirty-five miles from land, and allows all the stirred up sand and sediment to return to the bottom, yielding great visibility.  As we traveled up the Reef, we snorkeled and dived using our Supersnorkel at five different locations.  The Supersnorkel allows two divers to go down a maximum of 60 feet.

While we were in Cairns, we attended Reef Teach, a three-hour class put on by Paddie, an ultra-enthusiastic marine biologist.  He was as much an actor as he was a teacher, which increased his overall effectiveness. My diving experience was greatly improved by taking his class.

Knowledge is a great thing.  Let me give you an example.  The profusion of fish seemed a bewildering, strange and beautiful kaleidoscope to me before I attended Reef Teach.  There seemed to be no order around which I could focus.  Having learned from Paddie the six major classes of fish found on the reef and then being able to identify them by class made me feel more at home and brought some semblance of order to what I was seeing.

Paddie also distinguished between a macro dive and a micro dive.  On a micro-dive you pick a particularly likely spot over the coral and fish and then wait and watch the sea life below.  On a macro-dive you swim over an area at your normal pace.  During a macro dive, you see lots of coral,  both soft and hard, and lots of fish, small and large.  The fish are not generally afraid when we come into their presence, but they definitely direct most of their attention to the strange swimmer in their midst.  Therefore, we don't get to observe the fish at their normal behavior, other than avoiding direct contact with what they believe might be a danger to them.

Macro dives are all that I had done before attending Reef Teach.  Those early dives yielded great views of a variety of coral and fish, including sharks, giant clams, giant sea turtles, and a huge wave of Yellowtailed Fusilliers that eventually formed a circle around and below me, making me feel that I was swimming inside a revolving basket made of swimming fish. 

My motivation to micro dive is to observe a very small part of the reef conducting its normal daily activities.  I choose a promontory about five feet below the surface, to the north of Steve's Brommie along Ribbon Reef # 3.  There seems to be a wide variety of coral and fish at this spot.  Of course when I arrive, many of the fish stop what they were doing to have a look at me, and many leave the scene.

As I lie suspended in the water, watching what develops, the fish return to their old activities.   I am on a prime spot, because this particular promontory happens to be a very active fish cleaning station.

A fish cleaning station is reminiscent of a car wash.   Three Bicolor Cleaner Wrasse are hard at work on a Redlip Parrotfish.  The Parrotfish holds his place while the Wrasse nips his sides to remove any small specs that are unhealthy for the Parrotfish.  The same specs provide food for the Wrasse.  After a few minutes, the Parrotfish decides he is finished, and swims off, only to be replaced by another Parrotfish, then a Spangled Emperor and yet another Parrot, and by a Sweetlip.  Pretty soon, it is easy to tell how the larger fish form a line up the side of the reef, each one in the line waiting its turn to be cleaned by the three hard working Wrasse.  On occasion, and for reasons that escaped me, the Cleaner Wrasse reject a fish that is next in line and move to the second fish in line.  I watch this for a while, and notice that when the line gets short and the Cleaner Wrasse have few options, they go back  to clean a fish that they had earlier rejected.  Perhaps the rejected fish was not growing enough tasty morsels for the Cleaner Wrasse, but the Wrasse got less particular when the picking got more slim.

It always amazes me to learn how much we miss, both in our daily lives, and in diving on the Great Barrier Reef, if we don't slow down and just observe the world around us.  Even going all the way around the world at just five miles an hour is sometimes much too fast.

Joe Dorr

Captain of the Cosmos

5/31/02

All day, my heart ached.  My smile vanished.  My disposition sagged.  Today, I felt like I did as a little boy awakened from my favorite dream, to the real world where such dreams did not come true for little boys like me.

This morning I woke up and Elke was asleep nestled up against my back.  I was happily awake as I realized that Elke could not possibly be sleeping beside me, but nonetheless, she was still there, pressing against me.  The feeling did not leave.  I lay there, continuing to know her presence was with me.  I refused to move.  But it was time to stand watch.  I still refused to move, because if I did move, I knew the lovely dream-feeling would end.

Sadly I was forced to move from my bed as reality returned and Elke was again thousands of miles away.  I was downcast the entire day.

Such is life on Cosmos without Elke.  I miss her all the time, but today a dream, followed by reality, made time away harder.  I love her so much.  I suppose we set about accomplishing such goals as a circumnavigation and then what we really love, what is really important, is brought more sharply into focus.

Sad at heart

Joe Dorr, Captain of the Cosmos