Spirit of Ulysses – Nordhan N76

Written by: Liam

This week was awesome! We spent most of it out at the Great Barrier Reef, and then on Saturday, we headed back to Airlie Beach. The whole week was packed with fun, adventure, and even a little bit of sadness.

When we got to the GBR, we wasted no time getting everything set up. First, we threw the mat (our huge floatable lily pad) into the water, then the tender, and finally the jet-ski. Once all the toys were out, we grabbed our snorkels and took the tender out to the reef. As soon as I got in the water, I spotted a snapper swimming around. I kept exploring and made my way over the top of the reef. Then, I swam off to the edge and saw a White-tip Reef Shark! Mum was right next to me, and I could tell she was freaked out, but we actually went back to look for it again. When we got back to the boat, we all jumped onto the mat and just hung out there for a while before heading inside.

The next day, something really cool happened. We were swimming, and we saw a bird just floating around in the water. It looked like a baby, so we checked online and found out it was a baby Greater Crested Tern. We wrapped it in a towel and put it on the bow to rest. Later, when we checked on it, we found it had done a lot of poos, so we left it alone to chill out. The next morning, we woke up to find a bunch of fish on the mat. I hand-fed one to the bird, and it ate it right out of my hand! That’s how we knew it was definitely a baby. We kept feeding it until it was full, but then we ran out of fish. At lunchtime, we decided to try something new—we sprayed the hose at it slowly, and it started drinking the water. On the third day, we named it Percy.

But then, on the fourth day, something really sad happened. When we checked on Percy, we found out he had died. We were all really sad, especially since we had named him. We sang a song for him and gave him a little ceremony. I even fired a cap gun eight times as we let him go overboard. It was a pretty sad moment for all of us.

Aside from that, the week was still pretty awesome. I got to drive the tender a lot, which was really fun. I even got to drive it by myself to drop Hannah off at her friend Zoe’s boat. I loved that! Every day we went out to the Reef to snorkel, though I didn’t get to drive the tender out to the Reef itself because I could have hit a Bombay (which is coral that gets close to the surface but isn’t part of the main Reef). But I didn’t mind that too much.

On Saturday, we headed back to Airlie Beach and didn’t get there until about 5 pm. As soon as we anchored, we got the tender down and went out to the pub for dinner. The food was great, and when we got back to the boat, we all went to bed—except me. I got to stay up and watch Pacific Rim with Mum, which was really cool.

The next day, we went to a surf shop, and I got a new jumper. Nicky got one too. For dinner, we went to a pizza place that makes really good pizza. After eating, we headed back to the boat, and everyone else went to bed. I had a blast this week and can’t wait to get back out to the Reef again. I’m also super excited for the pirate party that’s coming up in a few days!