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In mid-April a group of Alacostans headed Down Under to the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea to dive on Mike Ball's Spoilsport, out of Townsville, on a trip organized by Tom Whitaker. A few folks just flew in for the eight day boat trip and others spent the weeks before and after the trip viewing such diverse topside Australian flora and fauna as wall ferns, gum trees, piss ants, kangaroos, rock wallabies, kookaburras, and Sydneysiders. All the Alacostans managed to make it to the boat, however, and all managed to make it back off of the boat in one piece, even if the boat didn't quite make it back to port unscathed...
The boat was well-appointed, with some recent and much-appreciated
improvements such as a roof on the sun deck to provide shade. Most
agreed that the crew was very friendly and helpful and all agreed that
the food was excellent and more than plentiful, unless one counts the
vegemite and baked beans for breakfast (fortunately, there were other
choices!). However, one key necessity that the boat lacked was a
diver recall system of any kind, which accounted for some extremely
tense moments on the last night of the trip when Kevin
Dalley and Chris Dutra chose to go on a night dive at the
very same time that the boat ran aground on what had been a pristine
Coral Sea reef...Eventually the divers were found and the Captain
got the only-slightly-damaged boat off of the reef, but not before
primitive recall techniques (make a crew member go find the divers
underwater and bring them back to the surface quite quickly) led to
several hours on 
for Kevin and Chris and near heat attacks for
some of those on board...
Nonetheless, all's well that ends well (except for that reef of course), and on balance it was a wonderful trip. Many of those present, including Susan Carter and John Purnell, were on their first South Pacific dives, and could be overheard oohing and ahhhing incessantly through their regulators over the diversity and health of the soft corals and marine life...Even South Seas veterans like Roy Benedict were captivated by the once-in-a-lifetime experience of sharing a beachcombing expedition at Flinders Cay with just hatched, minutes-old green sea turtles... The group, which also included Alacosta veteran Elsa Bailey and President Bill McDowell, spotted such traditional Australian creatures as giant clams, anemonefish, and a Giant Humphead Wrasse; as well as adult sea turtles; a huge Maori Grouper; trevally; barracuda; morays; octopi; sharks of many different types, sizes and shapes; tropicals of almost every persuasion; and a number of lionfish. Only lobsters and morays were in surprisingly low supply, and rays were almost non-existent. Visibility was generally excellent to outstanding, and many of the divers actually did four or five dives a day. In true Alacostan live-aboard tradition, after-diving activities were fairly tame, and consisted mostly of looking for (and sometimes finding) the Southern Cross, reading, eating, drinking Aussie wine, and sleeping.
The start of the week saw ``fine'' weather, as the Aussies like to say, but conditions gradually deteriorated to the point that diving the wreck of the Yongala remained a dream for the next trip, and the last day of diving was cut a bit short. Still, trip members counted themselves as very lucky after hearing that the boat never left port in Townsville the following week.
Other than the excitement when the boat ran aground, there were no real diver calamities or mishaps with which to amuse the Blurb readers, unless one counts Kevin's efforts at cross-dressing diving in Emma's wetsuit...However, since Alacosta trips are sometimes known as fostering grounds for romance, I am pleased to report the unverified rumor that Rocky Rockafellow and Marcia Marcellini actually got married in Cairns the week after the trip...[Rumors that they were forced to get married are untrue. Ed.]
And on a side note: if you missed the trip, I recommend checking out the underwater slide show at the next club meeting. You will want to start saving your pennies to head down under...but if you really can't wait, and want a good taste of the merry old land of Oz, blow a few of those pennies on the new Bill Bryson book, In A Sunburned Country: Bryson makes a perfect travel guide to one of the world's truly wonderful countries!
On June 3, Alacosta went down a creek with a paddle. John Beland led a trip down the Russian River.
Alacosta floated from Asti to Alexander in canoes and kayaks, only occasionally stopping to rescue kayakers and turn their boats upright. The river was a bit low this year. The Alacostans spent much time dragging their kayaks across the banks. Michael Daily was lucky enough to get a sit on top kayak this year with a high center of gravity. However, sit on tops are much less likely to fill up with water than sit inside kayaks, like the one he used last year.
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