Location: Cairns, Australia.

Our first full day started by driving an hour from Cairns to Port Douglas and jumping on board a Quicksilver catamaran to visit the Great Barrier Reef. News to me: the GBR is actually over 2900 individual reefs.

I did not trust bringing my good camera with open ocean travel and my phone images weren’t any better than Quicksilver’s press images, so I am using those. I invite you to view Quicksilver’s image gallery. Just don’t think it was as empty as it looks, more about that below.

It amused us that this small boat carried 400 passengers, which was more than our cruise ship – yeah, you don’t eat or sleep on the catamaran. It essentially was a person-ferry, which took 90 minutes from Port Douglas. You can see the boat docked behind the reef pontoon below.

The “pontoon” is a permanently attached pier. The engineer in me was impressed by what they had:

• changing rooms
• fresh water showers
• buffet cafeteria
• loaner masks, snorkels, fins and stinger suits
• underwater walk way with windows
• handicap capable entry into the water
• launches to helicopter pad (500 meters away)
• semi-submerged boats with underwater windows that launched every 15 minutes

Wearing the stinger suits was required if you entered the water. We didn’t see any jellyfish, but Australia is home for darn near every poisonous and/or stinging critter that exists, so why take the chance. The suits were also good sun protection.

The buffet was “meh”, and the pontoon was ABSOLUTELY PACKED. Seems when Silversea scheduled this event they forgot it was during Lunar New Year. Many folks were escaping the chaos at home to enjoy a quick down-under holiday. And it seemed many have never swum before.

I enjoyed the semi-sub: it was a V-shaped hull with windows on both sides. I found the blue-purple branch coral particularly striking.

My thoughts on Quicksilver. If you have never really snorkeled before and want an organized, safe and controlled visit to the GBR, it’s perfect. However, it is not something to do twice. If I ever return to Australia and the reef, I will organize something a little more personal.

Afterwards there again was a 90-minute return to Port Douglas, and a 60-minute return to Cairns. There is a good viewing spot along the road.

Next time: Rain Forest.