Bart Bear's Blog

No, it's not my spelling, that's the way that you say "glass bottom boat" in the Norfolk language. Actually, I prefer to call this sort of boat a see-through boat. When the water is clear you can see lots of interesting things through the big glass windows in the bottom of a boat like this. This is the one that takes you out to see the coral reef and fish in Emily Bay on Norfolk Island. It is different to most boats because it is solar powered. That makes it very quiet and it doesn't scare the fish. The water in Emily Bay is some of the clearest that the Oldies have ever seen. You should hear them rave on about it when they come out of the water after a snorkelling session. Of course I am not allowed to go swimming with them so boats like this are the only way I can get an idea what they are talking about. The coral was a bit dull this time; it's the time of year when most coral is brownish or greenish, but the fish were really great. Lots of them and some very pretty colours. Personally, I like parrot fish best of the lot. They are brightly coloured and they also make a lot of the sand in coral lagoons; they eat coral, crunching it up to get the coral polyps and pooing the finely chewed coral sand. I really liked the way that this boat was launched. The tractor pulled the trailer out so deep that the engine was almost in the water, then it let the boat loose on a rope. The tractor then came back out of the water, the boat was hauled up to the end of the trailer, and the trailer was the gangplank we used to get on board. Try it yourself when you go to Norfolk Island.

Labels: boats, Norfolk Is