Cairns Trip

I thought I'd split up my posts for fun. It makes the page bigger and seems like there is more for you to read!
So Saturday morning I jumped on a JetStar plane and flew to Cairns. My luggage was seemingly lost when I got there. I got to baggage claim and most of the people on my flight got their bags and left. The carasel stopped moving. That is a bad feeling. I, along with about 5 other people headed back to the ticket-counter as there is no JetStar baggage agent. They are a very low-cost airline and service isn't great.
After about an hour wait to talk with the ticket agent, she called back to the baggage claim and there were another load of bags sitting there. Apparently a cart got lost and our bags were on it. Just my luck. I was happy to have a bag.
I caught a shuttle into town and stopped at my hostel. The memories started flooding back from my trip to Europe as I haven't stayed in a hostel since then. I met some people and went looking for the dive shop.
At the dive shop I arranged a pick-up time and got all set for the next day. I was like a little kid before Christmas! I walked around Cairnes for the rest of the evening and checked things out. It is a pretty small city. Surprised me because they have a fairly large airport. I guess it is the gateway to the north of Australia.
Instead of a beach they have a very large public pool that has sand in it like a beach. This is because of the crocodiles I guess. It is a pretty cool pool area. Lifeguards and all included.
Sunday morning I was to be picked up at 6:15. I set my alarm for 5:50 so I could grab a quick bite and a cup of coffee. I woke up at 6:16 and paniced! After running downstairs in my boxers, there was no van outside! I ran back upstairs and grabbed all of my things and ran back down. I was going to have to run to the dive shop ... not a good start. When I got back down there was a van pulling up. Only the dive instructor was in there. Apparently they stopped by at 6:00 and came back for me since I wasn't there. After all, I paid a good amount for this trip!
So at the dive shop I picked out some fins and got back in the van. We headed straight to the boat and got on and ready to go. There wasn't any time to spare. After boarding we had a quick briefing and about 3 hours until we got to the first dive site. There were about 20 Germans, 2 Austrians, some New Zealanders, Canadians, and some English people. I was the only American on board. That surprised me. It seemed like I was the odd-man out all during the trip. More about that later. 33 people + 4 instructors, a cook, and the skipper.