Cod Hole/Ribbon Reefs VS. Coral Sea

[caymaniac]

faye once bubbled...
Don't miss YONGALA wreck outside of townsville. It ranks as one of my top dives ever, especially at night. Trust me check it out.

Very good advice, but I've checked out about getting to the Yongala from Cairns,
it's a five hour one way drive. Is there any way that the wreck can be reached by plane, or a very fast boat, I don't have enough time in Oz to get there and back.
Actually we also wish we had time to do Ningaloo as well. Drat:upset: , going that far from home and not being able to do everything you want to. When we get to Cairns, we figured one day to get jet lag straight, one day to Kurunda, one day to see Cairns, then 4 to liveaboard, then one night in Port Douglas, one day to Lizard Island,then two days up to Cape Trib., one more dive day then 24 hours before you can fly and my time is up ;-0 . The really good news is the plane is stopping in Hawaii for eight days to let us enjoy and dive a bit of Hawaii

Caymaniac

ps. did I miss anything............. , this mmay call for another dive trip

 

[h3o]

caymaniac, i did dives in guam and yap, well i'm from guam, so i actually just went to yap (see my yap trip report for details)

 

[Scuba Barbie]

I may be in Sydney end of May on a very limited time and dollar budget.

Heard diving in Sydney is cold, is this true?

Have about 3-4 days to make the trip north. It seems for this length of time my only choice is Cod Hole/Ribbon Reefs.

Is it true that you need 7 or more days to do Coral Sea?

Thanks for your help.
DD

 

[Booges]

The Cod Hole is definitely overrated. Big fish but not very exciting. Also, while we were there, a group from Lizard Island with absolutely no dive experience, were suited up and diving in the area. They were touching EVERYTHING! We actually saw a person pocket a star fish, another person was standing on the coral and one person picked up a nudi branch and swam off with it. Have no idea what they were thinking. Anyway, with all the touching and damaging going on from the inexperienced and ill-informed groups from Lizard, the diving is just ok there. The rest of the ribbon reefs were spectacular however.

H3o, if you're looking for the big stuff, the ribbon reefs are not for you. The reef system actually acts as a barrier to the big fish. Oh, and the Minke's probably won't be there at the end of May but if it is unusually warm, they sometimes come early. Those and the cod are by far the biggest things around the ribbon reefs. I believe you can see great whites on the other coast of Australia but I'm not sure of that.

If we had more time, we would have definitely done the Yongola. Some of the operators offer the Yongola with the ribbon reefs.

One other option some of you may want to check out is an operator out of Sydney. They sail the Whitsunday islands on a custom sailing yacht. I believe the name is the Sydney Harbor Luxury Yacht. The owners are Lynne and John Boyce. We were married on their yacht last year and they are amazing people! Lynne is an incredible gourmet chef with recipes that have been published in Bon Appetite. She also holds a masters in Marine Biology. John is an expert sailor and both are a ton of fun. We did not sail with them to the Whitsundays but we are planning to in the future. If anyone is interested, I can provide the website if you email me.

 

[RSdiver]

The Coral Sea and Yongala far outshine the Great Barrier Reef trips because they go out past the Great Barrier reef to clearer waters where fewer divers have gone. You do run the risk of inclement weather in the open sea though.

If you are a photographer the extra clarity in the water will mean you will have better photographic opportunities.

2 years ago, I went on all 3 Mike Ball trips - Coral Sea, Great Barrier Reef, and PNG Kavieng. On the Coral Sea trip we had exceptionally nice weather and I shot 36 rolls of film. On the other two trips, GBR and PNG, I shot 22 and 20 rolls respectably.

To date, Mike Ball's Coral Sea trip has been the best dive trip in 14 years that I've ever been on.

 

[sclemens]

Info on Mike Ball:
CAIRNS, Australia, Nov. 07 -- The latest issue of IN-DEPTH, the world's leading scuba consumer advocate publication, has announced a third Scam Buster Alert related to the discriminatory pricing policies of Mike Ball Dive Expeditions Ltd.

The Australia-based live-aboard operator, which is partly owned by a Japanese consortium, has been overcharging Americans and Japanese divers by a 20-30% margin.

The price discrimination against Americans and Japanese has caused angry complaints from independent divers in the US and Japan, as well as US-based dive travel specialists who cannot compete with their Australian counterparts in the increasingly important and competitive online travel bookings market.

"It's all happening online these days and any pricing policy that fails to give everyone an equal opportunity to compete will be condemned," explained a US-based dive travel specialist. "We are losing bookings to Australia-based travel agents who can sell exactly the same trip at a 20-30% discount. Ball is making a lot of enemies in America and Japan with these policies."

According to IN-DEPTH Editor-in-Chief, Cameron Montgomery, one way to detect dive operators who are involved in pricing scams is by checking their web site booking forms.

CDNN INTERNET LINKS

IN-DEPTH

CyberLinx Scuba Directory

SCUBA FORUM

Cyber Diver Scuba Magazine
"If there are no prices listed, find another operator," warned Montgomery.

Ball told CDNN he can't stay in business with a single rate and implied that Americans and Japanese can afford to pay more.

"They know what we charge and judge it to be good value compared to alternatives," Ball explained.

 

[spottydog]

Even though Mike Ball will quote you in US$ you can always pay in AU$ if it's cheaper.

I remeber a number of threads on the subject of Mike Balls pricing and I believe there was even a response from a Mike Ball rep and the difference is due to them pricing in US$ a few years in advance and not knowing what the exchange rates would do.

when I enquired the prices I was quoted for my trip (Premium Cabin, 3 night Cod Hole & Ribbon Reefs) were:
£499
AU$1374
US$824

I chose the £ price which at the time of booking was slightly more expensive than the AU$ price just so I avoided the risk of currency fluctuations. In the end this meant that I saved £50 on the current exchange rate but it could easily have gone the other way.

Having experienced Mike Ball I would recommend them to anyone and I felt theie service ajnd quality of crew/boat were worth the bit extra than some operators.

HTH