GBR from Cairns - small boat daytrip? 1-night liveaboard?

[scotter]

Hi folks,

We are heading to Cairns for our 6-day honeymoon next week (April 13th). We'd love to get a taste of the GBR but this is a honeymoon, not a dive trip, so we want to keep the dive days to 1-2. So outer reef liveaboards are out...

After doing some searches, I've narrowed it down to this... any comments, advice?

- Day trip(s) on a small or small-ish boat (i.e. Noah's Ark, others?)
- 1-night liveaboard (i.e Deep Sea Diver, others?)

I am fairly experience (200+ dives) but my wife is a newbie (6 dives... but one was a night manta ray dive so she is quite spoiled now ). Most of my diving has been on small boats in the Caribbean with 6-12ppl and the few where I had 30+ divers I didn't find too enjoyable. But a lot of what I read for Cairns day trips are 50+ ppl trips to multi-sport piers which don't appeal too much.

We are not completely opposed to other ideas... in fact, came across one recommendation to someone else to skip the diving and go snorkeling off Green Island. Bothers the diver in me to skip scuba when on the GBR, but then again... might be better given our honeymoon objectives

Thanks for the advice in advance!

 

[AussieByron]

The Reef is over 2 hours boat ride from Cairns. Most day boats are large boats which go to the same spots all the time.

Another option is a day boat (smaller boat going to less used reef) from Port Douglas which is a beauitful small town north of Cairns. Some really nice resorts up there and its close to places like Cape Trib and the Daintree River.

White water rafting down the Tully River is also something I recommend if you into that sort of thing.

Regards Mark

 

[Lancer4545]

Hi,

There are plenty of options either out of Cairns or Port Douglas. I operate a business which specialises in rebreathers and diver training and we regularly dive with Poseidon out of Port. Great operation, great dive sites and great food!!! The trip will take a little over an hour to get there from either Cairns or Port.

Let me know if you need any more info.

Regards,

Lance

 

[divenski]

after a 3-day liveaboard with Mike Ball, later in the vacation in 2007 we did a day trip out of Port Douglas with Poseidon. It was definitely worth it. They were the company that one of the Mike Ball crew recommended for a day trip. Lots of snorkelers also on the boat, but it was fine for shallow diving!

 

[scotter]

Thanks for the advice Lancer4545, Aussie Bryon, & Divenski

I just got back from Oz on Sunday night.

We ended up going for a 1-night liveaboard with Diver Den's OceanQuest. It allowed us to get in 6 dives (of 7 possible) into 2-days so we could also enjoy the land based activities in and around Cairns.

The liveaboard was great... we liked the operation. The 1st two dives were off the dayboat SeaQuest... while it was crowded with both divers & snorkelers, it wasn't that bad once in the water since they allow you to self guide on the reef. We did a guided dive on our first one (as its been a year since we were in the water). After the 2nd dive, we transferred to the OceanQuest liveaboard and did an afternoon dive + night dive. We skipped the 6:30am dive but we did the next two morning dives before lunch. They then transfer you to the day boat and you get home by 4:30pm. We chose to stay only 1-night but there were others on-board for 2- and 3-nights. The crew was friendly and did a good job. Our double cabin was really nice (on the top deck) and the food was good. While the liveaboard was fairly full, it was pretty decent since the dive deck was huge and people naturally tended to stagger themselves into the water. I would definitely recommend this to anyone going to Cairns and want to squeeze in two days of good diving.

As for the diving itself, we loved the marine life. We saw a great blend of small guys & big boys... the schools of 1000's small fish were amazing (I just haven't seen that in the Caribbean). We had a threesome of circling reef sharks at the night dive as well as a very large and friendly napolean wrasse named Wally hanging out by the dive platform on our last day dive. The only downers were that the reefs at Norman's Playground & Turtle Cove (I think that was the name) seemed a little beat up (whether from overdiving, storms, or bleaching, I'm not sure). However, the reefs were really nice at Norman's Caves (our favorite of the 3). Viz was pretty down at all sites (est 40-60ft) likely due to some heavy rains & winds the day before. Overall, it was a great trip for us... we thoroughly enjoyed our exp on the GBR with Diver's Den.

Cheers,
-Scott