GBR in February

[DiveNerd]

My BF and I will be traveling to Australia in February. We arrive in Sydney on the 11th Monday at noon. We plan to be in Australia thru Tuesday the 19th. Looking to dive the GBR & wanted to know if anyone had suggestions where to go. We know that we can fly north for a couple of hours to some great sights. But we wanted to know the best place to go stay a few days and dive... Any resorts, hotel, dive ops ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[Andrew Jones]

Where 2 start........

First and Foremost.... the Tropics and Weather. Yesterday our front page of our newspaper showed in one 24 hour period record 380mm of rain. ( want some water DN )

A cyclone is sitting 700km's away just off Mackay south of here bringing in windy weather. 20knot winds today, 25 tommorrow, 30 day after.

The reason I say this , because Feb becomes more radical, therefor tourism here quietens down and the specials become attractive at last moment.

Your budget therefore may allow for a better experience than you would have expected.

Accommodation also settles in price, we offer $56 for diviers coming to Cairns for a clean 3 star air con room 1 block from Cairns Harbour.

I see you have about 50 dives, where have you been doing most of your diving ?

Regards Andy

 

[DiveNerd]

Huh! Read that from a few people, to wait until we get there and see what we find. But I'm sort of a planner. Hate to get all the way there and not get to dive. But I guess it's not really a problem there??? We get to Sydney and have a whole week to play before the BF has to work.

To answer your question. We've been diving mostly local places:
Ft Lauderdale ( where we live)
Venice Beach, FL (shark tooth diving)
Cozumel twice
Grand Cayman (3X) <---really like the wall dives
Belize Turneffe Atoll
Costa Maya in Mexico
Honolulu, Hi
Parguera, Puerto Rico
Desecheo Island,Puerto Rico

That's it! Really wanted to get to do GBR one day and the op just came up... So I really wanted to have something set up in advance. In Puerto Rico, we had to skip a day of diving because no one had room in the boats... And there weren't too many dive ops.

SO ALL ADVICE IS APPRECIATED!!!!

 

[Andrew Jones]

O.K..... lets try this to start with.

Plan 1

Mike Ball and Spirit of Freedom do an Osprey, Cod Hole Trip Thursday departure back on Monday. 16 dives, Shark feed, ( noted ) Wall dives off the continental shelf into 1400 metres of water ( 6 dives at osprey... rest back on the ribbons. You arrive on Monday into Sydney, call for weather conditions ( wont dive Osprey if to rough ), we check for standby's... savings enough to cover your return flights usually 2 and from syd.

Plan 2

To dive around milne, thetford, briggs and pellow reefs are the closest you can get in one day to get an insight into the Northern stuff. problem is they are bommies with little protection and may have some current. To do these area's we simple book for say... wednesday and roll you over to another day if the weather looks to be improving.

A second day that is also different is the Port Douglas Ribbon reefs. Because ribbon reefs are so long they offer alot of protection however do not have the dropoffs or currents that allow for large schools of pelagics. More trout, parrot, crayfish, lions etc.

Plan C

3 day / 2 night liveaboard. Advantage is the morning dives.. ( to me always the most active) . Chances for good turltes, few reef sharks b4 they bed down and night dives if your a fan. Again can change the day for better weather.


What do you think?

Regards Andy.

By the way, are u nitrox, or have camera gear?

 

[DiveNerd]

Thanks Andy.. I guess I'm most worried about booking the flights from Sydney to Cairns (is Cairns the right destination?) as our time is pretty tight. It looked like those were ~$320 AUS right now on Qantas and didn't want to see them go higher than that! Plus after $600 in airfare (not counting the $2k to get to Sydney) wanted to make sure that we wouldn't have to worry about whether or not there was room on a dive boat for us...

As for your last question - no nitrox but definitely bringing my camera gear...

 

[Andrew Jones]

Did a quick search on Jetstar - Cheap Flights, Low Fares all day everyday from Australia's newest Cheap Fare airline for sydney - cairns - sydney 4 u.

Flight on the morning of 13th for $109 to cairns. 7.00am arrive 9.15 am
Flight back on 18th $209 or tues 19th $109

Have bit of a look at virgin as well, may have to mix them up to get the best deals.

I wouldnt be concerned about the diving and missing out. This is a big enough window of time to get any day boat, or local liveaboard for that matter. may I suggest for the 4 day stuff, we monitor the vacancies closely if this is what you are interested in. One benifit I could think of would be to do you nitrox course which enables you to dive every dive on Nitrox taking advantage of that camera of yours. ( something to consider)

We operate 2 of the largest Independant dive travel agencies in Cairns and are booking all trips regularly. Example yesterday we booked approx 35 pax on different boats, with no problems for availability and this is New year, hotel occupancies are full.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Andy

 

[almitywife]

Thanks Andy.. I guess I'm most worried about booking the flights from Sydney to Cairns (is Cairns the right destination?) ...

i would be very wary of flying JetStar (or CrapStar or DeathStar as the locals call it), reason being they are super strict on luggage - they even weigh your carry on luggage and a friend of mine got a $50 fee for being 4kgs (8lbs) overweighted

Webjet Qantas, Virgin Blue, and Jetstar Air Cheap Flights & Airfares - Webjet Travel Insurance - Webjet.com.au is my choice of online aussie flight bookings...... you get all the airlines on the one screen

cheers and good luck :multi:

 

[DiveNerd]

Thanks! Almitywife... the site is actually very promising. Good prices. Makes me feel better. I still need to make up my mind about it soon.

As it stands, I arrive in Sydney on the 11th at about 12noon. We wanted to catch a flight right away to Cairns. We are thinking to be in Cairns by Monday evening and then do a liveaboard for 3/4 days.

We wanted to be back in Sydney by the weekend to hang out and see the city. I read that you can also shore dive from Sydney. That was anoter idea since we don't fly out until Tuesday the 19th.

Andy... are there any liveaboards for 3 or 4 days that do a good part of the GBR leaving Tuesday the 12th in the AM? I looked at a few but Mike Ball does the extended trip that week and a few other places leave monday before I get there... Any suggestions??

 

[almitywife]

..... I read that you can also shore dive from Sydney.......?

absoulutely!!!! i havent done a boat dive in sydney in 10 years :multi:

sydney diving is wind dependant and what you want to see will determine the dive site

eg, if the southerlies are blowing Kurnell will be blown out but Bare Island should be fine.

if you want to see Weedy seadragons you dive kurnell, if you want sea horses you dive manly nets (10ft dive), if you want big friendly blue gropers (you say groupers, we say gropers) Bare Island or Shelley Beach (Manly).

it also depends on where you are staying because sydney is quite big to get around

its not the GBR, but the Big Cat dives Morton Bay/Stradbroke (via brisbane) offers a nice affordable weekend trip and hubby really liked this boat last time he was on it; Big Cat Reality / Dive Tours of Moreton Bay

cheers

 

[Andrew Jones]

Glorious, Glorious SUNSHINE. What a magic day in paradise here today......

Well firstly the good news........ options are still all good. DN, couple of questions if I may.

Serious Diving...... Relaxing Diving or Sailing and Diving, which is your preference as it is your holiday and lets make it a good one.

TAKA Departure on Tuesday 5.00 pm to Cod Hole for 10 Dives. Arrives back on Friday at 3.30 however considering your steaming interval, last dive is at 10am friday, could look for a flight to Sydney for Saturday morning . Reef sites on this tour are the Famous Cod Hole, Steves Bommie, Challenger Bay, and many more allong the ribbon reefs.

The beauty of Ribbon Reefs is they offer lots of protection so even if a bit windy the diving will still be good. Fingers Crossed for some great vis hey.

Spoke to Pam, owner of Taka about 20 minutes ago, availability in all stateroom, ensuite, doubles, twins and quad share.... only 3 people on sofar. Taka are notorious for having spares which standby at approx $250 per person off. About the same as a Nitrox Course at $280 including all fills.

My suggestion for local liveaboards is unless we have2 have2 have2 be on Prodive to be patient.
Realize that Deep Sea and Reef Encounter are about $600 for 3 day 2 Night expedition, so if we quad share on Taka at standby of $650, diving experience is better.

Finally.... Sailing Santa Maria, Vagabond benefits are less diving however 10 passengers, ( prob 4 in Feb ) becomes almost a sole charter of your own 50 footer.

Decisions decisions DN.... what do you think?

Hip Hip Horray... congrats Almighty on about to become 40

Regards Andy