Wantonmien
Contributor
With a family get together planned in Australia for mid October, decided on trip to also visit Cairns for the first time, and sample the diving on the mid GBR from there, having last year had some great diving from Lady Elliot Island on the lower GBR,
Here’s a trip report which may be of use if you are thinking of Cairns for a trip -
Arrangements.
First off, many Thanks to Kevin at Cairns Discount Dive And Snorkel Trips. Live Aboard And Day Trips To The Great Barrier Reef - finding link through this forum, we put ourselves in his hands for advice and arrangements. Faultless service, sorted out hotel and dive booking for us, advised on the smaller things and if heading to Cairns again, we’ll go through Aquaprodive again.
Although we fancied a longer live aboard and heading further North on the outer reef (rather than the most accessible ‘outer’ part of it), due to time restrictions we booked ourselves onto Ocean Quest – it being a 3 level boat staying out on the reef full time, with a smaller boat (Reef Quest) transporting divers & snorkelers back and forth to it on a daily basis.
Overnight in Cairns, and October 10 – collected on time from hotel (Queen Court), so that around 9.00 we were on Reef Quest transfer boat, and heading out with clear sky, hot sunny weather, calm seas and blue clear ocean.
A couple of hours out of port, from Reef Quest we took our first 2 dives, before moving on to find the larger Ocean Quest liveaboard to dive from it thereafter.
Diving from Reef Quest & Ocean Quest.
Well organized, dive crew assess your dive history to decide if you need guide or not, additional small costs if you want to dive with a guide, or the freedom to dive with buddy and no guide (as we did) if you want (which on Lady Elliot last year no one was allowed to do !). Plenty of loan dive gear available, in reasonable condition albeit a shall we say some was ‘well used’ - but quickly changed if needed, as was the case with self inflating BCD I used for a dive !! .. Also mainly full foot fins (no bootees) which are great for blisters, but anyway our gear + loaned stuff, and we took 9 of the 11 dives we could have.
Rooms on board Ocean Quest We took a twin, size was fine to sleep, hot shower in room (and out on dive deck), elec sockets for charging camera working, aircon working – albeit in our room we couldn’t adjust temp and did wonder if the room could be used as a deep freeze - goddam freezing but a blessing in the summer months I’m sure !
Food on board. No problem, buffet style and not too bad. Could be better, could be worse, but decent choice available, and OK. Bar on the top deck with seating out the back under the stars.
Safety wise. Dive briefings given before each dive, before entering water, a member of staff records who is diving with who, with each person checked going in and checked coming out, including reminders on limiting depths and rapped on the knuckles if back with almost empty tanks. A rib boat / tender available if anyone needed a drop off or pick up at end of dive, so all around, no problem. All dives using air, from a central compressor, tanks refilled fully (ie: at least 200 bar and not cut short) whilst in the BCD’s
The Diving and the Ocean life.
Have to admit, we were a little disappointed.
Memories of sharks, mantas and crystal clear water from Lady Elliot Island almost two years back were in our minds as we hit the water for our Dives 1 & 2 (taken from the smaller boat) at “Norman Reef – Wild side central” – but we found hazy water, Viz 10 metres at most, lots of dead coral, and very little to make us believe we were on the GBR. After second dive, we were wondering if we’d made a mistake coming, or if we’d perhaps been spoilt by recent trips to the Philippines.
Further out, after a quick transfer to the Ocean Quest and drop gear in room, it was Dive 3 – in better dive site. Soon into dive we were joined by a friendly turtle, with no fear at all of us, it swimming side by side an arms length from me, eye to eye and basically seeming as interested in me as I was on it, then some huge sweet lips, rock cod, grouper – and things were looking up. Ten minutes out of the water, and a small pod of dolphins past by between stern of boat and reef – oh to have been in the water with them !
Should have gone for a night dive, but we gave it a miss due to tiredness and early ‘beer o’clock’, and I could kick myself
- as a couple of minutes or so after the few who’d done a night dive came out, a small (about 2 metre) white tip shark fin broke the surface as it cruised by, then another, then another and at least 6 or 7 of them showed up, wandering around at leisure, great to see anyway but missed the dolphins, missed the sharks – what next !
Day 2 - Slept so well in the gentle rocking of the boat, that we missed the call for the early morning dive, before boat moved further out to outer side of “Hastings Reef” – Dives 4 and 5 for us in the morning, and coral the best we’d seen so far, with large life – Groupers, Cod, Jacks, large Sweet lips of several types, a great cleaning station with fish relaxed and in a queue, smaller stuff and two nice dives.
Afternoon, Dive 6 – Got taken far up the reef and was dropped in with just buddy. As we descended found ourselves right in the middle of a shoal of around 20 massive Lump head Parrotfish feeding away. First time I’ve seen these monsters, and great to swim with them as the fed. By chance they were heading the direction we wanted, so with them for a while - huge fish a metre or more long, fat and healthy looking. Also some large lobsters, groupers, barracuda, red bass and smaller life wandering around, a good dive and the gentle current and long bottom time found us back at the boat. Best dive of the trip.
Dive 7 – I just had to do a night dive, but it was nothing too special and I actually thought life was lacking a bit with the highlight being several (largest I’ve ever seen) flatworms (or Spanish dancers) of various colours swimming (and I didn’t know they could swim !), some large sleepy sweet lips, goatfish and other sleepy fish amongst the acres of coral, but a little quiet and devoid of small critters – and alas no sharks !
Day 3 - Boat moved on, to a site the boat captain said they’d never stopped at before (still on Hastings Reef I think but different area). Here we took our Dives 8 and 9, swimming out against a reef wall with nooks and crannies, and back in the shallows atop of reef through the most glorious hard and soft coral garden, teeming with smaller fish, angelfish, parrotfish, butterfly fish, a large barracuda or two, rainbow runners, some tuna looking fish that I didn’t recognize, two enormous (1 metre or so) spotted puffers and just before the end of dive 9 a large Titan triggerfish – which was feeding, but suddenly headed fast toward me teeth on show so I thought I was about to get attacked – but phew, no attack, though it made a nice picture !
And that was it, own gear rinsed, bags packed, smaller boat arrived to transfer us back and the return journey a sleepy one.
Overall – Definitely noticed a lot more bigger fish than I’m used to seeing, but also noticed a lot less smaller life - very few nudibranch, very little for macro, few little critters hiding in corals, so bigger fish were everywhere, but small life sparse. We were disappointed not to have glanced or come across or seen any sharks, or large rays during the dives, oh except a small blue spotted ray.
Trip cost was reasonable, and schedule well arranged, so it’s a trip I’m glad we made, though it hasn’t gone on my list to get back to again soon, as we found the diving good, but not fantastic.
--
De gassed for a day at Cairns – taking the Rainforest chair lift, a decent trip, and few days later further South (Hervey Bay) went Whale watching – seeing many magnificent Humpbacks showing off with their young – awesome,
and just makes you realize what magnificent life there is on the East coast of Australia !
--
Rounded off the holiday with the family reunion, first time the parents and offspring had all been in same place, same time since 1987, though with UK/Australia/Taiwan based family it was a dammed site harder to organize that, than the ease with which the Cairns dive trip was sorted
.
Some of my pics below, and will put more in Outer GBR, from Cairns, Australia - October 10~13 2011 - ScubaBoard Gallery
Cheers
nice Pose, fresh from a botox injection !
One of many large Sweetlips
Healthy Coral
One of very few Nudibranch seen
Always one in every picture set !
Unusual formation ?
Friendly guy, in no hurry and eye to eye for a while
Parrotfish of great colours but so dammed difficult to get a pose !
Well over a metre length, at the cleaning station
Love the clarity on this, a Red Bass cruises by.
Huge Lumphead Parrotfish - stirring up the sediment, and about the best pic of them.
Slightly smaller life.
Spanish Dancer (flatworm) - and I never knew they could swim !
A well disguised Brittle star - one of the few small critters I took pics of
End of last dive, and seeing this coming full speed was a moment of 'oh sh#t it's going to attack !'
No attack - theTitan Triggerfish back to his dinner !
And the largest life we saw further down the coast ....Humpbacks
A magnificent creature.
Here’s a trip report which may be of use if you are thinking of Cairns for a trip -
Arrangements.
First off, many Thanks to Kevin at Cairns Discount Dive And Snorkel Trips. Live Aboard And Day Trips To The Great Barrier Reef - finding link through this forum, we put ourselves in his hands for advice and arrangements. Faultless service, sorted out hotel and dive booking for us, advised on the smaller things and if heading to Cairns again, we’ll go through Aquaprodive again.
Although we fancied a longer live aboard and heading further North on the outer reef (rather than the most accessible ‘outer’ part of it), due to time restrictions we booked ourselves onto Ocean Quest – it being a 3 level boat staying out on the reef full time, with a smaller boat (Reef Quest) transporting divers & snorkelers back and forth to it on a daily basis.
Overnight in Cairns, and October 10 – collected on time from hotel (Queen Court), so that around 9.00 we were on Reef Quest transfer boat, and heading out with clear sky, hot sunny weather, calm seas and blue clear ocean.
A couple of hours out of port, from Reef Quest we took our first 2 dives, before moving on to find the larger Ocean Quest liveaboard to dive from it thereafter.
Diving from Reef Quest & Ocean Quest.
Well organized, dive crew assess your dive history to decide if you need guide or not, additional small costs if you want to dive with a guide, or the freedom to dive with buddy and no guide (as we did) if you want (which on Lady Elliot last year no one was allowed to do !). Plenty of loan dive gear available, in reasonable condition albeit a shall we say some was ‘well used’ - but quickly changed if needed, as was the case with self inflating BCD I used for a dive !! .. Also mainly full foot fins (no bootees) which are great for blisters, but anyway our gear + loaned stuff, and we took 9 of the 11 dives we could have.
Rooms on board Ocean Quest We took a twin, size was fine to sleep, hot shower in room (and out on dive deck), elec sockets for charging camera working, aircon working – albeit in our room we couldn’t adjust temp and did wonder if the room could be used as a deep freeze - goddam freezing but a blessing in the summer months I’m sure !
Food on board. No problem, buffet style and not too bad. Could be better, could be worse, but decent choice available, and OK. Bar on the top deck with seating out the back under the stars.
Safety wise. Dive briefings given before each dive, before entering water, a member of staff records who is diving with who, with each person checked going in and checked coming out, including reminders on limiting depths and rapped on the knuckles if back with almost empty tanks. A rib boat / tender available if anyone needed a drop off or pick up at end of dive, so all around, no problem. All dives using air, from a central compressor, tanks refilled fully (ie: at least 200 bar and not cut short) whilst in the BCD’s
The Diving and the Ocean life.
Have to admit, we were a little disappointed.
Memories of sharks, mantas and crystal clear water from Lady Elliot Island almost two years back were in our minds as we hit the water for our Dives 1 & 2 (taken from the smaller boat) at “Norman Reef – Wild side central” – but we found hazy water, Viz 10 metres at most, lots of dead coral, and very little to make us believe we were on the GBR. After second dive, we were wondering if we’d made a mistake coming, or if we’d perhaps been spoilt by recent trips to the Philippines.
Further out, after a quick transfer to the Ocean Quest and drop gear in room, it was Dive 3 – in better dive site. Soon into dive we were joined by a friendly turtle, with no fear at all of us, it swimming side by side an arms length from me, eye to eye and basically seeming as interested in me as I was on it, then some huge sweet lips, rock cod, grouper – and things were looking up. Ten minutes out of the water, and a small pod of dolphins past by between stern of boat and reef – oh to have been in the water with them !
Should have gone for a night dive, but we gave it a miss due to tiredness and early ‘beer o’clock’, and I could kick myself
- as a couple of minutes or so after the few who’d done a night dive came out, a small (about 2 metre) white tip shark fin broke the surface as it cruised by, then another, then another and at least 6 or 7 of them showed up, wandering around at leisure, great to see anyway but missed the dolphins, missed the sharks – what next ! Day 2 - Slept so well in the gentle rocking of the boat, that we missed the call for the early morning dive, before boat moved further out to outer side of “Hastings Reef” – Dives 4 and 5 for us in the morning, and coral the best we’d seen so far, with large life – Groupers, Cod, Jacks, large Sweet lips of several types, a great cleaning station with fish relaxed and in a queue, smaller stuff and two nice dives.
Afternoon, Dive 6 – Got taken far up the reef and was dropped in with just buddy. As we descended found ourselves right in the middle of a shoal of around 20 massive Lump head Parrotfish feeding away. First time I’ve seen these monsters, and great to swim with them as the fed. By chance they were heading the direction we wanted, so with them for a while - huge fish a metre or more long, fat and healthy looking. Also some large lobsters, groupers, barracuda, red bass and smaller life wandering around, a good dive and the gentle current and long bottom time found us back at the boat. Best dive of the trip.
Dive 7 – I just had to do a night dive, but it was nothing too special and I actually thought life was lacking a bit with the highlight being several (largest I’ve ever seen) flatworms (or Spanish dancers) of various colours swimming (and I didn’t know they could swim !), some large sleepy sweet lips, goatfish and other sleepy fish amongst the acres of coral, but a little quiet and devoid of small critters – and alas no sharks !
Day 3 - Boat moved on, to a site the boat captain said they’d never stopped at before (still on Hastings Reef I think but different area). Here we took our Dives 8 and 9, swimming out against a reef wall with nooks and crannies, and back in the shallows atop of reef through the most glorious hard and soft coral garden, teeming with smaller fish, angelfish, parrotfish, butterfly fish, a large barracuda or two, rainbow runners, some tuna looking fish that I didn’t recognize, two enormous (1 metre or so) spotted puffers and just before the end of dive 9 a large Titan triggerfish – which was feeding, but suddenly headed fast toward me teeth on show so I thought I was about to get attacked – but phew, no attack, though it made a nice picture !
And that was it, own gear rinsed, bags packed, smaller boat arrived to transfer us back and the return journey a sleepy one.
Overall – Definitely noticed a lot more bigger fish than I’m used to seeing, but also noticed a lot less smaller life - very few nudibranch, very little for macro, few little critters hiding in corals, so bigger fish were everywhere, but small life sparse. We were disappointed not to have glanced or come across or seen any sharks, or large rays during the dives, oh except a small blue spotted ray.
Trip cost was reasonable, and schedule well arranged, so it’s a trip I’m glad we made, though it hasn’t gone on my list to get back to again soon, as we found the diving good, but not fantastic.
--
De gassed for a day at Cairns – taking the Rainforest chair lift, a decent trip, and few days later further South (Hervey Bay) went Whale watching – seeing many magnificent Humpbacks showing off with their young – awesome,
and just makes you realize what magnificent life there is on the East coast of Australia !--
Rounded off the holiday with the family reunion, first time the parents and offspring had all been in same place, same time since 1987, though with UK/Australia/Taiwan based family it was a dammed site harder to organize that, than the ease with which the Cairns dive trip was sorted
. Some of my pics below, and will put more in Outer GBR, from Cairns, Australia - October 10~13 2011 - ScubaBoard Gallery
Cheers
nice Pose, fresh from a botox injection !
One of many large Sweetlips
Healthy Coral
One of very few Nudibranch seen
Always one in every picture set !
Unusual formation ?
Friendly guy, in no hurry and eye to eye for a while
Parrotfish of great colours but so dammed difficult to get a pose !
Well over a metre length, at the cleaning station
Love the clarity on this, a Red Bass cruises by.
Huge Lumphead Parrotfish - stirring up the sediment, and about the best pic of them.
Slightly smaller life.
Spanish Dancer (flatworm) - and I never knew they could swim !
A well disguised Brittle star - one of the few small critters I took pics of
End of last dive, and seeing this coming full speed was a moment of 'oh sh#t it's going to attack !'
No attack - theTitan Triggerfish back to his dinner !
And the largest life we saw further down the coast ....Humpbacks
A magnificent creature.
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