Liveaboards in Australia?

[Sstorck]

I will be visiting Australia in July and i am interested in doing a live aboard. Can anyone give me input on which company to look at or which they have tried and liked.

Thanks

Steve

 

[alcina]

Great to hear you are coming Down Under for a holiday!

You'll need to narrow down exactly where you will be before anyone can offer much in the way of suggestions. It's a huge place!

 

[Sstorck]

I will be in the Port Douglass, Cairns area for diving. I will be in Australia for a month but only diving for part of it. If you have some other big things to see outside of diving feel free to mention them also.

Steve

 

[stiebs]

I just mentioned this in another thread, but there are plenty of liveaboards that run out of Cairns. Personally I've only dived Spirit of Freedom and recommend it highly. Pricey, but a good spacious vessel. great food and terrific crew.

 

[Sstorck]

mark,

how are the reefs that you dive? what are the depths of the dive? how many dives a day did you do? any other information would be great.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[stiebs]

The trip that I did was the 3-day trip up the ribbon reefs to cod hole. Spirit of Freedom - live aboard scuba diving vessel. Diving the CoralSea, diving the Cod Hole and the Ribbon Reefs on the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns, Australia. has all the guff. My pics from the trip at Mark’s Stuff » Spirit of Freedom 2007

We had 11 dives crammed into 3 days. Off the top of my head (no logbook handy) the itinerary was something like:
Mon.
1200 - board
1300 - ship briefing
1500 - dive 1
1800 - dive 2

Tue
0730 - dive 3
1000 - dive 4
1300 - dive 5
1500 - dive 6
1800 - dive 7

Wed
0900 - dive 8
1130 - dive 9
1500 - dive 10
1800 - dive 11

Thu
Disembark onto Lizard Is
2hr guided walk around the island
1230 - low flight over the reef to cairns

When I have my logbook handy I can give you a more accurate idea, with depths and dive times.

The only grip about the trip was that sometimes the chosen sites for a day encouraged reverse profiles. Particularly I think it was the Wed morning when the first dive was cod hole, at 10m (30ft) or thereabouts, with other sites later that day allowed depths of up to 30m (100ft). I limited my depth on that day. The good thing though is even the 25-30m dives allow aan excellent safety stop. Some dives I spent 5 minutes at 30m, and 30mins at 5m because there was so much to see in the shallows!

 

[mjh]

We have dove with Mike Ball and really enjoyed it. If you can do their 7 nights Coral Sea trip it's great. There are slide shows, trip reports, etc at our site: AQUABLUE DREAMS

 

[Sstorck]

your pictures are amazing! i have been taking pictures for 10 years above the water. The transition to underwater is proving to be a bit more difficult.


Steve

 

[aMc10]

I went out on the Nimrod explorer at the end of last year and would recommend it. One thing worth mentioning is that if you have some flexibility with your time, and you do your research beforehand as to which trips on which liveaboards you want to do, you can make substantial savings if you wait till the last minute and book when you get to Cairns as operators will drop their prices by up to half to fill the boat up if there are any spare places left. There's always the risk that you don't get exactly what you want, or even worse, end up with nothing, though...

 

[wahlaoeh]

Hi,

July is a good time to see minke whales. I've just booked myself on the minke whale expedition from 14-20 Jun on the Undersea Explorer. Their trips are selling fast. Mike Ball and Nimrod explorer also have similar trips but shorter duration.

Dive The Reef - Undersea Explorer - Dwarf Minke Whale Expedition

Happy bubbles,
Jovin-