Minke Whales liveaboard for snorkelers?

[heehee62]

There's 4 of us. 3 snorkelers and 1 beginner diver. We want to see the Minke Whales in late June or early July and we want to have good odds of seeing them as we are coming from the US and this may be our only trip ever to Australia.

But the snorkelers are worried that as nondivers, all they will get to see are the minke whales and that the rest of the dives are only suited to divers.

So my main question is, will there be 1 other dive site per day suited for snorkelers or are we looking at only trying for minke whales every day?

Will the single diver be paired with a buddy? Are all the dive sites too advanced for the beginner? She will just have gotten their certification before doing this trip.

We want to see the giant clams. Will we get a chance to or should we book another snorkeling trip out of cairns as well?

Thanks.

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

There are 3 boats that offer Minke trips. Mike Ball and Spirit of Freedom run twice a week and cater more for divers rather than snorkelers. Specific Minke trips too but very limited availability as these trips book out months in advance.

I would look at Ocean Quest that runs trips during June and July to the southern Ribbon Reefs and Outer Reef so much better for snorkelers and you'll definitely get to see giant clams!

All divers are buddied up so don't worry about that. All trips are very well run and organised. However for Mike Ball and SOF you really need to be Advanced or have some deep diver training as most sites are deeper than 18m. OceanQuest not such an issue but I do recommend consider taking the Deep Adventure dive (or full Advanced course) on board to really get the benefit of the dive sites.

I've put some links in for info but drop me a pm as I'm a Cairns local and dive pro so can go into more detail directly.

 

[heehee62]

There are 3 boats that offer Minke trips. Mike Ball and Spirit of Freedom run twice a week and cater more for divers rather than snorkelers. Specific Minke trips too but very limited availability as these trips book out months in advance.

I would look at Ocean Quest that runs trips during June and July to the southern Ribbon Reefs and Outer Reef so much better for snorkelers and you'll definitely get to see giant clams!

All divers are buddied up so don't worry about that. All trips are very well run and organised. However for Mike Ball and SOF you really need to be Advanced or have some deep diver training as most sites are deeper than 18m. OceanQuest not such an issue but I do recommend consider taking the Deep Adventure dive (or full Advanced course) on board to really get the benefit of the dive sites.

I've put some links in for info but drop me a pm as I'm a Cairns local and dive pro so can go into more detail directly.

Thanks

 

[heehee62]

Thanks