Trip Report ProDive Cairns Liveaboard Review

[DANDM]

but fills were generous (about 220 bar)

When I went there they were the opposite. Never had a tank over 200 bar. I didn't have issues as they still wanted everyone to have a maximum of 45 minutes and the diving is quite shallow, but it was still annoying. I have a suspicion that the diver officer did it so people wouldn't be too long underwater.

I agree with the rest, I had a similarly positive experience in every aspect that you mentioned.

I have some dietary requirements and the cook was very good with managing my food safely. I see your point about protein, it is quite moderate, but like you said, never left hungry. Only a consideration for those who are serious about counting macros.

Another point about taking your own gear. Their tanks have DIN inserts, so taking DIN regs is fine. The DIN inserts were a bit hard to remove due to lack of use. They don't seem very used to having DIN divers and only had one rusty 8mm key available. As a just in case, it's not a bad idea to carry one yourself.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Thanks a lot! My first one, but I’ll try to do more as I dive other locations, I learned about the 10k character limit the hard way and had to reformat a bit. Haha.

Were the dives limited on time to 1 hour or could you just dive to 50 bar?

 

[BHWookiee]

When I went there they were the opposite. Never had a tank over 200 bar. I didn't have issues as they still wanted everyone to have a maximum of 45 minutes and the diving is quite shallow, but it was still annoying. I have a suspicion that the diver officer did it so people wouldn't be too long underwater.

I agree with the rest, I had a similarly positive experience in every aspect that you mentioned.

I have some dietary requirements and the cook was very good with managing my food safely. I see your point about protein, it is quite moderate, but like you said, never left hungry. Only a consideration for those who are serious about counting macros.

Another point about taking your own gear. Their tanks have DIN inserts, so taking DIN regs is fine. The DIN inserts were a bit hard to remove due to lack of use. They don't seem very used to having DIN divers and only had one rusty 8mm key available. As a just in case, it's not a bad idea to carry one yourself.

There were a handful of times when others had a short fill, but they were always accommodating to top up if requested. My tank was always fine. But yeah dives were generally short - but considering 4 in a day, I didn’t mind as long as I got to see something cool on each dive.

Good point on DIN gear, wasn’t an issue for me since I use yoke.

 

[BHWookiee]

Were the dives limited on time to 1 hour or could you just dive to 50 bar?

There tended to be a strict return aboard time, so be back by 50 bar or that time, whichever came first - my buddy was a little slow getting ready so our dives were in the 38-52 min range, and limited by the clock.

If it was a 2 or 3 tank charter, I would’ve been annoyed, but given the volume of diving we were doing, and that there was usually something good to look forward to at the end of the dive (food), I didn’t really mind.

 

[MB NZ]

Thanks for the report. I've been considering going on one of these trips.

 

[cetacean]

Any 38 - 40 min dives would have been extremely frustrating. Buddy needs to gear up a bit faster