Spirit of Freedom Photo & Trip Report

[Suzzy]

Awesome post! I'm going up there this Monday... can't wait!

 

[deeper thoughts]

Thnx for taking the time out to write this fantastic report

 

[Air One]

Thanks a lot for your post.
Just awesome !

 

[lyricnz]

Thanks for the trip report Harry. I was on the last half of this trip with you, and still have your card stuck in my log book

 

[gee13]

I was on the Spoilsport a week after your trip. We had nothing but sunny days good weather. Seas were generally calm at the dive sites except for North horn where we had large swell.The ride out to osprey was wild though. At least you got to see a Minke.

 

[Doc Harry]

I was on the Spoilsport a week after your trip. We had nothing but sunny days good weather. Seas were generally calm at the dive sites except for North horn where we had large swell.The ride out to osprey was wild though. At least you got to see a Minke.

Figures that I would travel halfway around the world to dive during the only week of rain during Australia's dry season!

 

[scubajoe86]

Great trip report. Thank you for covering so many things. My wife and I are booked on SOF for early Dec, can you tell me about the setup for photographers and any things you might have wished you had brought along. One item I'm concerned about is spare batteries how many to take and recharging them) Last thing I want to have happen is get to the end of the trip and miss some shots because my batteries were low. Thanks again for making such an effort on the trip report. Hopefully, I'll be able to contribute something helpful after our trip is over.

 

[Doc Harry]

Great trip report. Thank you for covering so many things. My wife and I are booked on SOF for early Dec, can you tell me about the setup for photographers and any things you might have wished you had brought along. One item I'm concerned about is spare batteries how many to take and recharging them) Last thing I want to have happen is get to the end of the trip and miss some shots because my batteries were low. Thanks again for making such an effort on the trip report. Hopefully, I'll be able to contribute something helpful after our trip is over.

First you'll need a good battery charger. I don't know what you need in terms of batteries, but I got my Maha smart charger and AA Enloop batteries through Thomas Distributing. They're a good source for batteries and smart chargers. I needed 8 AA in my strobes and 8 AA in my dive light, so I brought 24 batteries which was enough to always have 8 fresh batteries in my strobes, 8 batteries on the charger and 8 batteries in the dive light.

My camera takes a specialized lithium cell, so I had 2 of these lithium batteries and a separate lithium charger.

The rooms in the Spirit of Freedom have electrical outlets in 240V Australian format/voltage. So you'll need a power converter. The boat has some converters and outlets in American 120V format/voltage at the computer station in the bow, but during my trip the converters blew and only one outlet was available for the entire trip. So I had to use the Australian 240V outlet in my room.

Be warned, the American 120V outlets on the ship are two prong, there's no hole for the ground prong. So if your plug has a 3rd ground prong then you'll need to bring an adapter that converts American 3-prong to American 2-prong.

I recommend that you get an Australian power strip once you get to Cairns. That way you can plug the light-weight power strip cord into the wall outlet, and then plug the heavy power converter into the power strip on the floor. Some of my electronic items (such as my computer) worked on Australian 240V (look at the power supply, most now say 120V-240V), so I didn't need a power converter for those items, all I needed were plug converters to plug American plugs into Australian outlets. I found these plug adapters readily available in Cairns at the battery outlet store across the street from the mall.

If all of your chargers and electronics work on 120V-240V, then it's simple since you won't need a converter. All you need are plug adapters, which you can get at the battery outlet in Cairns. Maybe you can even get these things online before your trip.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6540486_use-american-appliances-australia.html

 

[cricfanSD]

Funny in Sep 2009, Melinda was second mate and she used to check current and drop us off during RIB diving.

 

[scubajoe86]

Doc Harry, thanks for all the great info. We're really looking forward to our trip in Dec and your report was a wonderful read.