1999 Chapbook

Australia Eastern Live-Aboards

Cairns, the jumping-off spot for the Great Barrier Reef, is a youth-oriented, tropical city with plenty of hotels and restaurants as well as an assortment of day boats going to the Reef and overnight trips to Cod Hole.Cairn's "beach" is a mud flat dotted with roseate spoonbills and other tropical birds, and you can visit the reptile farm to gawk at saltwater crocodiles eating chickens or take the Kuranda Railway for a look at a magnificent waterfall. Be sure to order a hamburger "with everything" to see how it's supposed to be done.... The best diving, with pristine reefs and oodles of fish, is to the north, reachable only by live-aboard during their summer months, roughly November to March. The Ribbon Reefs are known for big sharks,lots of them, including fleets of bronze whalers.... Pack safety sausages, whistles, strobes, mirrors, and any other safety devices that would make you noticeable if a current carries you too far from the boat.... Pricey Lizard Island is the northernmost land-based operation; they have day trips to Cod Hole to pet friendly, refrigerator-sized potato cod. To the south, the wreck of the Yongalaout from Townsville may be the best fish-covered wreck in the world.... Summer weather is sultry and oppressive, with tropical showers.... Water temperature is below 80 and colder in their winter, so bring rubber; visibility can at times be in the 50-foot range. Moving from Queensland south, you'll pass from full-on tropics, through temperate water, to chilly water in Sydney, and finally into the really cold stuff when you reach Tasmania.... Don't worry about the Great White in the GBR; they hang around south of Sydney.... For a full review of the following Australian live-aboards and destinations, see: Kangaroo Island Diving Safaris - Kangaroo Island, Australia, Undercurrent- October 1999 True North- Australia, Undercurrent- April 1999 The Spirit of Freedom,In Depth- January 1995 Elizabeth E II, November 1997, Virginia & Gary Gerst, Chicago, IL. Coral Sea 10 day trip. Raves for boat and crew. Cabins are snug, always was hot water for showers. Boat immaculately clean. All requests were cheerfully met. Virgin diving and beautiful. Vis: 75-150 ft. Water: 73-76 degrees. Restrictions enforced during diving were dive own computers. Divers left on their own after pre-dive briefing. (Ph: 61-79-574281, Fax: 61-79-572268) Nimrod III, May 1998, Sharon Watson, Great Falls, VA. Water: 80's, vis 40-70. Morning of our flight to Cairns I called and booked the last two bunks for the next day for the 5-day trip along the Ribbon reefs to Lizard Island. $500 (Australian) including gear (the normal rate is $800 plus $50 for gear rental). $316 (U.S.), excluding extras (beer, wine, soft drinks, packaged snacks), but you can bring your own. Nimrod showing its age. Shared a room and bath with another couple. Week before was rough, but our weather was spectacular. 4 dives/day, including a night dive. Rented computers for $40 (Aust). Divemaster terrific, very environmentally conscious, giving excellent briefings, marine life to look for, and a dive plan. He pointed out open sores on a giant cod due to being touched by divers (which wipes away the protective coating that prevents parasitic invasion). Crew accommodating; they monitored our dives, recording time of exit/name of diver, and time of reboarding and depth/time/bar remaining . . . then they rechecked everyone s presence before departing. Food was great; always snacks or meals after every dive. Besides seeing a turtle, and an occasional reef shark, there were many lion fish, large puffers, and giant cod. Christmas tree worms, anemones, sponges, huge multicolored clams, and beautiful coral gardens. Included in the price was a low altitude flight at 1000 feet over the barrier reef from Lizard Island back to Cairns. (Ph: 011-61-70-315566, Fax 011-61-70-312431, e-mail: nimrod@internetnorth.com.au) Pro Dive/Stella Maris, February 1998, Debbie La Scola, Frederick, MD. Disappointed. Had registered via e-mail for a trip to the Cod Hole. Instead all dives occurred off shallow reefs at the Great Barrier Reef. The three-day live-aboard was loaded with 15 student divers; only three certified divers on board besides the crew of four. Tanks were 72 cm and diving was restricted to tables only though the certified divers had computers. 11 dives were scheduled during strict time frames but all moorings were on two reefs. Vis: 75-100+ ft, water: 84 degrees. Sleeping quarters little more than closets. Limited fresh water. Food ran short. Diving the reefs was great despite the restrictions and lack of variation. Saw many giant clams. (Pro Dive Cairns, Ph: 011-61-70 315255, Fax: 011-61-70 519955) Reef Explorer, October 1997, Alex Stuart. Does far north trips in pairs; travels north from Cairns to Thursday Island, then reverses the itinerary. I boarded at Thursday Island. I scheduled my trip when Allan and Kim Payard still owned the boat, counting on their extensive experience. My travel agent said the new owner had retained the crew, but I was shocked to find that all were on their second trip. The northern area of the GBR was new to them. . . . Wind was 30+ knot, but normally this time of year it's dead calm. By the time we left the sheltered waters around Thursday Island, we were motoring through 12-15 foot swells, with waves hitting the bridge and up to three feet of green water was sweeping the stern deck. I have motion sickness problems my first day so I spent that evening on the stern with waves washing my legs and occasionally my hips. . . . Cabins similar to most dive boats. Only two heads. The stern head is shared by six divers in three double rooms. Two divers and the crew share the forward head. Dining table in the lounge seats ten. The divemaster, the naturalist and the deckhand ran the inflatable, assisted people to gear up, filled tanks and went on some dives. . . . Arrived at Raine Island with only enough time for one afternoon dive. Tanks are steel 72's. Our briefing was so minimal that I didn't know that most of the world's remaining green turtles use Raine Island as a hatchery. Turtles were swimming everywhere. That evening we went on the island and watched turtles crawling up the beach, digging holes, laying eggs and then crawling back to sea. . . . First dive between 7:00 and 7:30. The cook would put out dry cereal and milk, sugar and yogurt around 6:00. When we returned from the dive, we would have a Australian bacon (halfway between Canadian and American) and eggs or pancakes or French toast, juice and fresh honeydew, kiwi, papaya, pineapple and slices of orange). Food better than the average live-aboard fare. Second dive around 10:30-11:00. Lunch 1:00. Third dive 2:00, the fourth 4:30-5:00. About half the nights, we would dive at 7:00; since dinner waited for night divers to return, there was pressure to cut the dives short (about 40-45 minutes). . . . Most dives required that we board the inflatable and be ferried to the reef. Occasionally, we would stride from the stern. The boat always moored far from the reef, requiring a long swim; a starter motor had burned out, making it too risky to bring the boat in close. Halfway through the trip, the dinghy line got wrapped around one of the engine screws. It took several hours to cut it off, causing us to lose the first dive of the day. The water maker failed. We spent several hours sailing to a fueling ship for water and lost another dive. One of the crew developed a fever and we had to stop at Lizard Island so he could be flown to a hospital; we waited until the plane arrived before we could leave, costing us more dives. With no briefing, they ferried us to a reef to find the bottom covered with fire coral with no clue which direction we should go. One diver took off toward the Coral Sea. Everyone followed. My dive buddy and I decided that he couldn't be going in the right direction; we came to the surface, raised our safety sausages and the inflatable came. The crewman asked us what we were doing so far from where we were supposed to be, but the rest of our group surfaced a half mile farther east. One reason I chose this trip was to see the same animals that are found in New Guinea and the Solomons without having to worry about malaria (I got malaria in the Solomons two years ago though I was taking Larium). We saw one impressive school of 65 humphead parrotfish, Napoleon wrasse and titan triggerfish. Did not see any large schools of black-fin barracuda, saw a few schools of jacks and trevally, a few mantas, one fourteen foot that my dive buddy scared away with his flash. Most sharks were white tips; saw a few gray reef sharks and some saw silvertips. . . . Most reefs bottomed out at 70-80 feet, bottom times were an hour. At one site at 120 feet I dropped to 150 feet and encountered several large groupers. When I got back, one of the crew berated me for doing the dreaded "reverse profile" dive. I pointed out this was the first deep site and I had been assured before I booked that the Payards didn't hassle divers about their dive profiles. He grumbled about how other dive boats would have grounded me for 24 hours or permanently. . . . Visibility never greater than 80 feet, averaging around 60 feet, but as low as 30-40 foot. Water started at 80F and dropped to 78F. Last four days we got calm weather. Cod Hole: our divemaster fed the resident potato cods while divers from a Cairns dive boat hung on the periphery, watching this politically incorrect activity. Excellent dives at Pixie Pinnacle and Steve's Bommie, north of Cairns. . . . When we got back to Cairns, the owner fired the divemaster and the captain, apparently rehiring the former captain to visit the best sites. . . . When we checked in with Sunstate Airlines in Cairns for our flight to Thursday Island, the ticket agent made a big issue that they could only guarantee delivery of one of my four bags on my flight. Which did I want? May have been one of those obligatory warnings: everything arrived. Plane was a fairly large two engine turboprop with a pressurized cabin. . . . From Cairns to Sydney (Ansett Airlines), I found that domestic flights in Australia use a different measuring stick than US flights: my camera case was a quarter-inch too thick and a half-inch too wide. When they took my case from me, I had to fill out a form agreeing that I would not sue them if they lost or destroyed the case and its contents. (Ph: 011-61-70-939113, Fax: 011-61-70-939112, e-mail: reefies@ozemail.com.au) Spirit of Freedom, Mas Allen Cruises, September 1997, Bharathi Visuanathan, Cairns, Australia. 35m dive boat with 2 x 250 K.W. main engine, 2 hold senders, one inflatable, climbing at 13 knots, and very stable. Most luxurious dive boat I have been on. Huge lounge, luxurious carpets and furnishings, enormous dining room, spacious dive deck, on the upper deck which is partly shaded. 11 luxury cabins. . . . Sailed 300 miles from Cairns to far Coral Sea diving the Holmes Reef. Willis and Magdelaine Cay, Heralds Surprise, various dive sites on the Flinders and the Dalt Reef during our return. Boat cut through water with ease covering considerable distances during the night. Water: 24 degrees C. Vis: 50-100 metres. Venue for the day was full but laid back adequately to have a holiday feeling. Wall dive most mornings; no irrational depth restrictions. Usually 3 dives during the day and a night dive. I saw mornay silver tips on the walls, grey reefs and other reef sharks. Many green turtles and hawksbill. 3m big eye tunas feeding, huge schools of chevron barracudas, and trevallies. Plenty of reef life. Absolutely fantastic holiday! SpoilSport, December, 1997, David Gaba, Los Altos, CA. Trip out very rough. Plan for motion sickness. Barrier reef diving (a few dives) ok, Yongala and Coral Sea much better. Yongala diving very beautiful but 60% of dives had strong currents. Dives conducted safely, but conditions were tough for all but the most experienced and powerful divers. Could have been more easily conducted with drift from bow to stern or vice versa. Great site though! . . . Flinders Reef (Coral Sea) was great. Shark dive well done. 15-20 minutes of closeup teasing of sharks with bait while we were lying on top of cages, then inside cages for feeding frenzy. Great photos with rented simple u/w cameras. Vis: 60-150 ft. Water: 78-80 degrees. No dive restrictions. Safe and professional dive operation. Good for experienced divers. Air fills full and fast. Even with nearly a full dive deck, enough room for everyone. Good facilities for photographers. Plenty of fresh water, no restrictions. Regular toilets, rather than finicky marine heads. Real showers. Hot towels after every dive. (Mike Ball Dive Expeditions, Ph: 011-61-77-723022, Fax: 011-61-77-212152, e-mail: mike.ball@t140aone.net.au or 800-952-4319 (US) or 520-556-9590, Fax: 520-566-9598) Spoilsport, April 1998, Doris and Bob Schaffer, Fallbrook, CA. April is not the best time of year for Coral Sea but we nevertheless had good diving. Water: 78-82degrees, vis: 30-60 ft. Dive staff is excellent and safety conscious; rest of cr ew rather indifferent. Food mediocre. Accommodations comfortable except minor annoyances (like not changing towels often enough). Many smokers and no well-defined smoking areas-guests tried to comply but crew members violated what was purported to be the smoking policy. Prefer smaller live-aboard, 30 divers on one site not pleasant. Boat is an aluminum-hulled catamaran that acts like a ping-pong ball in rough seas. Five dives on the Yongala and all were spectacular! Supersport/Spoilsport, August 1998, Tex Frank, Evergreen, CO. Mike Ball has very good operation. Hotel accommodations are VG. Itinerary timetable is VG. Supersport and Spoilsport are VG. The crews on both boats were excellent. The food was mediocre-mostly pasta and casseroles. Dive deck was efficiently run and briefings were comprehensive. Most sites are repetitive critters. Cod Hole feed is overrated. Yongala wreck has abundant variety of sea critters. Shark feeding at Scuba Zoo was a learning experience. Logged 30 dives and took underwater photo course. Divers ranged from beginners to divemasters. Most commented that sites were Ho Hum. Guided dives were best since staff knew where to find octopus, morays, sea snakes, lobsters. Sharks at most sites, usually 4 to 6. Barracuda and trevally schools abundant. Bumpy seas caused several cases of sea sickness. Take Bonine on 1st day til you get your sea legs. Paying for soft drinks and beer is ridiculous. Crews on both boats are underpaid and hard working. Tipping is a must for these helpful, accommodating and friendly Aussies. Weather perfect. Small fish abundant, corals in great condition, but no one was excited by diving in general. Vis: 30-70 ft., water: 72-74 degrees. Taka II, December 1997, Geoff Howard, San Francisco, CA. My girlfriend was planning to get certified on this trip after doing her class work before we left. We called Taka several times to make sure they could accommodate beginners and would accept our NAUI class work for their PADI course. They assured us it would be no problem. We found out that the people working in the front office don't go on the boats so they had no idea if what they were saying was true. It wasn't. On the first night of our 5-day trip the divemaster made my girlfriend, who was fighting seasickness, spend 4 hours retaking all the written tests and work that she had already passed. We got to bed after midnight. They continually pushed and pressured her to make dives she was not ready for. They did not attempt to make her feel more comfortable and less apprehensive. To the contrary, they made her feel guilty for holding up the class and blamed her for not getting certified. Then they just stopped talking to her. Others complained about the poor instruction and low value received in the photography and advanced open water classes. Two women who paid money for the photography class were just given camera and told to go take some pictures, but not to expect them to be any good. The captain and divemaster were chauvinistic toward all the women on board and didn't really seem to care about providing service. Water: 76-79 degrees. Vis: 60-70 feet. Pluses: the diving was good for experienced divers and the other passengers were a great group from all over the world. We made lots of friends. (Ph: 011-61 70 518722, Fax: 011-61 70 312739, e-mail: takadive@ozemail.com.au) Undersea Explorer, August/September 1998, Pat Gabriel, Fremont, NC. Staff professional, friendly and fun. My dive partner and I are experienced divers (I have 300 dives and he made his 1000th dive on this trip). John's briefs were informative and let us dive our own profiles. Everyone had to have a buddy, a dive computer, and follow good, safe diving practices. Crew treated us as responsible divers and helped when asked.Saw lionfish, cuttle fish, large potato cod, white tip reef shark, eagle rays, clown fish, barracuda and a great variety of coral. Vis 50 to 100 feet. Days were sunny with some wind, but the seas at the sites were less than two feet. Light to medium currents. Water 80 F. 3mm wetsuit with a Polartec was fine. 20 dives on the trip. Vis: 50-100 ft. 4 dives a day except 2 the last day and 2 on the day we had a beach party on Lizard Island. Accommodations were comfortable and had adequate room to store our stuff. Cabins are either two bunks or a queen size bed and the bathrooms are shared. (never had to wait more than 3 or 4 minutes for a bathroom). Murry fixed a variety of delicious meals with fresh meats and vegetables. Had some fresh tuna caught right off the boat. Biologist aboard conducted research at Osprey reef. Andy's knowledge and enthusiasm really added to the trip. Shark, Nautilus, and reef health research was conducted on this trip. Professional, informative and fun operation. Booked through Paradise Adventure/Oz Dive. Lynn was the most informative agent I have ever worked with. Continental Airlines lost our baggage, including dive gear, for a week. I had planned to be in Australia a week and a half before the dive trip, so I had my dive gear before the trip.   Previous Year's Chapbook Find in All of Undercurrent All Public Area (PA) Public: -- PA: Recent Issues -- PA: Recent Reader Reports -- PA: Issues -- PA: Reader Reports -- PA: Dive Destination Guides -- PA: Diving News All Members Area (MA) Members: -- MA: Recent Issues -- MA: Recent Reader Reports -- MA: Issues -- MA: Reader Reports -- MA: Dive Destination Guides   Advanced Search | Online Members Home | Public Home | My Account | Renew | | Travel Index | Reader Reports | Mini Chapbook | Latest Chapbook | Seasonal Planner | " target="_blank">Current Issue | Back Issues | Dive Gear Index | Health/Safety Index | Environment & Misc. Index | | Blogs | Books | News | RSS | FAQ | About Us | Contact Us | Links |  Copyright © 1999, 1998 by DSDL, Inc., publisher of Undercurrent. All rights reserved. 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