How is diving in Cod Hole inNovember?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Here is a bit of local weather conditions, and most has been said about the marine life. Its unlikely you will get storms in November as the rainy season starts in December. However, there has been a weather shift this year so who knows!

As for land tours there are tons to chose. The most popular are get the scenic railway up to Kuranda and the cable car (Skyrail) down.
White water rafting or balloon flights on the tablelands
Tjabukai Aboriginal Centre - dinner / lunch theatre, boomerang throwing, art, demonstrations etc - easy spend a day here and award winning place.
Lots of day trips to the Tablelands
Plenty of beaches and scenic places along the coast e.g. Palm Cove or Port Douglas (60km north)
Cairns itself is more of a hub with tour activities going out in all direction.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dan
It isn't non-existent. But by the same token, the skippers know where to go to give you the best possible diving. Also bear in mind that we are currently in winter here, cooler waters have already allowed for some recovery. Ask the same question in October once the water is warming up a bit so we know the extent of the recovery :)
 
In the more than 12 years since I had been there first, I thought the reef had deteriorated significantly. The DM of the liveaboard we were on said he thought they would not be diving there in 20 years.
 
Here is a bit of local weather conditions, and most has been said about the marine life. Its unlikely you will get storms in November as the rainy season starts in December. However, there has been a weather shift this year so who knows!

As for land tours there are tons to chose. The most popular are get the scenic railway up to Kuranda and the cable car (Skyrail) down.
White water rafting or balloon flights on the tablelands
Tjabukai Aboriginal Centre - dinner / lunch theatre, boomerang throwing, art, demonstrations etc - easy spend a day here and award winning place.
Lots of day trips to the Tablelands
Plenty of beaches and scenic places along the coast e.g. Palm Cove or Port Douglas (60km north)
Cairns itself is more of a hub with tour activities going out in all direction.

Do you think diving in SS Yongala is doable after I come back from Spoilsport? I'll have 3 days in Cairns.
 
The Yongala is not out of Cairns. You can get get trips from Townsville twice a week (Wed and Saturdays) but are a bit unreliable as they need 11 to run and cancel a lot.

Best option is see if you can get to Ayr where they run the trip daily and are far more reliable. Busses are daily and there is accommodation above the dive shop.
 
Ok, Yongala logistical info...

Yongala is best dived from Alva Beach with Yongala Dive. Alva Beach is a roughly 6 hour drive south from Cairns - if you have your own vehicle. There is a Greyhound bus service that will get you as far as Ayr (which I suspect would take about 8-9 hours with the stops it has to make), and the dive shop will pick you up from Ayr to take you to Alva (must be pre-arranged). The Yongala is then a 45 minute boat ride out from Alva, in open sea.

Alternatively, you could fly to Townsville (which is where I live) and attempt to get the day trip boat out from here to the Yongala. But be aware that the day trip from Townsville is cancelled regularly due to weather conditions. I do not recommend it unless you have quite a bit of time up your sleeve to account for weeks on end of cancellations.

So yes, it is certainly doable - and people do it. But you will spend the better part of a day getting from Cairns to Alva Beach. One day diving. And the better part of a day getting back from Alva Beach to Cairns. Are you willing to effectively spend 2 of those 3 days you have on the road?
 
Thanks for the tips, AquaPro & WetPup. Let me ponder a bit about this & the other land tour options you guys mentioned earlier.
 
After meeting people on the liveaboard I did who had dived yongala before the trip, 4 of us got off the boat and the Next morning hired a car and hightailed it down to ayr. Did a couple of dives the second day. 3rd day drove back again. Sounds like a big detour - it was worth it

But we were fortunate that the boat did run on that one day we had. He hadn't the 2 days prior due To storms.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom