3 day liveaboards + snorkeling off the beach

[Goddard]

Hi all,

I'm traveling to Australia for work in August and have extended my trip to do some scuba diving and other adventures out of Cairns from the 10th to the 17th. My boyfriend will be traveling with me and we're both new to the sport--recently certified in Monterey, CA and have done several weekend dives since. It looks like everyone recommends the liveaboard 4+ day trips that go out to the Northern reefs, including Cod Hole, etc. Those trips seem a little out of our price range (and maybe out of our experience range?). So we were thinking of taking one of the 3 day, 2 night trips that are in the $500/person range. We're not particularly interested in seeing sharks or anything, just lots and lots of coral, inverts and other creatures. Soft corals would be awesome. We've also been snorkeling in Belize off Caye Caulker and Tobacco Caye (possibly the most layed back place on earth) and loved it.

Here are my questions.
1) Anyone have any good recommendations for a liveaboard in this price range? The Mike Ball 3 day trip looks to be about double.
2) Any liveaboards or other trips that will give us the opportunity to just hover above the reefs at our own pace?
3) Any recommendations for areas that we can hike/camp/snorkel off the beach for a couple of days.

 

[slipslop]

you can camp/hike/snorkel on the beach on Russel island, part of the frankland island
group. just south of cairns. there are no ablutions or any facilities at all. you need to take everything including your own water and you need a permit to camp there. contact frankland island cruise & dive for details. you can camp on fitzroy island but i found the water murky there because it is close to the boat channel into cairns which they constantly dredge making the water murky. all the other islands were too expensive to stay on.

i did a 3 day trip with pro dive and both snorkelled and dived. I enjoyed it. we went to milln & flynn reefs, great reefs. its a comfortable boat and the food and crew was great. the reefs are still pristine there too.

have a great trip

 

[divemoose]

I've been there a couple of times and highly recommend it! Cairns is nice, but not scenic. If you want beaches, go north to Port Douglas. You can do some day trips from there but they can be expensive. I've dove with Pro Dive in Cairns and it's probably the best deal if your concerned about price, like myself. I wouldn't get too concerned about the luxuries on a live aboard, you won't have time to enjoy them, you'll be diving too much. Take a trip to the Mossman gorge. it's beautiful! Beware of Australia, once you go, you'll have to keep coming back!

 

[Goddard]

Thanks for the recommendations! I checked out the Pro Dive site and it looks great! What type of gear do they have? Weight integrated BCs? 5mm wetsuits? Hoods?

Thanks!
Rachel

 

[divemoose]

The gear is standard fair for rentals, weight belts and low to medium grade BCs, regs, etc. It can be cool that time of year and getting in and out of the wet suit can be a challenge. I would bring light weight "dive skins" to wear under the wet suits to reduce the shock factor. They do provide computers and track your times and depth. Be careful not to reverse profile, (dive deeper on a subsequent dive), or they will shut you down for the day. I think it's archaic these days with computers, but don't complain, you don't want to be the "ugly American". I think it's great that they take safety that seriously. My youngest daughter and wife both did thier first trip on the Cairns Pro Dive and I wouldn't change a thing. Don't worry about the pace, typically they dive around the moored boat and you and your buddy can do your own thing (within reason) or hang with a dive master if you feel more comfortable.

Where else will you be travelling, I've been 3 times and I'd love to share any of my experience. The last trip I did some diving around Brisbane and I was very surprised by the quality.

Take Care,
Steve

 

[RTodd]

Hi all,


Here are my questions.
1) Anyone have any good recommendations for a liveaboard in this price range? The Mike Ball 3 day trip looks to be about double.
2) Any liveaboards or other trips that will give us the opportunity to just hover above the reefs at our own pace?
3) Any recommendations for areas that we can hike/camp/snorkel off the beach for a couple of days.

If you can't afford to take one of the liveaboards to Osprey reef, just do a day of local diving then go see the other sites in the area such as Kuranda, Undara, etc. Personally, I would recommend against coming to the area if you can't swing one of the Osprey trips. The Agincourt system from Port Douglas is slightly better if you must day boat dive. In general, the cheap liveaboards are just a boat parked on the day boat reefs and the operator's other day boats ferry you out to it. You can search my name for more detailed descriptions of diving in the Cairns area.

 

[Goddard]

Hi everybody,

We got back from our trip about a week ago and it was really great. We ended up going on the three day liveaboard with ProDive. There was a full boat--about 32 people--but it definitely never got crowded above or below water. Above water, the food was great the room ended up being a private bunk which I hadn't paid for and didn't expect, which was a nice surprise. The staff was just the right balance of watchful but not overbearing and the boat and bathrooms were clean and comfortable.

We went to the reefs advertised on the ProDive Cairns site. The boat ride out was quite choppy and it took me overnight to get used to the rocking of the boat. I never got sea sick but it definitely was on my mind that first day (as it was for a lot of people.) I can't compare the reefs to what's in Osprey or elsewhere for obvious reasons, but the reefs we visited were great and I don't feel like I missed anything there. We saw sharks, turtles, amazing reef fish, anemones, giant clams, and the most enormous fish I've ever seen in my entire life. Not even joking--we called him Codzilla. Bigger than the tuna at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Like 3m. The coral was beautiful and seemed healthy. The damage we did see didn't seem to be bleaching, but perhaps from the recent typhoon? I would have loved to see more soft corals, but the majority of what we saw were hard coral like staghorn and blue tipped corals. Most of the soft corals were amazing mushroom corals, tree corals, goniopora, and a couple of other types.

I'm used to diving in the Monterey area, so the 24 degree C water was a nice change. I was not cold underwater at all. However, there were people on the boat who were quite cold. However, I have to say that suiting up for the night dive was quite a mental challenge after the day of diving we had already done and the cool breeze outside. I was not a big fan of the night dive. I only went on one of the two (the only dive I skipped) because I didn't particularly see much and it freaked me out a bit. However, lots of people loved the night dives.

The surface was a quite choppy so I didn't envy anyone who attempted snorkeling out there and it also made it a little difficult to surface swim back to the boat when my navigation went awry.

The only gripe I have about the way the boat was run is that basically there was a meal or snack scheduled after every dive (which was nice because we were working up quite an appetite) but kind of a pain because we had to completely take off our wet suits and our bathing suits after every dive (rules of the boat to enter any cabin or the dining area). I would have liked to eat on the upper deck once or twice in my wetsuit. That said, the gear they provided was very well maintained and the wetsuit had a lining that made it pretty easy to take on and off. So as a whole it wasn't a big deal but I think that aspect could have been improved upon.

After our dive trip we took a day off and then went up to Cape Tribulation on a little tour. We went to Mossman Gorge, which I would have liked to spend more time at, but our guide was a little bit long on the speeches about how the rainforest will kill you if you eat the wrong thing, touch the wrong thing, insult the wrong aboriginal spirits, etc., etc. Cape Tribulation was quite nice and we ended up going on a snorkeling trip the next morning with Rum Runner out about an hour of the shore. As much as I like scuba diving, it was really nice to just hop in the water with my wetsuit and swim around for an hour as opposed to the 30-35 minutes of underwater time we were getting on the dive trip. There were only a couple of people who were hitting the 40 minute mark on the dive boat. I think it was the cold.

I was really surprised at how nice the reef was (I'm blanking on the name) that we went to on the RumRunner. It was perfect snorkeling because it was just deep enough not to run into anything, but shallow enough to really see some bright corals. I was completely surprised at how many giant clams we saw. We saw a bunch on the dive trip, large ones, but the reef we went to on the snorkeling trip was just littered with them. Some the size of me! And different colors. I think they were one of the most enjoyable things to see on both trips. One recommendation that I have for the boat ride is to get a seat inside the cabin early. the people on the front of the deck were absolutely soaked and freezing by the time we got out to the reef. We're talking completely drenched and getting smacked by waves non stop.

So that was my trip. I had a great time and I would totally recommend it to anyone.

-Rachel

 

[shorelover]

I also recently returned from Cairns. I was only there a few days and had no choice about where to stay or how long as I was with a group.

The day I arrived, I caught a boat to Fitzroy Island at 12:30 PM. I had my own gear and snorkeled. The water had some sediment in it, but it was still great fun. I saw a ray, anemones and fish, a giant lion fish, a nice group of Moorish Idols, Long-nosed Butterflies, lots of angels. Loved it. I used a dive skin and a light rubber top.

I only had one night I could do a live-aboard, so my only choice was Reef Encounter. The Compass ride out to the boat was slow, but Reef Encounter was great! We had only about 20 people on it. (You take the Compass boat with a bunch of day-boat folks, mostly snorkelers, out to the 2nd boat, Reef Encounter, which moves to a couple of sites after passenger transfer.) We only had a few certified divers and a few snorkelers; the rest of the passengers were taking dive classes. Reef Encounter holds about 30 people maximum. I stayed in a group room (3 beds and an en-suite full bath); there were only 2 of us in the room. I slept great! The food was very good, various pastas (with chicken and mushrooms for example) and salads.

We did six dives including a night dive. Saw giant clams, turtles, one shark and all of the above-mentioned fish and more. The photographer on board is good and was helpful. The accomodations were comfortable, much nicer than expected given the price. The people on board were great. My dive buddy used air a lot more quickly than I but he was great company and I enjoyed the experience immensely. Our dives were about 45+ minutes and I came up with half my air left. I rented a wetsuit (one piece, long sleeves, knee-length) and was happy I had it on. I was very comfortable in it. There were also nice lounge chairs and a hot tub, but I did every dive I could so had little time to enjoy those.

They served a free wine and cheese on the return Compass boat. We could have snorkeled again from it but elected not to as we'd taken showers already. There may be "better" reefs out there, but I saw everything I wanted to and more. I'd highly recommend this trip. If you have more than a few days, a boat that goes further out and does more sites might be better. But if you are pressed for time as I was, this was a great bargain ($295 for 1 night, 6 dives and all meals). I would have been happy on it for several days (3-4 nights).