Coral Sea January( Mike Ball or Taka? )

[demonic_death]

Hi Everyone,

My group has had a change in travel plans. We will be doing a 4 day liveaboard on the Coral reefs, as most of the comments I have read here have stated that Coral sea and Osprey reefs are the "must see" areas.

How are the conditions during January? Are the seas really rough that we would get seasick all the time?

Also, which liveaboard operator do I take? Mike Ball or Taka ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[tracy_from_oz]

Taka.

Nothing but a great time with them.

 

[pigletfish]

You say that you're doing a 4-day liveaboard, so my guess is that this would be a trip to the Ribbon Reefs only. To get to the Coral Sea and Osprey Reef I believe you'd have to go on a week-long liveaboard trip. We had some lovely dives on the Ribbon Reefs (which are part of the Great Barrier Reef), but I just want to make sure you understand what you are signing up for. Cheers!

 

[tracy_from_oz]

You can actually do a 4 day trip to the Coral sea.

Spirit of freedom runs a 4 day one http://www.spiritoffreedom.com.au/4_Day_Coral_Sea.htm and they fly you to Lizard Island to meet the boat.

Taka Dive does 3 night/4 day Cod hole/Northern reefs, 4 nights/5 days Cod hole and Coral sea, 7 day combination of both.

 

[cstreu1026]

i will be diving with Mike Ball in about 2 weeks. I imagine I will have plenty to say when we get back around the middle of November.

 

[slipslop]

i went on taka. it was fantastic. the boat was brand new (in 2005) I must warn you though January is monsoon/Hurricane season. our trip was just after cyclone ingrid had passed in march 2005 and the sea was a bit rough and the vis at most sites was bad. The crossing from cod hole to osprey (overnight) took about 8 hours and was incredibly rough, i had to hold onto my bunk to stop myself from being tossed out

 

[cstreu1026]

Well I sure hope it doesn't get like that when we are there.

 

[dolphin adventures]

Taka gets our vote also! Good food, onboard digital processing. We went during Minke whale season (June), Weather a tad rough but great diving. Spent 45min hanging on the drift line watching (or being watched??) by two Minke whales. The crew is alot of fun.