Continued from Part 1
The package sold to clients of Deep Sea Divers Den includes everything from wetsuits to BCs and regulators, nothing left out. My preference however is always to use my own gear, so I hauled a BP/W and regs as well as everything else I would need (almost) for my own local diving.
The first two dives were from SeaQuest, and we had opted for a guide for the first dive, just to suss things out, this was the only time we used a guide, cost was AUD15 each. The boat was moored on a dive site called “Table Top” part of Norman Reef. Yanni and I were last to descend in the group, I had my usual “first dive in a new place ear issue” and was last down to the bottom, where the guide had all his group kneeling on the sand (except Yanni who was about a meter off the bottom.
My camera rig was set up for wide angle, but I was totally underwhelmed with what I could see! Lots of dead coral, too much in fact to have been caused by over-diving and most likely due to cyclone damage so I really wonder why they brought us here?
The second dive site was close by and called “Turtle Bay”, but we didn’t spot any turtles. The coral was also fairly well messed up, not that there wasn’t any nice coral, but to me it seemed mostly grey and as interesting as Moscow tower blocks back in the 80s.
One of the decent coral bommies
One of several giant clams
After lunch on SeaQuest we then made the transfer over to OceanQuest, which then departed from its mooring to a site called “Sandra’s”.
After settling down in our cabins and setting up our gear we decided to opt out of the next dive and just wait for the night dive, which promised some shark action. The night dive was done after dinner at 19:00 hrs. We did this dive as a threesome with a Japanese girl called Miki who joined us.
On our initial splash I spotted a grey reef shark but it soon disappeared although there were plenty of trevally around, in fact our lights appeared to attract them, possibly lighting up their supper; oh look a pretty fish sleeping …. Bam! Trevally swoops in gobble gobble yum yum.
My camera was still set up for wide angle and I did manage to shoot a few decent shots of the trevally while Yanni focused more on the macro, finding some nudis too.
Night dives are limited to 40 minutes, which I could not understand, but I guess it has all to do with getting 40+ divers back in and accounted for.
The next morning, we were still on the same dive site, and once more I splashed on the dive only to be disappointed with the coral landscape for wide angle. This was an early morning dive with plenty of small fish action, lots of interesting gobies that I was not going to get near with a 10-17 wide angle lens. Lesson learned, I should have changed to macro.
During breakfast the boat motored to another dive site (The Caves), and not knowing where we were going I switched lenses and ports, fresh batteries in the strobes and camera into a great site for wide angle, bloody Murphy.
The problem was the dive briefing is given directly before the dive so no pre-warning on what the best choice of lens to use. This is also a site that could benefit from breathing Nitrox, something that was always pointed out by the person giving the dive briefing – no reverse profiles, which I guess is company policy, but IMHO a load of bollox!
Angelfish
The next dive was also at “Caves” but I did not have time to change everything around to WA with only a 58-minute SI.
After the third dive we left this site and move on to another over lunch (Playground). I decided to skip the afternoon dive and do only the night dive again hoping for sharks once more. This was also my 100th dive with my daughter. Unfortunately, this was probably one of my most boring night dives ever. The trevally were there, and I spotted one shark (saw more sharks from the surface), but no macro subjects of note, and given the 40 minute dive limit, not enough time to search around, especially as we were only at 16m.
The following morning, we were still at playground and would have been an interesting wide angle dive, but I was sticking with macro. We spotted one white tip reef shark at the end of the dive, but I was now looking for gobies and nudis.
Again during breakfast, the boat moved sites to our final dive site of this trip and on to another reef called “Saxon Reef” and a dive site called “Twin Peaks”. This was an awesome site and great for wide angle, however I was still on macro, and we did find quite a lot of flatworms, nudis and other small stuff besides sharks and turtles on this site. The second dive here had much reduced visibility and wide angle would have been disappointing but this was still a site that could be dived all day, not that that was going to happen though.
So the schedule for a 3 day / 2 night trip is roughly as follows;
Day 1: Dive Site A + Dive Site B on SeaQuest before transferring to OceanQuest at around 14:30
Dive Site C afternoon and night on OceanQuest
Day 2: Dive Site C early morning then two dives on Dive Site D
Dive Site E afternoon and night
Day 3: Dive Site E early morning and then two dives on Dive Site F before lunch and afternoon transfer back to SeaQuest.
Total possible number of dives is 12 on 6 different dive sites.
The cost of the trip includes all gear, but the only gas available is air.
Dive times are limited to 50 minutes for day dives and only 40 minutes for night dives.
There is no discount for using personal gear, however if I were to return then I would be asking for longer dives and possibly skipping one dive per day as we did anyway. I would personally want a longer early morning dive., and since that is the same as the previous afternoon and night dive, a briefing really wouldn’t be necessary and getting in earlier before the crowd would be advantageous.
I love night diving but the ones we did were not the best I have had, I didn’t even take any photos on the second night dive at all, and 40 minutes is too short in my opinion and don’t really understand the rationale for such a short dive as the boat isn’t really going to move anywhere.
I know there are great dive sites on the GBR, but we were not on them. I have seen far better corals in the Red Sea, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia than anything we dived over these three days on Norman and Saxon reefs and all at a fraction of the price too, diving here is expensive and to be limited to 50 minute dives I won't be rushing back here.
I still have four more days of diving booked, and possibly another two dives off Townsville on the cards, but so far I have paid more for the diving than I did for 23 days diving in North Sulawesi last year. Bang for buck the GBR only gets 2 out of 5!
The package sold to clients of Deep Sea Divers Den includes everything from wetsuits to BCs and regulators, nothing left out. My preference however is always to use my own gear, so I hauled a BP/W and regs as well as everything else I would need (almost) for my own local diving.
The first two dives were from SeaQuest, and we had opted for a guide for the first dive, just to suss things out, this was the only time we used a guide, cost was AUD15 each. The boat was moored on a dive site called “Table Top” part of Norman Reef. Yanni and I were last to descend in the group, I had my usual “first dive in a new place ear issue” and was last down to the bottom, where the guide had all his group kneeling on the sand (except Yanni who was about a meter off the bottom.
My camera rig was set up for wide angle, but I was totally underwhelmed with what I could see! Lots of dead coral, too much in fact to have been caused by over-diving and most likely due to cyclone damage so I really wonder why they brought us here?
The second dive site was close by and called “Turtle Bay”, but we didn’t spot any turtles. The coral was also fairly well messed up, not that there wasn’t any nice coral, but to me it seemed mostly grey and as interesting as Moscow tower blocks back in the 80s.
One of the decent coral bommies
One of several giant clams
After lunch on SeaQuest we then made the transfer over to OceanQuest, which then departed from its mooring to a site called “Sandra’s”.
After settling down in our cabins and setting up our gear we decided to opt out of the next dive and just wait for the night dive, which promised some shark action. The night dive was done after dinner at 19:00 hrs. We did this dive as a threesome with a Japanese girl called Miki who joined us.
On our initial splash I spotted a grey reef shark but it soon disappeared although there were plenty of trevally around, in fact our lights appeared to attract them, possibly lighting up their supper; oh look a pretty fish sleeping …. Bam! Trevally swoops in gobble gobble yum yum.
My camera was still set up for wide angle and I did manage to shoot a few decent shots of the trevally while Yanni focused more on the macro, finding some nudis too.
Night dives are limited to 40 minutes, which I could not understand, but I guess it has all to do with getting 40+ divers back in and accounted for.
The next morning, we were still on the same dive site, and once more I splashed on the dive only to be disappointed with the coral landscape for wide angle. This was an early morning dive with plenty of small fish action, lots of interesting gobies that I was not going to get near with a 10-17 wide angle lens. Lesson learned, I should have changed to macro.
During breakfast the boat motored to another dive site (The Caves), and not knowing where we were going I switched lenses and ports, fresh batteries in the strobes and camera into a great site for wide angle, bloody Murphy.
The problem was the dive briefing is given directly before the dive so no pre-warning on what the best choice of lens to use. This is also a site that could benefit from breathing Nitrox, something that was always pointed out by the person giving the dive briefing – no reverse profiles, which I guess is company policy, but IMHO a load of bollox!
Angelfish
The next dive was also at “Caves” but I did not have time to change everything around to WA with only a 58-minute SI.
After the third dive we left this site and move on to another over lunch (Playground). I decided to skip the afternoon dive and do only the night dive again hoping for sharks once more. This was also my 100th dive with my daughter. Unfortunately, this was probably one of my most boring night dives ever. The trevally were there, and I spotted one shark (saw more sharks from the surface), but no macro subjects of note, and given the 40 minute dive limit, not enough time to search around, especially as we were only at 16m.
The following morning, we were still at playground and would have been an interesting wide angle dive, but I was sticking with macro. We spotted one white tip reef shark at the end of the dive, but I was now looking for gobies and nudis.
Again during breakfast, the boat moved sites to our final dive site of this trip and on to another reef called “Saxon Reef” and a dive site called “Twin Peaks”. This was an awesome site and great for wide angle, however I was still on macro, and we did find quite a lot of flatworms, nudis and other small stuff besides sharks and turtles on this site. The second dive here had much reduced visibility and wide angle would have been disappointing but this was still a site that could be dived all day, not that that was going to happen though.
So the schedule for a 3 day / 2 night trip is roughly as follows;
Day 1: Dive Site A + Dive Site B on SeaQuest before transferring to OceanQuest at around 14:30
Dive Site C afternoon and night on OceanQuest
Day 2: Dive Site C early morning then two dives on Dive Site D
Dive Site E afternoon and night
Day 3: Dive Site E early morning and then two dives on Dive Site F before lunch and afternoon transfer back to SeaQuest.
Total possible number of dives is 12 on 6 different dive sites.
The cost of the trip includes all gear, but the only gas available is air.
Dive times are limited to 50 minutes for day dives and only 40 minutes for night dives.
There is no discount for using personal gear, however if I were to return then I would be asking for longer dives and possibly skipping one dive per day as we did anyway. I would personally want a longer early morning dive., and since that is the same as the previous afternoon and night dive, a briefing really wouldn’t be necessary and getting in earlier before the crowd would be advantageous.
I love night diving but the ones we did were not the best I have had, I didn’t even take any photos on the second night dive at all, and 40 minutes is too short in my opinion and don’t really understand the rationale for such a short dive as the boat isn’t really going to move anywhere.
I know there are great dive sites on the GBR, but we were not on them. I have seen far better corals in the Red Sea, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia than anything we dived over these three days on Norman and Saxon reefs and all at a fraction of the price too, diving here is expensive and to be limited to 50 minute dives I won't be rushing back here.
I still have four more days of diving booked, and possibly another two dives off Townsville on the cards, but so far I have paid more for the diving than I did for 23 days diving in North Sulawesi last year. Bang for buck the GBR only gets 2 out of 5!
