Help Needed! Reef Quality - Comparing Cairns and Port Douglas

[fl123]

Hello, I have read a lot of great posts on this board so far but am hoping for some clarity on a couple of points.
Our plan was to makes Cairns our homebase (4 nts total) and do a 1 night liveaboard to the outer reef, and see Daintree/Kuranda, etc.
Quite a few reviews (or enough to make me wonder from Deep Sea Divers Den and Cairns Dive Center) of the 1 night outer reef live aboards mentioned that the reef looked dead - they seemed to indicate it was from a cyclone?
I imagine the GBR to be this wonderful dive location - with coral and sea life in abundance, but these comments go against this.
The 3 night plus cruises to the Cod Hole/Coral Sea seem to get the best reviews, but we are not willing to go for more than 1 night (new to diving, seasickness unknowns, and time and cost reasons). We decided that a 1 night will suit our needs for this trip the best.
I have done more research and PD seems like a good base too and folks seem to like it better in many instances. It also seems like daintree/kuranda are closer from here.
I began to look at dive options out of PD but have only found day trips - the higher ranked ones on TA talk about Agincourt Ribbon Reef.
[FONT=Verdana, Tahoma, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif]--> would the Agincourt Ribbon Reefs be better (more coral/sea life) than those outside cairns (e.g. saxon, norman, etc. and the 'dead' coral mentioned in various reviews)?[/FONT]
--> are there any 1 nt liveaboards that depart from PD?

--> could we be just as happy with a couple day trips as opposed to a 1 nt liveaboard? could we find two companies that go to different reefs so we don't repeat the same trip if we opt for 2 day trips?

--> is it true you don't have to worry about stingers on the outer reef (for an oct/nov trip)?
[FONT=Verdana, Tahoma, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif]I would greatly appreciate any advice or clarity as books and internet can only go so far - first hand knowledge would help so much.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Tahoma, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif]Other notes[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Tahoma, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif]- We are getting certified before we go so this will be our first foray into diving[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Tahoma, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif]- We will also be diving in Malaysian Borneo before the GBR - hoping to do Sipadan, or a nearby island at a minimum.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Tahoma, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif]- Frame of reference: We have only snorkeled before. Hawaii (the 4 biggest islands) was the best snorkeling we had done.[/FONT]

 

[richh32]

just my 2c. chill out. you are having delusions of grandeur. go with an open mind and dont try to force it. if you arent even certified and have only snorkeled any scuba diving anywhere should blow your mind. i felt the same way as you when i first started diving. i wanted to go to the best spots and see the biggest fish etc and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didnt. you have your whole life ahead of you to dive. if you are going to sipidan and the gbr you cant go wrong.

 

[Winf]

Hiya,

I may be able to shed a little bit of light for you but don't take this as gospel. I am Cairns born and bred and an ex Port Douglas resident too. Haven't lived at either for a over a decade now though but have strong family/friend connections so sort of know the state of play.

Stingers (the box jellyfish Chironex fleckeri) were never a problem on the outer reef. They are not to be messed with on the coast however. They are deadly. Stinger nets are in place at most of the beaches but it is still possible to be stung inside a net. Having said that, Oct/Nov is traditionally the very start of the stinger season and they tend to peak a little later at the height of summer. Personally, I would not swim anywhere on the coast in north Queensland during the stinger season unless I was inside a net or was wearing a lycra "stinger" suit. I have a friend who was mildly stung once and he described it as being like molten metal poured on your skin. It was drummed into us as kids to stay out of the water during stinger season. I never had any hesitation on the reef though.

Smaller jellyfish (Irukandji) have been known to cause stings on the outer reef but this is not common. Tens of thousands of visitors swim, dive and snorkel on the reef each year and the numbers of incidents are low. These critters would not stop me from diving/snorkelling the reef. Understand the risk and symptoms and forget about it!

I have only ever snorkelled on the GBR and have been to the Agincourt reefs and others out of Cairns (you shouldn't be disappointed) but have never dived there (didn't start diving until I moved away from the GBR - go figure). The GBR is like anywhere though, the further away from the humans you go the better it is.

The last big cyclone was TC Yasi in Feb 2011. The eye hit the coast about 2hrs drive south of Cairns. If it was me now as a diver looking for diving options I would be looking for a smaller operation out of Port Douglas that goes to the outer reef. Most will go NE from Port, further away from TC Yasis path. Some info here on the damage of Yasi to the reef. Looks like it was patchy damage and not wholesale destruction.

Cyclone Yasi impacts on the Great Barrier Reef assessed - GBRMPA

Port Douglas is only about an hours drive from Cairns anyway so you really could base out of either. There always used to be lots of bus/tour services that provided transport from Cairns to Port. Port is much smaller than Cairns and is basically a tourist town. I always liked it though. Some nice places to eat, casual atmosphere and a good place to sit and watch the other monkeys.

In my opinion, Sept/October is the best time of year to see north Queensland. Hope you enjoy.

 

[TSandM]

I don't know if you are committed to the Cairns area, and I have never dived there. But when we did our trip to Australia, we had heard much the same things you are reporting. As a result, we didn't go to Cairns. We went to Byron Bay, which is the easternmost point of the continent. The diving there is in a marine park that used to be the center of a volcanic caldera. There is amazing biodiversity there, and the diving was very easy (and needed to be, because I was quite the novice at the time we did the trip). You can look up the photos posted by AussieDiver here on SB -- he dives the same area.

The town was pleasant and there were excellent lodging options and restaurants, and the boat trip to the dive sites is about 15 minutes long. HERE's my report of the trip.

 

[fl123]

The last big cyclone was TC Yasi in Feb 2011. The eye hit the coast about 2hrs drive south of Cairns. If it was me now as a diver looking for diving options I would be looking for a smaller operation out of Port Douglas that goes to the outer reef. Most will go NE from Port, further away from TC Yasis path. Some info here on the damage of Yasi to the reef. Looks like it was patchy damage and not wholesale destruction.

Cyclone Yasi impacts on the Great Barrier Reef assessed - GBRMPA

Thank you Whif. Your comments about the jelly fish are helpful. Definitely not a deterrent but wanted to make sure I understood.
Your comment has also helped to put the coral damage into context. I think I just needed some reassurance.

I don't know if you are committed to the Cairns area, and I have never dived there. But when we did our trip to Australia, we had heard much the same things you are reporting. As a result, we didn't go to Cairns. We went to Byron Bay, which is the easternmost point of the continent. The diving there is in a marine park that used to be the center of a volcanic caldera. There is amazing biodiversity there, and the diving was very easy (and needed to be, because I was quite the novice at the time we did the trip). You can look up the photos posted by AussieDiver here on SB -- he dives the same area.
The town was pleasant and there were excellent lodging options and restaurants, and the boat trip to the dive sites is about 15 minutes long. HERE's my report of the trip.

Thanks for the info. I will take a look at what Byron Bay offers.

 

[Damselfish]

It's true the distant outer reef is so much better then what you will get to see on a one night or day trip from Cairns. I did both areas on one trip in 2008 (well before the storm mentioned) and the difference was very dramatic. It's true as a new diver you'll probably see cool stuff anywhere on the GBR and it's best not to get too hung on "best" right away - but do keep your expectations in check so you're not disappointed when it doesn't look like the pictures. (As a fairly well traveled diver I was pretty disappointed with the closer sites we saw, not to mention the liveaboard that took us there.)

 

[Peter69_56]

A really great place to dive is Lady Elliot Island Queensland Australia. Its an Island thats a sanctuary for marine birds and you can stay there. The diving is great and good reefs and fish life. We spent a week there and would love to go back again. Its diverse and much fish life, chances of seeing whales and usually manta Rays.

Went to the GBR Divers Den site on a 3 day liveaboard and for us it was a very poor dive area compared to what we have seen, however if its your first time diving it would be ok. The liveaboard is run well and great food and crew, just a poor dive site. The main issue I think is the government making them only dive in the same areas over and over which has killed the areas, no time to recover.

We have dived Sipidan, PNG, Vanuatu, Fiji, Bali all which are much better dive sites than the common places on the GBR. Places like Cod hole and anything north of Port Douglas seems ok but is usually more expensive. With the Cairns day trips they seem to go to the same base station on the reef and the liveaboard thats out there goes off from that base. Thus if you do say 2 day trips out you will probably go to the same spot both days, thats what I didnt like as we were on the liveaboard for 3 nights and every morning went back to the same base area to swap passengers and do 2 dives there. SO much for travelling around and not seeing the same place twice.

if you havent dived before and you are going out for a day trip Cairns is ok, but I stress ok and not great. If you go to Sipidan, GBR day trip might be a letdown for you, I know it was for us and we thought expensive compared to other places.

You will love Sipidan if you get there, we loved it and got 4 days diving on the island. Would go there again in a heartbeat. The local diving at the resort is ok, but soon as you go out to the Islands off the continental shelf, its just great. Wall to wall turtles, sharks and large fish and also masses of small fish. Its totally amazing.

 

[Freddy Smith]

Yasi didn't affect any of the reefs visited by the Cairns dive fleet. I know - I live there!

(generally the worst damage, higher winds and bigger waves are in the southwest quadrant of a cyclone when it hits the Qld coast, and as this storm hit south of Cairns we were luckily spared the worst of it.