A review of my recent dive trip.
Mike Ball Expeditions Dive fly 4 night trip.
Overall a fantastic trip that I’d happily recommend.
The booking process was smooth and efficient and the office staff very easy to deal with. Website easy to follow and had good information.
I checked in on the Thursday at the Mike Ball office and showed dive cards. They do weigh your luggage (for the flight back) so stick to the limits J
Thursday evening we met at Mondos café for a pre-departure dinner. Mike Ball himself was there and told a few good yarns (and some less good yarns…)
The weather was deemed good enough for us to do the ‘Fair weather route’ which meant we headed directly East into the Coral Sea. A rough night ensued… I am prone to seasickness and took a cocktail of 5 different anti –nausea medications and had a great night’s sleep. I think I was the only one that did and there were some pretty crook looking people the next morning. My advice would be to stock up on seasickness meds before you leave and to take them – a few people commented they had never been seasick before… There are anti-nausea tablets available on Spoilsport – for a fee – which they will add to your bar bill at the end of the trip.
Friday we dived Holmes Reef… the weather cleared beautifully. Stunning vis and a good variety of sea creatures. Three day time dives and a night dive were offered. They were a very safety conscious outfit… you had to sign in after every dive. Those with less experience had to do their first dive with a dive master but overall I felt they were very good at catering to different levels of divers. If you wanted to go off on your own after the briefing that was fine, there were no limits on time underwater, providing you gave an ETA if you were planning on being down for more than an hour. If you didn’t have a buddy they’d sort it for you, if you wanted to do every dive with a guide that seemed to be ok too. Nautilus GPS thingees available for everybody and they provided SMBs (mandatory to carry) and torches too if you needed them.
Overnight we steamed up to Bouganville Reef – a much calmer journey – for a fantastic day of diving. Wonderful coral, sea life… Four dives available, we couldn’t do the night dive as weather deteriorated a little. In the afternoon it was ‘open deck’ so as many or few dives as you wanted.
From Bouganville up to Osprey Reef. Shark feeding dive good fun but I liked it most because of the 3 HUGE potato cod who showed up. On the Fair weather itinerary you don’t get to go to Cod Hole… but the Potato Cod present at North Horn totally made up for it. Otherwise I wasn’t hugely impressed with Osprey Reef and there seemed to be a lot of dead coral… Sunday evening a BBQ and Monday morning a low level flight back to Cairns.
Generally, I’d recommend this trip to divers of any level. Crew pleasant and friendly. Kieran the Cruise Director had the patience of a saint. Food good although the vegetarian offerings seemed pretty token. There is a coffee machine on the boat which was broken so the coffee addicts were restricted to instant… sacrilege. The coffee machine continued to make good hot chocolates though! Soft drinks available for a charge. You pay extra for Nitrox.. I know this is pretty standard but it kind of bugs me and I wish they’d just include it in the trip cost. It’s not a cheap trip… but I expect operating costs reasonably high. We had an almost full boat and I understand they are fully booked for the next few months. The rooms are small (pokey) but functional enough – although I wouldn’t want to be sleeping on a top bunk during a rough crossing. The large number of people sometimes gave it a school yard feeling… but I guess with that number of guests things need to be kept orderly..(!) whatever you do, do NOT start eating before the bell has rung.. or the wrath of the hostess will heap down upon you…
Would happily go again.
Cheers
Mike Ball Expeditions Dive fly 4 night trip.
Overall a fantastic trip that I’d happily recommend.
The booking process was smooth and efficient and the office staff very easy to deal with. Website easy to follow and had good information.
I checked in on the Thursday at the Mike Ball office and showed dive cards. They do weigh your luggage (for the flight back) so stick to the limits J
Thursday evening we met at Mondos café for a pre-departure dinner. Mike Ball himself was there and told a few good yarns (and some less good yarns…)
The weather was deemed good enough for us to do the ‘Fair weather route’ which meant we headed directly East into the Coral Sea. A rough night ensued… I am prone to seasickness and took a cocktail of 5 different anti –nausea medications and had a great night’s sleep. I think I was the only one that did and there were some pretty crook looking people the next morning. My advice would be to stock up on seasickness meds before you leave and to take them – a few people commented they had never been seasick before… There are anti-nausea tablets available on Spoilsport – for a fee – which they will add to your bar bill at the end of the trip.
Friday we dived Holmes Reef… the weather cleared beautifully. Stunning vis and a good variety of sea creatures. Three day time dives and a night dive were offered. They were a very safety conscious outfit… you had to sign in after every dive. Those with less experience had to do their first dive with a dive master but overall I felt they were very good at catering to different levels of divers. If you wanted to go off on your own after the briefing that was fine, there were no limits on time underwater, providing you gave an ETA if you were planning on being down for more than an hour. If you didn’t have a buddy they’d sort it for you, if you wanted to do every dive with a guide that seemed to be ok too. Nautilus GPS thingees available for everybody and they provided SMBs (mandatory to carry) and torches too if you needed them.
Overnight we steamed up to Bouganville Reef – a much calmer journey – for a fantastic day of diving. Wonderful coral, sea life… Four dives available, we couldn’t do the night dive as weather deteriorated a little. In the afternoon it was ‘open deck’ so as many or few dives as you wanted.
From Bouganville up to Osprey Reef. Shark feeding dive good fun but I liked it most because of the 3 HUGE potato cod who showed up. On the Fair weather itinerary you don’t get to go to Cod Hole… but the Potato Cod present at North Horn totally made up for it. Otherwise I wasn’t hugely impressed with Osprey Reef and there seemed to be a lot of dead coral… Sunday evening a BBQ and Monday morning a low level flight back to Cairns.
Generally, I’d recommend this trip to divers of any level. Crew pleasant and friendly. Kieran the Cruise Director had the patience of a saint. Food good although the vegetarian offerings seemed pretty token. There is a coffee machine on the boat which was broken so the coffee addicts were restricted to instant… sacrilege. The coffee machine continued to make good hot chocolates though! Soft drinks available for a charge. You pay extra for Nitrox.. I know this is pretty standard but it kind of bugs me and I wish they’d just include it in the trip cost. It’s not a cheap trip… but I expect operating costs reasonably high. We had an almost full boat and I understand they are fully booked for the next few months. The rooms are small (pokey) but functional enough – although I wouldn’t want to be sleeping on a top bunk during a rough crossing. The large number of people sometimes gave it a school yard feeling… but I guess with that number of guests things need to be kept orderly..(!) whatever you do, do NOT start eating before the bell has rung.. or the wrath of the hostess will heap down upon you…
Would happily go again.
Cheers
