Diving after Cyclone??? - In Australia right now, please advise...

I'm from California, came all the way to Australia to dive at the Great Barrier Reef, and just my luck, Cyclone Ita is set to hit land on Friday. I was supposed to go diving tomorrow and it's been cancelled and the tour company is canceling Saturday and Sunday as well. I could potentially go Monday, but fly out on Tuesday at 6am, so would only be able to do one dive in the morning.

I'm wondering if it's even worth it. Being the cyclone is just north of Cairns about 40 miles, I'm sure the waters will get stirred up and be murky. The diving is NOT cheap here, cuz they take you on a whole day trip since it take 90 mins just to get there by boat. I'm not sure I want to chance $400-500 total (for my wife and I - she just snorkels, but the snorkel trip is $200!) for a sub par trip. Any thoughts?

I remember one time I was in the Virgin Islands (before I had my diving license) and a hurricane had passed a week earlier but the waters were still stirred up and murky so the snorkeling sucked, fortunately that was free cuz i went off the shore.

Anyway, let me know what you all think. Thanks a lot...

TBH i think you may find Ita stirs up the water and will give you crud viz. The systems carry a heap of rain which covers the reef in muddy run off. After Cyclone Yasi the reef viz was pretty bad for about a month from memory - Ita looks as though it could equal Yasi, however its looking likely to make landfall further up towards the cape if it keeps on its current track.

Any chance you could head south and get some diving in? Here are dive sites listed in QLD - www.diveoz.com.au - List Dive Sites - QUEENSLAND

Sorry cant be of more help I am on the other side of Aus. Hopefully some of our east coasters will chime in.

I won't be heading south to dive. I just came from Sydney and had planned a rainforest tour and Great Barrier Reef dive, and it's all been cancelled. Monday would be a possibility to dive in the morning, but I'm guessing the water would still be all stirred up. Any one else have an opinion?

Thanks...

Cyclone is a cat 5, you have two options, head far south or go to the pub and stay safe and dry. Would not even think about diving for the next week


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Well we are in Port Douglas at the moment at the Sheraton. As of 10am Saturday, it has stopped raining, but more to come likely. The weather forecasts show that Monday will be sunny and warm. Assuming that is true, would diving/snorkeling be any good? Or will all the waters be stirred up and viz will suck?

It's a hard one to answer, depends on a lot of things, local knowledge of the site is the only way to have a best guess, but there are still two things now to be concerned with flash flooding that may come in the next few days and the big one is run off that water treatment plants could not cope with May have dumped crap into the water and a nasty stomach bug or infection can be the result


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sounds like it's a crap shoot. well i figure since i'm here already and prob not likely to get to go on the rainforest tour either, might chance it if some boats are going out there Monday. Who knows when i'll be back. Major bummer on our trip plans...

scuzzynutty:

sounds like it's a crap shoot. well i figure since i'm here already and prob not likely to get to go on the rainforest tour either, might chance it if some boats are going out there Monday. Who knows when i'll be back. Major bummer on our trip plans...

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If you do end up heading out, let me know how it goes! I'm gonna be in Townsville this Thursday and wanted to do some diving. I'd rather not spend the money if the viz is crap though.

Hey did you end up heading out? What was it like? My sister will be holidaying in Port Douglas soon. She wants to take the family snorkelling on the reef, but is concerned about the visibility.