gypsyinabigtown
Registered
G'day g'day all!
Happy new year to everyone! After a long, work-induced hiatus, hello to all fellow divers in sunny Australia.
I just want to give everyone a quick review of two (unfortunately not so recent) diving trips I took in August:
* 7 day Great Barrier Reef diving cruise with Spirit of Freedom
* 3 day SS Yongala diving cruise with ProDive Townsville
It's a bit belated but hey, better late than never!
Overall I can say that Spirit of Freedom is a well-oiled lean-mean machine. Everything from dive operations to the food service to entertainment ran very well and deserved praise. I would reckon that this was also partially due to the less-than-full boat; even though the capacity is for 20-25 people, the boat had only around 15 people on board. They planned every dive meticulously and they also sent tenders out to ensure a drift dive - a very pleasant touch indeed.
As planned, the first three days were generally spent on the Ribbon Reefs. This portion of the trip featured quite a few snorkel-only guests and less than enthusiastic divers. This wasn't a problem however as everybody got along well and enjoyed the trip, thanks in no small part to the able and friendly crew.
The water temp. was quite brisk, wavering between 21 and 23 degrees, so pretty much everybody needed a 5mm. long wetsuit with hood and gloves, which the boat was able to provide luckily.
The absolute highlight of this part of the trip was the morning dive on second day, August 19th, when we saw a minke whale in safety stop! The whale just did a little show for us for 10 minutes or so, most amazing spectacle I've ever seen. I'm really sorry for not being able to share it with you all visually, as I do not have a u/w camera.
Unfortunately, the weather conditions were quite rough and winds up to 30 knots forced us to stay in Ribbon Reef for the second part of the trip as well, instead of embarking on Osprey Reef. This part featured quite a few hawksbill turtles, especially in Dreamland, however the highlight was at Grumpy's Bommie where we saw an abandoned toilet bowl at about 14m. depth.
Overall, I was very pleased with Spirit of Freedom and would wholeheartedly recommend it to other fellow divers wishing to explore Great Barrier Reef.
The second trip was a 2/3 day liveaboard with ProDive Townsville to dive the amazing Yongala.
The trip started a bit rough - the vessel is a far cry from the stability of Spirit of Freedom, and the rough seas around Yongala make for a stomach-tumbling journey for all - many people had to miss one or more Yongala dives because of the conditions.
The dive crew was friendly, and made sure to count us all before and after the dives and performed rigourous safety checks.
However, in many cases the operation appeared significantly less organised than Spirit of Freedom:
* in one of the first dives of the day a rented dive computer malfunctioned when in the water, so the diver had to basically dive 'blind' for the first time relying on the buddy for depth checks, which is a bit risky for a challenging site like Yongala. There were torch malfunctions in a night dive as well, noticed only at the surface.
* Worst of all was when on the very first day the dive compressor on the boat got broke so we had to spend a good seven hours just to get back to shore and fix the computer, wasting an entire day of diving. Absolutely no compensation was offered in return, however the route got changed so we would dive the Yongala for a full day at the final day. Six dives including a night-dive at SS Yongala, which is quite beautiful with lots of rays ,sea snakes, turtles and other beauties, was some consolation, but I think the episode somewhat highlighted the deficiencies in the organisation.
The food was edible, but definitely no comparison to Spirit of Freedom (cold-cut meats and canned spaghetti mostly).
Dive site wise, the wheeler reef was the destination for the first day, with some turtles, rays and sharks - though much less of reeffish and definitely very little coral.
Both in organising these trips and giving me tips to make them more enjoyable, Carmen from Experience Cairns deserved the biggest thanks of all! As a GBR first-timer I don't think I would have been able to enjoy so much of it in such limited vacation time without her help and insightful recommendations.
Cheers!
gypsyinabigtown
Happy new year to everyone! After a long, work-induced hiatus, hello to all fellow divers in sunny Australia.
I just want to give everyone a quick review of two (unfortunately not so recent) diving trips I took in August:
* 7 day Great Barrier Reef diving cruise with Spirit of Freedom
* 3 day SS Yongala diving cruise with ProDive Townsville
It's a bit belated but hey, better late than never!
Overall I can say that Spirit of Freedom is a well-oiled lean-mean machine. Everything from dive operations to the food service to entertainment ran very well and deserved praise. I would reckon that this was also partially due to the less-than-full boat; even though the capacity is for 20-25 people, the boat had only around 15 people on board. They planned every dive meticulously and they also sent tenders out to ensure a drift dive - a very pleasant touch indeed.
As planned, the first three days were generally spent on the Ribbon Reefs. This portion of the trip featured quite a few snorkel-only guests and less than enthusiastic divers. This wasn't a problem however as everybody got along well and enjoyed the trip, thanks in no small part to the able and friendly crew.
The water temp. was quite brisk, wavering between 21 and 23 degrees, so pretty much everybody needed a 5mm. long wetsuit with hood and gloves, which the boat was able to provide luckily.
The absolute highlight of this part of the trip was the morning dive on second day, August 19th, when we saw a minke whale in safety stop! The whale just did a little show for us for 10 minutes or so, most amazing spectacle I've ever seen. I'm really sorry for not being able to share it with you all visually, as I do not have a u/w camera.
Unfortunately, the weather conditions were quite rough and winds up to 30 knots forced us to stay in Ribbon Reef for the second part of the trip as well, instead of embarking on Osprey Reef. This part featured quite a few hawksbill turtles, especially in Dreamland, however the highlight was at Grumpy's Bommie where we saw an abandoned toilet bowl at about 14m. depth.
Overall, I was very pleased with Spirit of Freedom and would wholeheartedly recommend it to other fellow divers wishing to explore Great Barrier Reef.
The second trip was a 2/3 day liveaboard with ProDive Townsville to dive the amazing Yongala.
The trip started a bit rough - the vessel is a far cry from the stability of Spirit of Freedom, and the rough seas around Yongala make for a stomach-tumbling journey for all - many people had to miss one or more Yongala dives because of the conditions.
The dive crew was friendly, and made sure to count us all before and after the dives and performed rigourous safety checks.
However, in many cases the operation appeared significantly less organised than Spirit of Freedom:
* in one of the first dives of the day a rented dive computer malfunctioned when in the water, so the diver had to basically dive 'blind' for the first time relying on the buddy for depth checks, which is a bit risky for a challenging site like Yongala. There were torch malfunctions in a night dive as well, noticed only at the surface.
* Worst of all was when on the very first day the dive compressor on the boat got broke so we had to spend a good seven hours just to get back to shore and fix the computer, wasting an entire day of diving. Absolutely no compensation was offered in return, however the route got changed so we would dive the Yongala for a full day at the final day. Six dives including a night-dive at SS Yongala, which is quite beautiful with lots of rays ,sea snakes, turtles and other beauties, was some consolation, but I think the episode somewhat highlighted the deficiencies in the organisation.
The food was edible, but definitely no comparison to Spirit of Freedom (cold-cut meats and canned spaghetti mostly).
Dive site wise, the wheeler reef was the destination for the first day, with some turtles, rays and sharks - though much less of reeffish and definitely very little coral.
Both in organising these trips and giving me tips to make them more enjoyable, Carmen from Experience Cairns deserved the biggest thanks of all! As a GBR first-timer I don't think I would have been able to enjoy so much of it in such limited vacation time without her help and insightful recommendations.
Cheers!
gypsyinabigtown
