Diving trips from Cairns

[dutchgirl]

Hi, I am in doubt what trip I should choose for diving from Cairns. I will be going in November and by then I will have obtained my PADI advanced open water diver certification if all goes well. Less than 15 dives in total. The choice is between:

1) a liveaboard 2 day / 1 night trip with Divers Den, or:
2) two daytrips, being 1 with Divers Den (to Saxon/Norman reef) and 1 with Silverswift (to Thetford/Flynn reef)?

What would you do and why?

 

[CarrieanneCook]

I would pick option two because live aboards are not that great unless you get a good crowd and you can't get off, but that's my personal statement some people may feel different.

 

[prowest2012]

:cool2:We are going down and diving with the agressor fleet, but this is are first time. But all the reserach that I have done. From internet to talking with people that have gone. They are one of the best. Now they have some shorter trips, I think they are three days. If possible I would look at them if possible. Anyone know where to wreck dive in Austrialia, we are already going to do the yogala

 

[dutchgirl]

Thanks for your replies. I'm still in doubt but leaning towards doing 2 day trips

 

[mattoau]

To maximise dives I would suggest 2 day 1 night with DSDD. 5 dives on the first day and 3 on the second. What you are doing is swapping 4x 90 minute (minimum) transit time to 2x 90 minute transit time and converting the time saved to diving. There is less of a rush, more time to relax etc.

What you need to consider is that using two different operators on two days almost guarantees different sites on the two days, whereas using a single operator could mean diving the same sites on both days, especially if the conditions are poor.

Other considerations:

There is absolutely nothing wrong with going to the same dive site more than once. I've been working on the GBR for several years, to the same sites on a daily basis, and I still see something new each time I dive.

Guided dives may cost extra (definitely with DSDD), if you want to go guided once and go to the same site again you can save yourself some money by not going guided.

You don't have to go guided. You'll be given a quality briefing on the dive site (especially with DSDD), and on the GBR if you pay attention to the briefing it is almost impossible to get lost.

If you don't want to pay for a guided tour and are still concerned about getting lost you can still roughly follow a guided group. Try not to interfere with the group though.

If you do get lost you surface and snorkel back to the boat. If it is too far and the current is against you the operator will send a tender to pick you up.

With a few exceptions what you can see 200m from the boat you can see 20m from the boat, you don't have to go far to see most things.

The slower you go, the more you will see. Guided groups tend to cover a large distance and not see much. It can be problematic to show a small nudibranch to 8 divers, and so the divemasters tend not to look for them, or if they see them tend not to point them out.

You are already certified OW, and will have AOW when you dive. This means that you are more than qualified to dive unguided. Have confidence in yourself, and have fun.

If you haven't dived within 6 months of your trip you will be expected to do a checkout dive. This consists of neutral buoyancy, mask clearance and regulator recovery/clearance.

Final consideration. If you are travelling by yourself then you do need to be concerned about who your buddy will be. If you are confident in yourself and have an experienced buddy who is also confident then definitely consider having fun by yourselves. If you are not confident, and/or have a buddy who has limited experience or experience, then consider going guided.

HTH

 

[dutchgirl]

Wow thank you very much mattoau! Your answer is really helpful and I will read it a few more times to make sure I consider every aspect when choosing. It's good to hear that it's not a bad thing to dive the same sites more than once, I was indeed worried about that. Do you think DSDD is a good company to do the liveaboard or would you suggest another company? Unfortunately due to flight planning I cannot stay longer than 1 night on the reef (will do a trip to Cape Tribulation / Daintree on the day before flying).

 

[mattoau]

Divers Den have generally positive reviews on TripAdvisor. Most of the complaints are from customers with specialist dietary requirements, or those who don't like to dive the same site more than once.

To explain that a little more, if you go guided twice at the same spot, even with diferent divemasters, you will have exaclty the same features and critters pointed out to you. By diving unguided you can look out for what ever you want. Current is never normally a big problem and can be avoided quite easily by sticking close to the reef. This gives you the option of being able to dive to the left on one dive, and to the right on the next.

There are a few more variables worth mentioning, and these will be unknown until well into any cancellation period the company you choose offers:

You don't know who the skipper will be. Some skippers will not move the boat often or far for several reasons such as saving fuel, or catering more to snorkellers.

You don't know who the chef will be (for a liveaboard option). Some are outstanding and others claim how much they can come in under budget.

The weather and tides. If it is blowing 25 knots and high tide then most skippers will choose the safest site. This generally means the most frequently dived, and therefore damaged site. These factors can also affect visibility.

It is almsot impossible to predict which company will be best, and at some point you will just have to dive in and hope for the best.

 

[dutchgirl]

Once again thanks a lot! I have decided to do the Divers Den liveaboard. I am already very much looking forward to it and will post an update here about my experiences.

 

[markmantei]

Sorry I didn't get to respond until today, but I think you made the right choice dutchgirl. Did the same live-aboard (2 days 1 night with Diver's Den) 18 months ago and it was a terrific experience.

I would say the food was OK, not great, but good, the accommodations were clean, but again not opulent, but hey your staying on a dive boat, if you want a yacht, break out the checkbook. The dive deck was well organized and there was alot of room for the divers we had on board (I don't recall if the boat was full or not). Safety procedures were sufficent There was a small boat for retrieving divers if required (it was not needed while I was on-board), safety sausages are required for all divers, if you don't have one they will loan you one of the cheap plastic ones. All divers are signed out and back in, there really is no risk of an "open water" type scenario here, they are very diligent about that. When I was there I only had OW cert, although I had varied diving, they still limited you to 60ft, I guess its an Australian nanny state thing, I have not found that anywhere else, you shouldn't have that issue provided you get your advanced cert first.

Cramming that many dives in (and I did them all) was tough. There was not a ton of time to relax (proper surface intervals were done), and at least for me I was still recovering from jet lag. I would have liked to have a little more time to visit, met some interesting people onboard and everyone was friendly, but your are there to dive, and you will enjoy it. Make sure you do the night dive, it was amazing (I am partial to night dives anywhere though).

Hope you have a great time! Dive safe and have fun.

Mark

 

[drbill]

I did the 3 day liveaboard with Divers Den back in 2001. I had a lot of fun as the passengers on board were great. I didn't mind diving the same area for three days... just wish I had my camera then. If I remember correctly, the boat does move at night to new parts of the reef... at least it did back then. I also had the option of a week long trip out to the Coral Sea which all my Australian acquaintances said was a much better trip, but I only had a week in Cairns.