edoralive
Contributor
The departure city
I thought I would really not like Cairns, but really enjoyed the two days I spent meandering around the little city in the Sunshine State. Some interesting, if touristy, things like the Night Markets and Rusty’s were super fun to happen upon.
The boat
I believe Spoilsport was set to sea in 1986. It was one of three vessels operated by Mike Ball - time and various economies have shed two of the boats, leaving just spoilsport. It's a catamaran with three decks - a sun deck on top, the mess and al fresco decks in the middle, and quarters and the dive deck below. Most of the berths have an en suite, but not the budget rooms - there are two with up to four guests, who share one toilet/shower.
I had the standard room, and one roommate. The rooms were fine - efficient certainly. The standard-and-above rooms all have windows overlooking the endless seas. The only downside of my room was the AC unit which was situated right above my mattress. Our final night was a rollicking crossing and several times the drainage from the AC unit came cascading down over its tray. Sort of like a funky sea spray. Gross!
Hire gear looked pretty good - the wetsuits they had for hire seemed to be in good shape.
Mess accommodations were mostly efficient. Separate eating spaces for crew and passengers.
The dive deck was predictably crowded, and led to a bit of a rush/traffic jam when the pool was opened.
The crew were largely lovely. The host staff were charming and attentive. The trip director seems to love her gig - much energy! Big smiles. Lots of inside jokes.
You can do learning on the boat - a few folks, including the host, completed their AOW and I think deep diver while embarked? That’s pretty cool.
Embarking was a breeze - check in at the office in Cairns, leave your bags and come back at the appointed time to find them all in your cabin. That was a lovely sort of thing.
The dives
Dives were pretty lovely for the most part. Day one was spent on Bougainville Reef, while the second two days were up at Osprey. Apparently, the weather recently had precluded trips out to both Bougainville and Osprey reefs, so we spent an extra day at Osprey when we would have normally returned to GBR.
Coming all the way from the middle of the US to not actually dive the GBR was kind of a bummer, but Osprey was quite lovely.
Day one was four dives, including a night dive. The second day was five dives, including a night dive and a shark feed. The third day was back to four dives with no night dives. We double dipped I think on two sites, but mostly we motored around to different sites each dive.
Mostly little fauna. We saw a number of sharks, and just one turtle. I caught glimpse of a single eagle ray. Pelagic lovers were left out, though I did look longingly into the abyss for an elusive manta. No luck.
Lots of wall diving with drops extending to 200 meters and beyond. My deepest dive was 107’ but most were around 75. Water temps were reliably 78-80 degrees, with no stingers reported. The dives aren’t timed per se but they do ask you to be back by 60 minutes unless you clear it with the Trip Director.
The return trip
Honestly the coolest part of the trip was the low flight home. The shorter MB expeditions are “fly dives” which means you either take the boat from Cairns to Lizard Island and fly back, or take the plane to Lizard Island and the boat back. It was a cool way to see the reefs we had spent the last while clambering up. Also sort of a marvel of logistical efficient that MB pulls it off.
Things that were awesome
Things I didn’t love
Would I go again?
Probably not, though nothing stands out as a deal breaker really… except perhaps the shark feed. I think I personally would avoid shark feeding operations in the future, and the size of the passenger manifest felt a little overwhelming to me. It’s a “full service” sort of boat, which I guess I found I didn’t actually like that much!
Your mileage may vary.
I thought I would really not like Cairns, but really enjoyed the two days I spent meandering around the little city in the Sunshine State. Some interesting, if touristy, things like the Night Markets and Rusty’s were super fun to happen upon.
The boat
I believe Spoilsport was set to sea in 1986. It was one of three vessels operated by Mike Ball - time and various economies have shed two of the boats, leaving just spoilsport. It's a catamaran with three decks - a sun deck on top, the mess and al fresco decks in the middle, and quarters and the dive deck below. Most of the berths have an en suite, but not the budget rooms - there are two with up to four guests, who share one toilet/shower.
I had the standard room, and one roommate. The rooms were fine - efficient certainly. The standard-and-above rooms all have windows overlooking the endless seas. The only downside of my room was the AC unit which was situated right above my mattress. Our final night was a rollicking crossing and several times the drainage from the AC unit came cascading down over its tray. Sort of like a funky sea spray. Gross!
Hire gear looked pretty good - the wetsuits they had for hire seemed to be in good shape.
Mess accommodations were mostly efficient. Separate eating spaces for crew and passengers.
The dive deck was predictably crowded, and led to a bit of a rush/traffic jam when the pool was opened.
The crew were largely lovely. The host staff were charming and attentive. The trip director seems to love her gig - much energy! Big smiles. Lots of inside jokes.
You can do learning on the boat - a few folks, including the host, completed their AOW and I think deep diver while embarked? That’s pretty cool.
Embarking was a breeze - check in at the office in Cairns, leave your bags and come back at the appointed time to find them all in your cabin. That was a lovely sort of thing.
The dives
Dives were pretty lovely for the most part. Day one was spent on Bougainville Reef, while the second two days were up at Osprey. Apparently, the weather recently had precluded trips out to both Bougainville and Osprey reefs, so we spent an extra day at Osprey when we would have normally returned to GBR.
Coming all the way from the middle of the US to not actually dive the GBR was kind of a bummer, but Osprey was quite lovely.
Day one was four dives, including a night dive. The second day was five dives, including a night dive and a shark feed. The third day was back to four dives with no night dives. We double dipped I think on two sites, but mostly we motored around to different sites each dive.
Mostly little fauna. We saw a number of sharks, and just one turtle. I caught glimpse of a single eagle ray. Pelagic lovers were left out, though I did look longingly into the abyss for an elusive manta. No luck.
Lots of wall diving with drops extending to 200 meters and beyond. My deepest dive was 107’ but most were around 75. Water temps were reliably 78-80 degrees, with no stingers reported. The dives aren’t timed per se but they do ask you to be back by 60 minutes unless you clear it with the Trip Director.
The return trip
Honestly the coolest part of the trip was the low flight home. The shorter MB expeditions are “fly dives” which means you either take the boat from Cairns to Lizard Island and fly back, or take the plane to Lizard Island and the boat back. It was a cool way to see the reefs we had spent the last while clambering up. Also sort of a marvel of logistical efficient that MB pulls it off.
Things that were awesome
- I feel like the best part, aside from the actual diving, is meeting people from all over. We had folks from Poland, Germany, England, the US (lots!), Australia, folks who originated from Russia or Ukraine. That sort of experience is always delightful.
- Diving was generally very easy - the surface surges could be nasty but under the sea it was all just plodding around - hit a current? Just go the other way. Easy, with a lot of depth to work with.
- The operation seemed very well organized. Logistics appeared to flow smoothly.
- The trip director and host staff I felt really were excellent.
- There’s a BBQ the final night; the boat master joined us and sang a selection of very American songs, which tickled me.
Things I didn’t love
- One is that there’s a charge for everything behind the bar, including sodas. I’ve only been on one live aboard before - the Juliet, which proffered free snacks and sodas for the duration of the trip. That was lovely.
- There was smoking allowed on the al fresco deck. Smoking divers was a surprising sight! It could get funky on the deck, which you had to pass through to get to the mess, or the sundeck.
- The boat is large - 28 passengers altogether, and what felt like tight restrictions on dive buddies. It felt at time that we had simply too many drivers in one little area, which took away some of the magic of the sites and experience for this curmudgeonly single diver. Here I prefer the Juliet’s more intimate experience.
- Shark feed dive. I had only heard of these before and felt apprehensive about the ethics of the event. That said, I still participated to see what it was about and I still don’t like the practice, but now I can legitimately complain after seeing one
- Tipping remains confusing. It’s frowned upon in Australia, but not always? And maybe on dive boats? Or maybe not? The director mentioned it just once.
Would I go again?
Probably not, though nothing stands out as a deal breaker really… except perhaps the shark feed. I think I personally would avoid shark feeding operations in the future, and the size of the passenger manifest felt a little overwhelming to me. It’s a “full service” sort of boat, which I guess I found I didn’t actually like that much!
Your mileage may vary.
