I’m heading to the east coast of Australia and would like to spend a few days on a liveaboard diving the Great Barrier Reef. If possible I’d also like to get my advanced open water certification as part of it (currently have my open water).
Does anyone have any experience with this? And perhaps a company they’d recommend or warn against?
Is there a length of time that seems optimal? 7 days seems a bit too long, 2 days seems a bit too short.
Thanks
Never done it myself, but we were looking into it and were told that there were a lot of operations to be found in towns like Cairns, and that it was easy enough to find one once you’re there.
There are some like this onewhich offer a 4 day/3 night cruise plus 2 day land training if you are wanting something in the middle.
Oops, just noticed you already had open cert, and were wanting advanced - the above is probably not relevant then!
Hi I just did a live-aboard trip to the GBR this past April. Good decision to do a live-aboard to dive the GBR. There are land based operations (day trips), but the diving on the inner reefs is not as good as the outer reefs.
The boat/operation I used was the Spirit of Freedom ( www.spiritoffreedom.com.au ). I would definitely recommend them.
THE name in live-aboard diving is Mike Ball’s operation (www.mikeball.com). I have heard nothing but good things about Mike Ball’s trips, and was my first choice in picking a dive operation. I think their boat is a bit nicer, and their food is a bit better. But you also pay for it, so I opted for SOF.
The last live-aboard operation that I heard about was Taka (www.taka.com.au). They are the cheapest of the 3. When I did some research, I read some pretty scathing reviews, and the general opinion from the travel people I saw at this Scuba Show (Long Beach, CA) was to stay away. So unless you’re really strapped, I would kind of steer clear of these folks.
General info on GBR diving:
There was some current on some of the dives. Out on Osprey there was one dive where the current was really whipping. So if you are not familiar to drift diving, this will be a new experience for you. Let the dive crew know if you haven’t done drift diving before.
Most of the dives we entered/exitted from the dive boat itself. But on the drift dives you will enter from a zodiac. Not a big deal, but if you haven’t done it before, something new. (It’s not so much the falling into the water, it’s more stepping into a rocking zodiac while holding your fins and stuff. And not falling in too quickly with the weight of your tank on the tube of the zodiac).
I was there in April, and they had just had some rains. So that may have contributed to it. But I was disappointed with the visibility. It was better out at Osprey (up to 60 feet), but was downright poor at some of the outer reefs (30 feet and less). I talked to the crew, and they said this was maybe only a little less than average. So don’t get your expectations up for 80+ feet of visibility.
In April, the water was very warm (high 70’s to low 80’s). Doing 4 or 5 dives a day will catch up with you, though. So I would recommend at least a shortie (3mm).
Other:
We loved Cairns. We were there in the off season, so it was very quiet and not crowded at all. But great city with lots of restaurants and shops, but not over built (IMO). We also did some day trips out of Cairns after the live-aboard, and those were fun. We went up to Kuranda (Barron Falls gorge), and I would highly recommend the Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Center. Very cool.
We also took a longer day trip up to Daintree (rain forest) and Cape Tribulation. Got a nice feel for the rainforest, and we were lucky enough to see a Cassowary in the wild.
If you’re going all that way to Australia, I would plan for some land-based stuff along with the diving. And I’d highly recommend stuff out of Cairns.
Hope this helps. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.
My wife and I dove from the Nimrod III, (now the Nimrod Explorer) back in 1998. It was a great trip, though I wouldn’t make or take any boat specific recommendations that are 12 years out of date. But liveaboard diving is much nicer than day trips - we got in 4 dives a day, and went to dive sites the day trip boats never get near. The general schedule was wake up, 1st breakfast, dive, 2nd breakfast, dive, lunch, nap, snack, dive, dinner, night dive, few beers, sleep, repeat. If you want to get the most of your diving, and the GBR is a place to do so, I highly recommend it. Ours was a 4 day trip - left Cairns in the afternoon, motored up to over 3 days Lizard Island diving on the way, and flew back on sightseeing planes the morning of day 5. That seemed about right - we were pretty physically tired by the end of the third diving day.
On the cert - isn’t Advanced just doing a bunch of dives? Deep, navigation, search, etc? I’m guessing most boats would be happy to assign an instructor to you and collect your money, but you may miss out on the benefits of some dives if you’re doing skills instead of looking at the wildlife. However, you may have administrative issues with doing deep dives - I’ve run into outfits in the Carribean that wouldn’t let me dive below 60 ft. after the cert agencies revamped all the standards (to their financial benefit), even though I’d been diving to 100ft plus in New England waters for years.
I spent a week on a liveaboard on the Belize Barrier Reef in 2005. (Aggressor Fleet, FWIW.) There were people on board taking their AOW/Nitrox courses during the trip, which was primarily an underwater photo school week.
My pony bottle’s worth: Do it.
Wow guys great info!
But I ran into a bit of a snag: the Spirit of Freedom looks to cost about $1500 per person which is considerably more than I was expecting. Places like Great Barrier Reef Diving and Snorkeling Trip Pricing and Options - New Horizon Sail and Dive Trips - Cairns, Australia put the cost closer to $600 per person (with a few extras). Any thoughts on that discrepancy?
As for the advanced course: the key feature is the deep dive which gives us more fleability when we want to dive. I also REALLY want to be able to wreck dive, which is an advanced dive, as well as most wrecks are in deeper water. Third, they offer the digital photography course that I think my wife will really enjoy.
Thanks again!
I’ll check the Reef Charter site. If it’s a normal shore-based dive, please keep in mind that the liveaboard cost (IME normally) includes room, board, and more diving than shore-based can give you.
There’s a big difference between a sailing charter and a live-aboard dive boat. For starters, range. Even for 3 days, I don’t think you would be very far out (inner reefs).
Second, amount of diving. It looks like you can get an optional package for 4 dives. Like 4 dives total for your 3 days (as opposed to something like 12 dives over 3 days). I doubt you would be able to complete your class with so few dives.
Lastly, boat size. There would be less people on the sailing charter, but also far less room. Also the boat size will play into how rocky the boat is, even when moored.
The reef charters sound like “sailing charters, with some optional diving”. Whereas a live-aboard dive boat is all about diving - maximizing your time underwater.
It depends on how important the diving is to your trip. I went specifically to dive as much as I could.