[chinacat46]

Well this was a really long trip(7 weeks) so this is gonna be a long trip report as well. I've broken it up in parts and as I get it finished I'll post the parts. I'm leaving for Wakatobi and Lembeh Strait for 3 weeks on Saturday so I'll try and get the report posted before I leave. I took thousands of pics so it will be a while before I post pics. I'll probably put them on a website an add a link here but for now here is the first 3 parts of the report with more to follow.

Part I: Getting There 9/30 - 10/2

The flight from Denver to LA went fairly smoothly except United would not issue me a boarding pass for Air NZ flights.This was strange since United and Air NZ are both part of the Star Alliance and I've never had this problem before. I was able to check my bag all the way to Brisbane but I couldn't get boarding passes till I got to LA. Once in LA I made my way to Terminal 2 where Air NZ flys out of. I had 3 hours between flights and I spent nearly all of it in lines. First I had to wait an hour and half just to get a boarding pass. The flight was full and I ended up with a middle seat but luckily in an exit row so I had tons of leg room. After the boarding pass line I had to wait in another line where they check your ticket before letting you go stand in another line to go thru security. Got thru that madness about 10 mins before they were gonna start boarding. Turns out the plane was late so it was another 40 mins before they started boarding. After that things went fine. I flew from LA to Auckland changed planes and flew to Brisbane. My bag made it and I went thru customs. Then took the train from the international terminal to the domestic terminal where I had a couple of hours to kill before my flight to Townsville. That when off without a hitch and I split a taxi with two other people going into Townsville.

Part II: 3 days on Sea Esta(Pro Dive Townsville) 10/2 - 10/5

I checked in at the dive shop after arriving and left my bag there and went out for some dinner as the pickup from the shop was until 8pm. Got directions to Molly Malones and went and ate steak which I washed down with two Kilkennys(Hmmmn!) Got on the boat around 9 and we set out for the GBR around 11pm. Woke up on the GBR and beautiful weather. Did 4 dives including a night dive on different parts of Wheeler's Reef. We moved early the next morning and dove the same scenario on Davies reef. Saw lots of kewl fish including a big school of bumphead parrotfish, some whitetip sharks, some moray eels, tons of fusliers, anthias, parrotfish, wrasse, huge variety of butterfly fish, angel fish, unicorn fish, trigger fish, batfish, an occasional lion fish, barracuda, a tuna or 3 and lots more. This part of the GBR is a green zone and it's quite a ways off Townsville so it only gets dived by the this liveaboard and the reef was in excellent condition. Beautiful table corals and huge staghorns. Very very nice. The 3rd night we cruised to the Yongala Wreck where we did two early morning dives(first was at 6am). The Yongala is billed as the best wreck dive in the world. It might not be the best but it is a brilliant dive and since it's the only thing in the middle of nowhere every fish in the area makes it there home. It was a great dive with bull sharks, huge bull rays, a guitar shark, eels, a Queensland grouper the size of a VW bug, etc... and covered in soft and hard corals. It's quite a good size ship and two dives barely did it justice. I did 10 out of 10 dives. After that it was back to Townsville where I spent the night in the sugar shaker(Holiday Inn on Flinders Mall). Met about half the people from the boat at Molly Malones where we proceed to get pissed. Next day I flew to Cairns where I spent 2 nights at the Holiday Inn on the Esplande before departing on Monday morning on the Spirit of Freedom.

The crew was young and energtic and the boat was small & old and crowded. There are two bathrooms for everybody including the crew. Luckily the boat wasn't full but there was still to many people. Most of the other divers were Aussies except for me and a British couple who run a charter in the BVI's and spend 3 months a year in Australia. It was more like camping at sea then a nice hotel like the liveaboards I'm more accustomed to. No maid service and bring your own towel. I knew this beforehand and since it was only a 3 day trip I didn't mind it. The food wasn't very good and most of it seem to come out of a can or the freezer and then into the oven but the salads were fresh.

Part III: 7 days on the Spirit of Freedom(Ribbon Reefs-GBR and Osprey Reef-Coral Sea) 10/8 - 10/15

I got picked up at the Holiday Inn around 11am on Monday morning and after two more pickups we were taken to the boat. The boat holds 26 divers plus crew which is the most amount of people I've ever been on a liveaboard with. I think the Nekton boats in the Caribbean hold more but I've never been on one of there boats. As it turned out there was only 23 divers. I had opted for a quad hoping to save a little money since I rarely spend any time in my room when not sleeping. They break the trip up into a 3 day part and a 4 day part. The 3 day goes from Cairns along the Ribbon Reefs to Lizard Island diving the beautiful Ribbon Reefs along the way. On Lizard Island some people get off and others get on. They have a low altitude flight back and forth from Cairns so you don't need to miss any diving before flying. The 4 day trip leaves from Lizard Island and goes out to the Coral Sea to dive Osprey Reef and then returns to Cairns the following Monday. You can do the 3 day trip or the 4 day trip or combine them as I and most of the other passengers did.

They are very strict on this boat about rules and you have to have a snorkel and a buddy. You are supposed to be back on board with 700 psi or 50 bar as well. You also have to give them your time and depth and then sign after every dive. Nobody actually checks your air and you don't have to wear the snorkel just have one. The first dive I tucked the snorkel into my belt after that I tucked it into my dive bag and nobody ever asked me about a snorkel. Don't ask don't tell. They don't limit your dives but they do ask you to be back on the boat with 700psi. I did many dives over an hour and only twice came back with less then 700psi. They also want you to do your deepest dive of the day first and then shallower dives each dive after that so no reverse profiles. This seems stupid to me but at least they don't inforce it. Also traveling by myself I didn't have a buddy. When they asked me who my buddy was and I told them my camera they didn't laugh. I got an insta-buddy actually two. Both of them had cameras but weren't to good on their air. Needless to say they would go up early and I would find a new buddy to finish the dive with. I also dove with the captain on a couple of dives and he was into finding nudibranchs so we got along great. After the first 3 days I got a new buddy when a Japanese guy got on board. He didn't speak much english but he was a good diver and buddy.

The Monday we left they take you out to Normandy Reef which is where most of the day boats out of Cairns go and the reefs were trashed. With all the use and Open Water classes the reefs have taken a beating. We did two checkout dives there and then we checked out. We cruised over night and woke up on the Ribbon Reefs and the famous Cod Hole for our first two dives. There was some current when we got in but not to bad that quickly changed and after 30 mins we thought it best to head back for the boat. We weren't that far but it still took 10 mins and a lot of effort to get to the mooring line. There were already others hanging on it and it was clear it was gonna be very tough to get to the stern where the ladders where. Henry an I were the only ones who made it and most of the others had to get picked up by the dinghy. The second dive they feed the potato cods and I opted to sit outside the circle and not participate. The feed only lasts about 15 mins and then you are free to dive the area. The current had dropped and I got in a 68 min dive. Totally different place when there is no current. We did 3 more dives that day with the last being a night dive. The next day we did 4 dives then went to Lizard Island where we stayed overnight. The next day is the crossover day and there are no dives in the morning. You can go for hike on hot humid lizard island or you can hang out on the boat in AC. I don't do well in heat and humidity so I stayed on the boat. Two people were leaving and three people were getting on.

After the exchange of people and lunch we moved out to do two afternoon dives before the overnigt steam to the Osprey Reef of the Coral Sea. While the diving on the Ribbon Reefs is very good the viz wasn't great and the water temps haven't warmed upto where they will be in a few months but the coral is in good condition and the fish life is in abundance. However the diving on the Osprey Reef puts the Ribbon Reefs to shame. We lucked out and had an easy crossing and the diving for two days was brilliant. Really clear water(30-40 meter viz) and excellent hard corals and a few soft corals as well. We had 9 dives over two days including one night dive. I skipped the shark feed so I only did 8 dives. I really hate feeding wild animals and you could tell the sharks there have had there habits changed. We dove the site of the shark feed before the feed and the sharks would follow you and come very close where normally they wouldn't get near you. At the end of the second day on Osprey they start heading back to the Ribbon Reefs so there wasn't a night dive. We woke up on the Ribbon Reefs and did 4 dives before steaming back to Cairns for a Monday morning departure.

Saw tons of stuff over the 7 days including some great nudibranchs, twin spot gobies(one of my favs), sea snakes, huge school of barracuda(or so I thought until I got to Kimbe Bay in PNG), white tips, silver tips and grey reef sharks, and pretty much everything I'd seen on the previous boat. The boat was nice but had to many divers in my opinion. We had 23 the first 3 days and 24 the last 4 days. It wasn't bad when diving a big wall but when we dove some of the bommies it got to be a real clusterf**K at the top. They would stagger us into the water so you'd go down and circle the bommie as you made your way back to the top. It wasn't to bad down below but then near the end everybody was on the top which is the smallest part and of course thats where everybody would be near the end of the dive. It's just a suggestion so to say. The crew was more professional then the previous boat and the food was good but not great. Needless to say I still ate to much. The daily schedule was first breakfast(ceral, toast, juice), dive, second breakfast(varied but eggs, sausages, bacon, waffles, pancakes, beans, etc...) then the 2nd dive, lunch, 3rd dive, snack, 4th dive, dinner, night dive(only offered two night dives), dessert. They offered 26 total dives and I missed two. Skipped the shark feed and the very last dive since I was flying the next morning. I probably could have done the last one but aired on the side safety.