The 24th of july Jonas and me caught the morning plane from Melbourne to Cairns. We'd booked a trip with Taka Dive Expedition, and had a five day liveaboard to look forward to. We arrived early in Cairns, so we had the day to enjoy the nice and sunny Carins. It was quite plesant to relax in +25 degrees, due to the cold weather that has been in Melbourne lately.
We left Cairns around 5 the same day. The boat was quite large, with a sun deck, dive deck and a common room for the meals and in door activities. Early next morning we had our first dive at Challanger Bay (Ribbon Reef no. 9). The water was just incredible clear, and we had a visibility around 25-30 meters. When we got on the boat after the dive, a group of Dwarf Minkie Whales had gathered around the boat. So we just got rid of the BCD and jumped back in the water to have a snorkel with these amazing animals. They hung around for quite some time, and was as curious about us as we were to them. For the whales safety and comfort all the snorkelers hung on to a rope from the boat. The whales had to take the initiative to get a really close look. It was a fantastic experience.
The following dives that day was at Pixie Pinnacle, and potato cod feed at Cod Hole (Ribbon Reef no.10), which was quite special. A large cod followed the box with tuna like a dog, and looked up with puppy eyes to get a bite. We had the first night dive of the trip at the Cod hole. And several times got spooked by the massive potato cod that came into your light beam to hunt.
At night the boat moved out to Osprey Reef, which is 7 hours by helicopter from Cairns (to put it in perspective). This reef is known to house a large amount of sharks, and occasionally some Oseanic White Tip comes by. The first thing we spotted entering the waters on Osprey Reef was to White tip lying in the sand beneath us. Under the dive we saw even more white tips, and on the safety stop we got a glint of a hammer head cruising by.
The next big event was the Shark feeding. As we entered the water there was a huge amount of shark gathering beneath us. They've obviously smelled the tuna that was hosed in the water from the preparations of the food. All of us got down at the same time and was placed in a arena like scene on the reef wall. Then the feeding frenzy could begin. A chain with Tuna heads was chained to the bottom with a floater in the top leaving the tuna heads hanging as strawberries on a straw. The sharks started feeding, and more gathered around. At the end of the feeding a couple of Oceanic white tips joined in for a bite. In total a number of 30 sharks was swimming around us.
The two last dives of the day was also at Osprey Reef, at Half Way Wall and The Entrance. A lot of pufferfish, clownfish and parrotfish. Some also saw a Manta Ray, but we missed that unfortunally.
Clam Garden was a cold but really nice dive. It was the first dive back at The Great Barrier Reef and was 2 degrees colder than Osprey. When we went down to get depth, we were greeted by a sting ray that slided beneath us and disappeared into the deep sandy bottom. We spotted a couple of blue spotted lagoon rays later in the dive. At the end of the dive, we decided to og into the shallow parts close to the reef. At one point we were at only 3 meter. It was amazing how the sun danced in the water.
Steves Bommie was the next dive site, which is a single bommie that is about 4 meters in diameter on the top. We started the dive as deep as possible and swam upwards in a spiral to see all of the reef. There was a large school of yellow striped goat fish swimming around us, almost blocking the view at times. You really got dizzy looking at them.2 2/3 and Beer Garden was the last to dives on the outer reef. The night dive at Beer Garden, could offer turtles and sleeping parrot fishes. But the previous night dive was better.
The last to dive was planned to be at the North Reef, but was changed to Saxton Reef. It was freezing on the surface, compared to the earlier days, and the reef is a lot more warn out here so close to Cairns. This was the reef we went to an a day trip on our last trip to Cairns. We had a Barramundi Cod, and a Napoleon Wrasse waking up as we were disturbing them early in the morning. A quite fat (or pregnant) White tip was relaxing on the sandy bottom. A nice ending of the whole fantastic experience.
A big thank goes to the Taka Dive Crew, with Sharryn in the front keeping it all together. All over this is the best live aboard I've been on so far. The crew was awesome, the food was fantastic (to mention something; the pork chops, the strawberry Lamb and those great salads made us loose an extra weight on the diving). The boat was specious, well kept, neat and clean. So if someone wants to go on a live aboard to the Great Barrier Reef, go with Taka!
If any of you reading this post was on the boat, please let me know if you post anything on the web. Leave a link in the comment field!
Links:
http://flickr.com/photos/hegerokenes/sets/72157606483590112/www.taka.com.auMap of Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea:
