RECENT TRIP GALLERIES ON SPIRIT OF FREEDOM

Thu 29th December 2011 - Mon 2nd January 2012 - (24) images

The 7-day passengers, Lindsay & Dee, Luis & Priscilla, Anton & Mila, Ken and Annabelle were joined by 15 new passengers giving us a full boat for the last trip of 2011. Our afternoon started with some awesome check out dives at Monolith where we had the joy of a 3m+ Black Manta Ray cruising past in the shallows. That was an awesome way to complete Lindsay's Nitrox course with her certification dive swimming with a Manta!

Lighthouse Bommie started our second day off with crystal clear water, lots of sea snakes winding along in the deeper sections of the coral garden, turtles drifting lazily past while thousands of reef fish adorned the Bommie itself. Rod's Rock was also crystal clear water and schools of jacks, trevally, fusiliers and snapper in and around the two smaller pinnacles on the far side of the rock. Tiny blue lobster and several awesome nudibranchs were spotted with several pipefish starting to do the elegant mating dance. The Cod Hole had the usual suspects turning up halfway through the dive with the big Potato Cod following the divers along the gorgeous coral ridges, hunting for a morsel of food. Challenger Bay was our stop for the afternoon dive and night dive and the stunning coral formations along the wall with the Giant Trevally and Snapper hunting in the torchlight, White Tip Reef Sharks in a feeding frenzy with a Moray Eel rearing up to protect itself! What an awesome first night dive for Vicki, Jeffrey, Leslie, Mail, Frank and Melissa!

We started New Year's Eve with a lot more wind and a lovely dive at Pixie Wall where families of nudibranchs were clustered on the deeper bommies and schools of fusiliers weaved their way through the branching corals in the shallows. Pixie Gardens brought us 2 more Manta Rays and a pair of cuttlefish and everyone grabbed a photo with the gorgeous Lionfish hanging out near the mooring line. Wonder Wall and Wonder Gardens had hundreds of fusiliers and snapper at mooring line; Andy and Lauren spotted a leafy scorpionfish on the bommie at the edge of the wall and Lindsay went diving in the Spidey stingersuit and was awesome in the underwater photos as Spidergirl! Don't worry Kenji, Takeshi and Jason, your secret from Wonder Gardens is safe with me, I'd never mention that two instructors and their awesome buddy got lost and needed to be picked up, ever, honest!
We toasted the New Year with a glass of champagne at dinner and then headed to bed early to be ready for the first dives of 2012 which started with a glorious sunrise through the clouds at George's Wall for our first dive; where several white tip reef sharks were lazily swimming along the sand at the bottom of the wall. Two dives at Steve's Bommie with octopus, pipefish, snappers, barracuda, sharks, stonefish, and mantis shrimps were brilliant and rated by many as the best dives of the trip again. We finished the trip off with a beautiful dive at Century Bay with its pristine coral gardens being home to cuttlefish laying eggs and a leopard shark lying on the sand near the boat!

Congratulations to Lindsay for having the best Nitrox certification dive ever, swimming with the Manta Ray, and also to Leslie, Jeffrey, Frank and Kristin for hitting their 50th dives. I would like to wish all our passengers a very happy New Year and wish them all the best for 2012; we hope to see you again someday soon!

Nick Leigh (Trip Director)

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Mon 26th December 2011 - Thu 29th December 2011 - (24) images

A lively collection of passengers boarded Spirit of Freedom on Boxing Day full of the festive spirit and we headed out to Long Bommie on Paradise Reef and started the trip with some great dives, weaving our way through the coral gutters with schools of reef fish present in the slight current. Two brilliant dives at Pixie Pinnacle started the second day with a Grey Reef Shark and a big male Maori Wrasse in the depths while the banded pipefish and lionfish sat amongst the ever-present clouds of anthias, snapper, barracuda and fusiliers. Michelle and Chris spotted a large Lions Mane jellyfish floating past with juvenile trevally hiding amongst the cover of the tentacles. We then moved north to the Cod Hole for an awesome cod feed with the whole family of Potato Cods showing up to amaze the divers. Hunter, Mitchell and Rhonda got a real close view of the big dominant Cod as it weaved its way in between them and it also surprised Janelle and Brad from above while waiting for the next morsel of food to be offered. With the wind varying from nothing to 10 knots from the north we headed up to Day Reef for our last two dives of the day at Chainsaw to set us up for a great last day of diving.

We started the third day with a drift dive along the south edge of Hick's Reef where a school of Reef Sharks cruised in to see what the strange vibrations created by the divers were. Daydream Bommie was stunning with thousands of chromis and damselfish covering the staggering formations of table, branching and staghorn corals while a small turtle darted past us at a rate of knots, obviously surprised to see divers so far north! Amanda and Owen spotted a pair of cuttlefish hanging out near the mooring line and the cuttlefish put on a show of colour and shape changes as we drifted past on our safety stop. The second drift dive on the shear section of the wall at Hick's Reef gave David and Yina some great photos and videos for the beautiful soft corals, fans and whip corals before Lawrence and Jerrol spotted some Bumphead Parrotfish and a harem of female Maori Wrasse hanging in the current. With the wind picking up a final dive at Snake Pit brought Steve and Trish the sight of lots of sea snakes and a huge green turtle, with an Eagle Ray being spotted way off in the distance, to bring the trip to a great conclusion.

The Spirit of Freedom crew would like to congratulate Brad and Janelle on their honeymoon and wish them all the best for the future. Also congratulations to Michelle on your 100th dive and to all our dive junkies who did every dive on the trip.

Sadly after our walk around Lizard Island we had to say goodbye to the great group of people that had been on for the last 3 days and we would like to wish you all the best for 2012 and thank you for a brilliant trip.

Nick Leigh (Trip Director)

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Thu 22nd December 2011 - Mon 26th December 2011 - (22) images

Day 1: All the usual suspects on the beautiful Pixie Gardens including a friendly cuttlefish that loved it's picture being taken.

Day 2: Around The Bend was a shark fest. Half a dozen white tips, 2 big grey reefies and a large hammer head. What an epic drift dive. Silver City had the punters experiencing some more excellent shark encounters with white tips absolutely everywhere. The Gap didn't disappoint with amazing swimthroughs that held an abundance of marine life including yet again more of those cool little white tips. Admiralty has become one of the passenger favourites with more white tips and a some crazy maze like coral thurifers. Admiralty at night not only produced more sharks in the way of grey reefies, but also some amazing octopus mating behaviour and also some amazing ornate ghost pipe fish sightings...amazing stuff!

Day 3: North Horn Wall was incredible. Sheer soft coral filled wall on one side, a wall of sharks on the other. The shark feed was the absolute highlight for a lot of the passengers with around 50 sharks participating. A slow current meant we sat in comfort as the sharks put on a magnificent display. The first drift dive at False Entrance was awesome. A 3 current ripped passengers over the reef allowing them to cover more ground than usual which meant they got to see all the white tip reef sharks that were playing on the reef top. The next boat to boat dive on False Entrance produced more sharks and also gave us a chance to view the excellent macro life that lives in the trenches. The current had dissipated and the site became a relaxing way to end the day.

Day 4: Steve's Bommie proved again why it is a world class dive. All sorts from sharks down to nudies. Everyone loved stretching out in the middle of a massive school of yellow lined snapper, coming face to face with the local stone fish, trying hard to spot the beautiful pipe fish, generally just taking in the awe of the place. The second dive on Steve's Bommie was even better with a special guest appearance by none other than Santa himself. Joanies Joy was a fun relaxing dive in the lagoon. With lots of little stuff like mantis shrimp, nemos and cuttle fish, but also larger life like the two metre shovel nose ray the cruised by. Flare Point was a wonderfully relaxing way to finish of the day. The beautiful array of jelly fish that were home to all sorts of creatures floated lazily by in the current.

CONGRAT'S  Amy, Andrew & Barb who are now AOW certified. Sine & Lasse who are our newest nitrox certified divers.
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Mon 19th December 2011 - Thu 22nd December 2011 - (23) images

Day 1: Coral Gardens on Saxon Reef is always a great little dive. Producing a couple of turtles, sharks and some playful titan triggerfish.

Day 2: The Cod Hole was it's impressive self with large amounts of schooling species hanging around. The massive potato cod snoozed in the protection of small coral outcrops weighting for the main event. The Cod Feed produced about 4 lively cod, including the large adult whom every other cod knows as boss. The feed was exciting made even more so with the arrival of a very curious grey reef shark. The resident green turtle was waiting for us at two towers where he sat in the bommie watching us lazily. Mackerel, GT's and other pelagic predators buzzed the bommies in search of food while a large olive sea snake foraged among the coral. Challanger Bay is always a macro feast. Pipe fish everywhere. I counted over 10 on the dive. Black lion fish, nudies, glass shrimp, shrimp gobies and shrimp, garden eels. And some bigger stuff, a beautiful moray, massive white tip and a very curious grey reefy. Challenger @ night was an absolute shark fest with the local grey reefies going off.

Day 3: What a brilliant morning. Pixie Pinnacle is always a great morning dive. Zero current meant that it was a nice relaxing dive to start off the day. Loads of macro was seen but it wasn't until the next dive at Lighthouse Bommie that everyone got their eye in for the small critters lined all over the bommie. Dozens of nudies, octopus, hawkfish, lionfish, clown fish and more were spotted all over the lighthouse. Rod's Rock was another macro extravaganza. It seemed that nudibranchs were the name of the day with heaps of beautiful specimens found. Snake Pit lived up to it's name sake. Olive sea snakes everywhere. The feather star gardens were as spectacular as always.

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Thu 15th December 2011 - Mon 19th December 2011 - (20) images

After a lovely walk from Watson's Bay through the mangroves and up over Chinaman's Ridge at Lizard Island Erik, Suzanne, Larry, Sue, Dag, Torfinn, Chris, Lachie and Katsumi and I headed back to Spirit of Freedom and waited to meet our new passengers flying up on the scenic flight from Cairns. We headed out to Lighthouse Bommie for our first two dives of the Coral Sea trip and John and Sarah; Sven and Brigitta; Mitsuaki and Taeko; Steffen and Michelle were soon talking about the lionfish, pipefish, flame file shell and schools of fusiliers hanging out in the current at Lighthouse Bommie as we steamed out to Osprey Reef.

The first dive at Half Way Wall brought smiles of delight with 30m visibility on the wall and several sharks cruising along in the depths. Silver City and The Gap introduced the divers to coral canyons and swim-throughs with hundreds of reef fish hanging out on top of the coral formations and hiding in the crevices. Admiralty was superb for the afternoon dive with the divers going through the swim-through to see the anchor lodged in there before hopping back in for the night dive to swim around with the flashlight fish, sharks and giant trevally hunting in the light from our torches.

Day three started with a dive at the world famous North Horn where the sharks were gathering in anticipation around the point while the divers worked their way up the soft coral wall. The Shark Feed was awesome with 40 or so Grey Reef and White Tip Reef Sharks whirling around in a feeding frenzy before two huge Silver Tip Sharks turned up to have a look at what was going on. Our Osprey experience was topped of with great dives at Castles and Around The Bend where Michelle and Steffen was a Great Hammerhead on the cleaning station! A lumpy crossing back to the Ribbon Reefs had several people checking out the back deck on the crossing. I'm sure the T6 crew will be happy to hear that Michelle was the first one to throw a bag overboard!

Several sharks were swimming along the bottom of George's Wall while schools of fish gathered in the shallows for our early morning dive before we headed to Steve's Bommie for 2 sensational dives. Several Pipefish, 5 Stonefish, Flame Fish Shell, 2 Octopus, schools of Blue Lined Snapper, a huge Grey Reef Shark and the Mantis Shrimp were just some of the highlights from the dives! Our final dive at Century Bay/Flair Point finished a wonderful trip with a lovely relaxing afternoon dive amongst the beautiful coral gardens. Thanks to Sarah for the last dive brief, you did a great job!

Congratulations to Sarah on her 50th dive, Katsumi hit his 200th and Sven and Brigitta completed their Advanced Course with Matt so well done to you also. It has been a great trip and I would like to thank everyone for a brilliant 4 days and wish you all a very Happy Christmas!
Nick Leigh (Trip Director)

"And thanks to Nick for being the most amazing dive master and the whole spirit of freedom crew for making this trip unforgettable." - Sarah Morris

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Mon 12th December 2011 - Thu 15th December 2011 - (24) images

In the beautiful tropical heat and blazing sunshine, 21 passengers boarded Spirit of Freedom in Cairns ready to embark on the 3 Day Cod Hole adventure. There was hardly a breathe of wind and the ocean surface was like glass as we arrived at Hastings Reef for 2 dives at Wildside where the beautiful coral gardens and multitudes of reef fish gave our divers a great start to the trip.

Overnight we steamed up to Pixie Pinnacle for our morning dives and schools of fusiliers darted up and down the pinnacle as trevally and barracuda hunted them from just off the pinnacle. Eagle rays were spotted cruising gracefully past the pinnacle on the first dive and several sharks turned up on the second dive too. The olive sea snakes were winding their way amongst the coral at Two Towers and a hawksbill turtle turned up to stare inquisitively at the cameras pointed towards it. The two dives at The Crack showed the amazing coral garden formations on the northern edge of the reef and gave us a brilliant night dive with lots of tiny crabs and shrimp crawling over the top of the encrusting corals while several masked puffer fish swam carefully out of our torchlight.

Dynamite Pass was an excellent start to the day with a good current running giving the divers the chance to see a huge school of Bump Head Parrotfish and several White Tip Reef Sharks cruising along the wall. Snake Pit was a great dive with a school of batfish hanging out under a ledge while hundreds of fusiliers schooled over the coral fields on the edge of the drop off. The sea snakes were a little shy for once with only 4 or 5 being spotted weaving amongst the staghorn coral and along the sandy bottom. The Cod Feed was brilliant with the big dominant Potato Cod happily displaying his skills at fending off the Red Bass and the other Potato Cod in order to get the food. Hundreds of trevally, snapper and fusiliers schooled in the shallows while several White Tip Reef Sharks rested on the sand, finishing the 3-Day Cod Hole trip with an awesome dive at the Cod Hole.

Many thanks to the Nicholls family; Bernard, Lola, Jenny, Luke and Matt, I hope you enjoyed your dives with us, its been great fun having you onboard. A special mention to Luke for the Spanish Mackerel, great work! Thanks also to Chris, Christian and Marlee for some excellent dives, especially to Marlee for getting over her fear of snakes and having one swim right underneath her! A sad farewell to you all and to Lori and Albert and Jordan and Leslie who also left us after the stroll around Lizard Island; thanks for a great trip and we hope to see you again another time.

Nick Leigh (Trip Director)

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Thu 8th December 2011 - Mon 12th December 2011 - (21) images

Day 1: Two Towers had heaps of nudies, turtle, sharks and seasnakes. A great orientation dive.

Day 2: False Entrance was spectacular. Fantastic vis and a few friendly sharks. A-Maze-Ing produced a few more sharks and some cool trigger fish nesting grounds, luckily no triggers were protective of their little nests. The shark feed was as outstanding as ever bringing in two silvertips which circled close to the baits...Just awesome. Admiralty was an absolute glass out. Flat, warm, clear water produced some excellent photo moments. The light played off the coral and gorges beautifully. Admiralty at night and again a herd of around 60 or more bump head parrot, massive nudiebranch, slipper lobster, and some amazing crustaceans.

Day 3: After an early steam down to Vema, passengers were rewarded with brilliant visibility. The current was up to 2.5 but that just meant that the tooth brigade was in town. Shark reef also produced a few of it's name sake with silver tips, greys and white tips buzzing passengers with curious side glances. Rapid Horn was a slow but exciting drift with yet more silver tips, greys and white tips shooting up from the depths. We even had a friendly turtle say hello. Secret Caves was a great way to end the day with a relaxing play in the shallows around caves, valleys and swimthroughs.

Day 4: Bougainville Reef is absolutely amazing!!! Dungeons & Dragons showed itself as one of the worlds premier dive sites with many passengers toting it as there favourite dive! Caves, caverns, gorges, valleys, swimthroughs. All teaming with sharks and other interesting fish life. Corner Shop was an awesome slow drift with passengers treated to a live drop right onto the site. Anchors Away, what an amazing wall, filled with valleys and of course the gargantuan danforth anchor. A few lucky passengers were blown away when a 3m tiger shark drifted casually past. The Antonio Terrabochia was a nice relaxing way to end the week. We were lucky to get the chance to wreck dive for a little bit of a change. A large cow tail ray kept the punters amused as it lazily swam past parts of the old wreck.

Congratulations to Ciera Lee and Chris Carroll who finished their Advanced Open Water Course and Kevin Lechner for completing his Nitrox course.

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Mon 5th December 2011 - Thu 8th December 2011 - (20) images

Day 1: Jorgies Patch produced some beautiful life including lion fish, scorpion fish and a few beautiful little nudies.

Day 2: Cod Hole, always a great dive. Visibility was down but that meant massive shoals of fish hugged the reef and made for some great schooling shots. The Cod Feed was so much fun with a large spud and two other smaller spuds coming in for a tasty morsal. The large cod was posing for the camera even more than Joel does. A fantastic feed. Lighthouse Bommie although lower vis proved to be a world class dive with masses of fish life including large schools of fusiliers, hunting GT's, lion fish, nudies, feather stars, nesting damsels, I even counted 8 pipe fish. But the highlight was the large manta ray that casually and ever so elegantly waltzed by. Challenger during the dive was a nice peaceful affair, relaxing the guests after a big day of diving. A few passengers were kept entertained by some white tip reef sharks that lurked around the site. Challenger at night was awesome. The GT's were going off!!! And the sharks!!! 2 white tips and 7 greys were counted

Day 3: Pixie Pinnacle was one of the highlights, a great way to start the day swirling around the beautiful bommie. Lot's of life as can be expected on pinnacle dives. Rod's Rock produced an amazing amount of nudies, nudibranchs that is. Around 10 different types of nudie and flatworm were found, awesome stuff for the macro photographers. A relaxing paddle around Cathedrals produced sharks, scorpion fish, nemos and heaps of schooling species. Snake Pit didn't disappoint with snakes everywhere. The coral life on Snake pit is beautiful with so many brightly coloured feather stars. One of the largest logger head turtles anyone had ever seen was lurking down there with the snakes.

Congratulations to Kevin & Elizabeth - the honeymoon couple. Elizabeth completed her Advanced Open Water course YAY!

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Thu 1st December 2011 - Mon 5th December 2011 - (25) images

With 16 passengers staying on for the Coral Sea trip, only 4 new passengers boarded at Lizard Island and joined the group as we headed out for 2 afternoon dives at Pixie Reef. Spirit of Freedom steamed overnight to Osprey Reef and we started our Osprey Reef experience with a beautiful dive at Silver City before heading to the world famous North Horn. North Horn kept its reputation as a world class dive site with 20 to 30 sharks circling under the boat, amazing the divers even before they headed around the corner onto Soft Coral wall with its 2m+ soft corals and giant fans. The Shark Feed was next with even more sharks piling in to jostle over their share of the feed, including a 3m plus Silver Tip, while the huge Potato Cod sat waiting for their turn. Admiralty was awesome as always with the swim through to the anchor starting what was to become a theme for the rest of the trip. The night dive was superb with the flashlight fish hiding in the swim through and lots of sharks and eels out hunting while the shrimp and crustaceans crept over the top of the reef.

The third day started at Castles where Christer got some fantastic photos of the Court Jester Garden Eels while others swam amongst White Tip Reef Sharks on the sand and under the massive yellow fans on the 1,000m deep wall. The second Shark Feed was even better than the first with nearly 40 sharks piling in wrestle their bit of the feed from each other while the divers sat back and watched the show in awe. Exploration of every gap and hole in the reef at The Gap had the swim through fanatics smiling while the crystal clear water and schools of fusiliers and trevally glinted in the sunlight before finishing the day at Around The Bend. During dinner the weather report came through and everyone was filled with anticipation as Cam, our skipper, told us we had something special lined up for our last day....

We woke up to 15 knots winds blowing and rain clouds forming and wondered what has happened overnight. However once the realisation that we were at Bouganville Reef dropped in the weather was the least of our thoughts as we prepared for live boat entries onto the stunning untouched coral walls of Bougainville Reef. Bill and I were celebrating our birthdays and what an awesome day of diving we all had. The first dive of the day at Corner Shop Wall was stunning with beautiful blue water and amazing coral formations dropping out of sight on the 900m deep wall. Frank celebrated his 100th dive at a 100 feet deep, joining me at 108 feet or 33m for my 33rd birthday. The mind blowing coral formations around the corner from the mooring at Corner Shop where covered in snapper, barracuda, anthias and fairy basslets, making it seem like a scene from a fairytale. The last two dives along the wall between Burnsie's Bend and Dungeons and Dragons were absolutely amazing with massive canyons, a maze of interconnecting tunnels, swim throughs, channels filled with fish and reef sharks with many of the canyons leading back out to the wall where the darkness of the canyon was suddenly replaced with the iridescent blue of the 50m+ visibility down in to the depths. We truly understood the "rapture of the deep", it was mesmerising to see and no one wanted to leave the water as his or her safety stops came to an end.

With such a great group of people on for the trip the fantastic final day at Bougainville Reef really finished the trip off with some of the best diving in the Coral Sea. Lynda and Danny, we hope to see you again soon, wish you all the best Lynda and thanks for keeping the crew in check! Happy 50th Birthday to Bill Senior, Bill Junior, remember to keep an eye on your buddy, congratulations to Renee on becoming a Nitrox Diver, keep working on those bubble rings; you too Becca! Congratulations to Seiko for completing her 200th dive and Frank on his 100th dive! It has b een an awesome trip and the crew and I would like to thank all of our passengers for such a fun and wonderful Coral Sea trip!
Nick Leigh (Trip Director)

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Mon 28th November 2011 - Thu 1st December 2011 - (21) images

After our afternoon check out dives at Caves on Norman Reef, we settled in for dinner and steamed north to Ribbon Reef 9 to start our day with 2 excellent dives on Pixie's Pinnacle. There was no current on the pinnacle and still we had clouds of fusiliers and snappers darting in and out of the coral as blue striped trevally shot in amongst them hoping for a catch. We found a Black Leafy Scorpion Fish at 7m, lots of Pipefish and several Nudibranchs while the Disco Clam (Flame File Shell) amazed everyone with the light pulsing light when illuminated by torchlight.

The incoming tide started running as we drift dived along the wall at Dynamite Pass where a school of 30 plus Bump Head Parrotfish cruised past the divers and several White Tip Reef Sharks were spotted in the depths. The current was still running strongly as we waved our way along the canyons and crevices at Cormorant Caves but presented us with schools of Fusiliers and Trevally hunting amongst the smaller reef fish. The current reduced to a standstill when we arrived at the Cod Hole for our afternoon dive with 5 White Tip Reef Sharks resting on the sand and several Potato Cod finding Frank's BCD very interesting for some reason! The Cod Feed started with the youngest of the Potato Cod being hassled and beaten to the food by the Red Bass before the bigger Potato Cod showed up to demonstrate their authority.

On Thursday sadly we had to say goodbye to Daphne, Scott, Michael and Nancy as they returned to Cairns while the remaining 16 passengers stayed on for the full 7-day trip. Well done to Scott for his improvement with his diving skills, more than doubling his number of dives, jumping in for the drift and night dives and having a great time. Congratulations to Daphne for her first ever night dive and thanks for the fun on our safety stops, good luck with the bubble rings! Michael and Nancy, we will miss the funny noises when coming up the ladder for the next 4 days, I hope you all have a safe trip home!
Nick Leigh (Trip Director)

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Thu 24th November 2011 - Mon 28th November 2011 - (21) images

Day 1: Pixie Gardens was awesome with the highlight being a beautiful ghost pipe fish (thank you Nori)
Day 2: ATB had a bit of current but meant that a few bigger fishies were seen. Sharks and dogtooth tuna were on the cards. Vis was great. The soft coral and macro marine life at Silver City was amazing bringing smiles all ‘round. North Horn Shark Feed was definitely the highlight of the day. Even though there was a ripping current, all those that dived had an amazing shark encounter with not one but two large silver tips coming into the feed, with one actually taking a tuna head right in front of our eyes. Admiralty was a welcomed relaxing dive with a few white tips seen as the passengers meandered through the valleys and gorges. Admiralty at night proved to be a winner with great visibility making it a winner for the few that opted for the last dive of a massive day of diving.
Day 3: Today was a relaxing day starting off at False Entrance with a beautiful dive along the gorgeous wall. Morays were dotted through the site with schools of barracuda curiously watching on. It's wall could only be topped by our newest dive site A-Maze-ing. The wall along A-Maze-ing was breathtaking with huge soft corals and gorgonians, lots of vegetation, masses of macro and a huge amount of fish life. It was so good that we decided to do it all again and spend some time up in the shallows making our way through the maze of bommies, gorges, cracks and crevices. A truly AMAZING site Castles topped the day off brilliantly with sharks and turtles a plenty. It was like a stroll in the park, or a dip in the aquarium.
Day 4: Steve's Bommie is always a winner. 3 grey reefies, white tips, GT's, schooling big eye, octopus, lion fish, stone fish, flaming fire shell, nudies, nemos, massive shoals of snapper, you name it. A favourite among the passengers. Flaire Point was next which proved to be a great way to relax along the shallow walls and explore in the many gorges. Lots of macro and lots of larger schooling species like the beautiful diagonal banded sweetlip. A great way to wind down the trip.

Congratulations to Tomoko & Tokuko who both reached their 400 dives.

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Mon 21st November 2011 - Thu 24th November 2011 - (1) images

Day 1: Caves - Great vis. 2 white tips, 2 grey reefs and a turtle. Not a bad start.

Day 2: Cod Hole was beautiful as usual. White tips, moray, ‘cuda, cod. Cod Feed was great. Not too many spuds but we had a white tip, two grey reefies and a ‘cuda hang around. After the feed we descended onto a herd of bump head parrot grazing on the coral, good dive! Challenger Bay during the day was great. Lots of macro including 6 pipe fish. Challenger at night brought out all the big GT's and red bass. More pipe fish and one of the biggest lion fishes we've seen. Free swimming morays and more. The GT's were the highlight though.

Day 3: Pixie Pinnacle was a perfect morning dive with loads of lion fish, octopus, nemos, sharks and disco clams. Rod's rock produced 6 Maori wrasse together and a whole bunch of macro. Snake Pit didn't disappoint with heaps of snakes to keep us amused. Dynamite Pass was an fantastic end to the trip with the fast drift dive being a one of the favourites among the passengers.

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Mon 14th November 2011 - Mon 21st November 2011 - (40) images

Spirit of Freedom departed Cairns on Monday afternoon for a 7-Day trip out to the Coral Sea. Our 23 passengers consisted of 15 divers from the Bamboo Reef Enterprises dive group and 8 passengers from the USA, Germany and Norway. After our check out dives at Saxon Reef, Spirit of Freedom headed north for 6 days of diving the best sites of the Coral Sea and in search of the Coral Spawning. A day at Ribbon Reef number 10 brought an excellent cod feed and our first encounters with some of the larger Grey Reef Sharks that make the northern reefs their home. We jumped in for a night dive at Challenger Bay, with no sign of the coral spawning but lots of Giant Trevally and Moray Eels out hunting, before heading out to Osprey Reef.

Wednesday morning dawned with Spirit of Freedom moored up at Silver City for an awesome morning dive with several sharks cruising along the 1,000m/3,000ft+ deep wall. Two dives at False Entrance preceded the first Osprey Reef night dive at Admiralty, which had some signs of the beginning of the Coral Spawn with several hard encrusting corals releasing eggs that drifted up into the blackness.

On Thursday morning the visibility was 35m at Half Way Wall where the divers had a gorgeous dive exploring the canyons and coral heads on the Osprey Reef wall. We were also presented an Ornate Ghost Pipefish hanging out on a branching coral that was a first for many divers and some of the crew too! The Shark Feed was challenge with a strong oceanic current running down the wall at North Horn, probably hitting a rating of 5 on the surface, but eventually the 30 hungry sharks got their feed while the hardcore underwater paparazzi captured the events. Thursday's night dive also gave us the wondrous sight of the Coral Spawn with not only the hard encrusting and table corals spawning but milky clouds drifting through the water, a truly amazing sight that happens once a year and only when the conditions are correct.
After checking North Horn and seeing the current still running, Friday started with two dives at Castles allowing the divers to explore the canyons, cracks and swim-throughs and get great photographs of nudibranchs and garden eels. Jeremy's current check at North Horn in the afternoon proved that oceanic current was still hauling down the wall with over 40 sharks, including a Hammerhead, hanging in the pressure point but this also meant that we moved to a more protected site that we named Jez's Joy along the Western wall before leaving Osprey and heading back to Lizard Island.

Saturday morning we boarded the tenders and headed over to Lizard Island for a lovely walk around the National Park before heading to Pixie Reef for dives at Pixie Wall and Pinnacle. The pipefish were winding their way through the coral, while nudibranchs inched along. The Flame File Shell was pulsing with its white electric glow in the torchlight and clouds of fairy basslets and anthias darted between the divers. Schools of blue lined snapper wound themselves around the pinnacle while the trevally darted in and out.

Schools of fusiliers and barracuda weaved their way along George's Wall before we headed to Steve's Bommie for 2 dives where the 30m visibility and diversity of marine life had everyone taking hundreds of photos and coming back with huge smiles on their faces. Five huge stonefish were out swimming around while the octopus showed off its full range of colours and shapes as it hunted along the edge of Steve's Bommie. The true clownfish got lots of attention while a few people watched the mantis shrimp grabbing pieces of coral and moving them around to create a protected area. The final dive at Flair Point was a great finish to the trip with a huge Green Turtle relaxing at a cleaning station.

Congratulations to Raino and Mariann who were celebrating their honeymoon and also to Sean and Matthias who completed their Advanced Open Water course during the 7-day trip. Thanks to Debra and Will from Tuscon AZ for joining us.  Thank you also to Sal and Lou from Bamboo Reef Enterprises and rest of the dive group; Mark, Jean, Matt, Heather S, Christopher, Helen, Heather H, Sally, Lexi, Julie, Susan, Christina and Meryl for a great trip. Brian and Mark, I hope you find some more swim throughs on your next dives and a final thank you to Meryl for giving us our job satisfaction statement "That was the best dive of my life!" at Steve's Bommie!   A sad farewell to one of our crew, this was Jeremy's last trip and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

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Thu 10th November 2011 - Mon 14th November 2011 - (21) images

Day 1 - Pixie Wall produced the usual cephalopod action with a beautiful cuttlefish showing us it's true colours. Large pelagics including GTs, schools of big eye trevs, mackerel and a large 30k dogtooth tuna.
Day 2 - Silver City: North Horn (token shark feed): Around 30 grey reef sharks with a few white tips thrown in for good measure. Lot's of action followed by a nice chilled out dive. Half Way Wall produced some great turtle sightings. Admiralty during the day was a nice relaxing dive with all the usual suspects with Admiralty at night playing host to a mass congregation of bump head parrot (well over 100 creatures). Visibility was great so all had fun.
Day 3 - North Horn Wall was gnarly. 4.5 current meant only the brave faced the wall. Those who managed the dive were welcomed with a magnificent wall dive with around 35m vis. Around The Bend produced a beautiful silver tip on the cleaning station and a fantastic manta sighting as it cruised by majestically for most of the punters to see.
Day 4 - George's Wall was great fun but it was the fist dive on Steve's Bommie that got everyone talking. 5 lion fish, stone fish, flame file shell, trevally, ‘cuda and impressive sheets of schooling fish. Flare Point was a nice relaxing end to a magnificent week of diving.

Congratulations to Taka & Michiho for hitting 200 dives, Sumie for her 300th dive, Hisao and his 600th dive and Michiko for achieving her 800th dive. Yiew!!

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Mon 7th November 2011 - Thu 10th November 2011 - (22) images

Our dives at the COD HOLE proved to be an interesting one with more Potato Cod than usual turning up for the feed. And what a feisty feed - with a lot of hierarchy. A solitary white tip loomed in the background. Over the fence into deeper water and the vis was 25m with beautiful coral seen through a big school of large eye sea bream. Awesome dive. CHALLENGER BAY - Stand out for different life seen. Rambo mantis shrimp showed who's boss collecting shells as trophies. Large school of bumphead parrot, white tips, nudies, pipefish, crabs, maori wrasse, lion fish, eels, shrimp of all descriptions.
Our last day of diving we spotted an Eagle ray at Rod's Rock - what a highlight. But the half dozen sea snakes and grey reef shark were pretty close behind. Snake Pit was beautiful as always with the usual array of seasnakes, pelagic species (mackerel and trevally). A couple of white tips kept everyone wide eyed with the highlight for Joe a pair of flabellina nudies. Cormorant Caves produced a lovely wall dive as spectacular display of around 30 common dolphins cruised between the boat and the wall.

Happy Honeymoon to Javier and Pilar, was pretty cool to enjoy with you guys on Spirit of Freedom.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their trip immensely, especially the variety of excellent dive sites and the delicious food. The cod feed was definitely a highlight.

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Thu 3rd November 2011 - Mon 7th November 2011 - (24) images

Spirit of Freedom departed Lizard Island and headed out to Pixie Gardens for our 2 afternoon dives with 20 new passengers and 2 passengers staying on from the 3 Day trip. Very quickly the diver interviews were complete, the equipment was set up and the divers were in the water enjoying the luscious coral fields at Pixie Gardens. After our two afternoon dives we had dinner and set out for Osprey Reef with a mild swell rolling through the gap between the Ribbon Reefs.

We woke up in the morning at Osprey Reef and jumped in to the crystal clear water on the 1000+m deep walls for 5 spectacular dives. Schools of blue lined fusiliers glinted in the depths as the divers weaved their way around the coral heads at Silver City and The Gap. A mild current was running at Around The Bend where white tip reef sharks rested on the sand at 50m, way out of our depth range. The canyons and swim throughs at Admiralty were a favourite with the topography of the site giving new delights around each corner or at the end of each canyon. The flashlight fish showed off their spectacular light show on the night dive while White Tip Reef Sharks hunted for the fish illuminated by our torches.

Day 2 dawned with a strong current running down the wall at North Horn, which brought in over 40 sharks for the quickest Shark Feed I have ever seen. Grey Reef, Silver Tip, White Tip and Whalers Sharks all crowded in and battled away for their share of the feed while the massive Potato Cod hung around picking up any scraps that were left. The afternoon dives at Castles were stunning with the sand seeming to drip of the edge of the reef and disappear down into the bottomless abyss of the Osprey Reef Wall.
Steve's Bommie was in fine form on the last morning with thousands of blue lined snapper schooling around the bommie while anthias and fairy basslets weaved their way around them; the octopus was free swimming while the nudibranchs and pipefish hid under staghorn and table corals. The final two dives delivered a huge Loggerhead turtle amongst the staghorn fields of Joanie's Joy and Flair Point.

I would like to mention the 14 of our 22 divers that competed every dive on the 4 Day trip; there were lots of awesome dives to be had and you took all of them, guaranteed Bubble Junkies from now on! Congratulations to Brad and Rochelle on completing their 100th dive with us and thanks to Rochelle, Karen and Bill from the Ulladulla Dive Centre. Chris; thanks for the all the heckling during my briefings; Kristin, remember which button lets air out for your next photo; Ryan and Ashley, well done with the current at North Horn and the navigational skills from then on. A well deserved award for the most improved diver must go to Katherine who doubled her number of dives on the 7 day trip and now has it all under control! Jason, congratulations to you for being the most attentive diver of all; having finished your course and then hit Osprey Reef you were brilliant. Matt and Nikki thanks for all the photos and the videos and Avis, Jon, Scott, Brian, Siegfried, Maria, Greg, Lori, Samir and Takashi; thank you for a fantastic trip!

Nick Leigh
(Trip Director)

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Mon 31st October 2011 - Thu 3rd November 2011 - (20) images

On Monday we welcomed our passengers on to Spirit of Freedom and headed out to Saxon Reef for our first two dives in the late afternoon sunshine. Six members of the Nautilus Dive Club were onboard with 13 passengers from Australia, America, South Africa and the UK. Our first day started with a great dive at Challenger Bay where several White Tip Reef Sharks were lying on the sand while schools of fusiliers darted in and out of the coral gardens. A drift dive at the Cod Hole with crystal clear water was a real treat after breakfast with the huge Potato Cods hanging out in the current and more sharks swimming lazily along the reef wall. The Cod Feed was excellent as always with 2 Potato Cod battling each other for the food. We dropped in at Two Towers with a slight current running and the divers were delighted to spot two young Hawksbill Turtles crunching their way through the soft corals at 5m. The night dive at Challenger Bay had several sharks out running while Moray Eels crept through the staghorn corals sneaking out their prey.

Wednesday started with a beautiful dive at Pixie Pinnacle with clouds of anthias and basslets glinting in the sunshine while the trevally chased the smaller fish back into their hiding places in the coral. Pixie Wall was magical in the late morning sunshine with White Tip Reef Sharks down at the base of the wall and stunning coral fields running along the top of the reef wall. The final dive at Snake Pit was superb with fusiliers and trevally hanging just on the drop off from the coral gardens, several sea snakes free swimming and then winding their way through the stunning coral formations and then the amazing sight of a 3m wide Manta Ray cruising in on our safety stop to amaze and delight the divers with its graceful swoops and turns! What an excellent way to end the last dive of a great trip!

Congratulations to Chelle on her 100th dive and also to Dean who completed his Advanced Course during the trip.

Nick Leigh - Trip Director

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Thu 27th October 2011 - Mon 31st October 2011 - (21) images

During the first dives of the trip we saw a large loggerhead turtle a couple of cuttle fish and some huge dogtooth tuna, which was a great start to the trip. After the first 2 check out dives we prepared for the voyage to Osprey Reef.

The site Around The Bend is home to some of the most beautiful soft corals in vibrant colours including red, purple and orange. Many sharks seem to hang of the reef plateau we call the feeding station and this trip was no different with a sighting of a large grey whaler and some smaller white tip reef sharks. There is a grotto at this site that runs through the corner of the wall at 5m. It is well worth the time to explore as you are rewarded with many colourful fish such as blennies, Moorish idols and anthias.

The shark feed generated some of the highest number of sharks yet. Due to the strong numbers it didn't take long for the tuna heads to disappear this week. Osprey Reef is renowned for its deep walls enriched with healthy corals. The large whips, gorgonians and soft corals are spectacular and make some epic photos.

Some other interesting marine life sighted throughout the trip included a wobbegong shark, a couple of octopus, moray eels, flat worms and nudibranchs, stone fish and some large pelagics including barracuda and trevally. The fish were in numbers and sites like Steve's bommie were festooned with marine life. It was like a huge aquarium as you swam through schools of anthias, blue lined snapper and baitfish.
The trip was a huge success and thoroughly enjoyable.
Till next time.

Happy Birthday to Man Kit Lee a.k.a Louis

Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Mon 24th October 2011 - Thu 27th October 2011 - (22) images

Finally after days of rain in Cairns the weather was turning good, which was a good sign for our trip ahead. We managed to escape the rain for the entire trip and had plenty of sunshine. The wind was easing off to 15 to 20 knots, which was a great improvement from the 35-knot winds experienced the week before. The group on board gelled well together and you could see they really loved there diving. It was great to be able to offer them some of the best diving Australia has to offer, which they responded well too.

The cod feed was yet again another hit, with over 5 cod enjoying an easy snack. Some of these cods are monsters weighing over 60kg! There were plenty of awesome photos taken this week with our divers enjoying some up close encounters with some large olive sea snakes and very relaxed turtles. The site Pixie Pinnacle was comparable to a large aquarium with a plethora of fish seen, which included curtains of anthias and chromis, turkey fish, trevally and a file flame shell with banded shrimp. Snake Pit produced this week with a couple of divers lucky enough to spend some time with a large manta ray. The Pit has an impressive array of hard healthy hard corals, which includes table corals over lapping one another. The fish life here is what divers fly around the world to see. Everywhere you look something is going on from coral trout being cleaned by cleaner wrasse, fish engaging in courtship, trigger fish scourging between the coral, large schools of barracuda and bait fish, to plenty of small creatures such as nudibranchs, crinoid shrimps and blennies. During the night dive sharks were seen, large schools of giant trevally and free-swimming moray eels.

After a huge trip of diving what better way to finish it off with an Aussie BBQ, a few drinks food and great conversation. Thanks for coming aboard Spirit of Freedom!
On a special note our very own dive instructor Joel Stanley gives a big G'day from down under to his parents Carol and Jack.

Happy Birthday to Sai Kwan, hope you had a fantastic day on the Great Barrier Reef. 

Well done to Carmen for completing your advanced open water diver course.
Hats off to David for achieving his 100th dive onboard Spirit of Freedom.

Cheers, Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Thu 20th October 2011 - Mon 24th October 2011 - (21) images

Our new passengers joined us on a windy morning at Lizard Island. We headed out to Pixie Gardens for our afternoon dives with our fingers crossed that the strong wind warning would drop sometime over the next few hours but as we jumped in for our first night dive the wind was still blowing 25 knots. The afternoon had given us some lovely dives on the coral gardens with schools of barracuda hanging out in the slight current. The GTs dominated the night dive, hunting in the torchlight, while several huge moray eels swam from one coral patch to another searching for the small fish hiding there. Our divers were introduced to some mild currents and resulting schools of fusiliers and snapper swimming alongside the towering walls of Two Towers and the majestic coral gardens of Geisha's Gardens. Nudibranchs were spotted on most dives on Ribbon Reef 7 as we moved our way slowly southward dropping in at Princess Bommie and Pixie Gardens in the afternoon before our second night dive. More sharks and turtles were out on the night dive with trevally schooling under the boat chasing all the baitfish to the surface in the lights from the back of the boat.

We arrived at Ribbon Reef 5 with the sun shining and the wind still blowing and dropped in at Yarbies for some more reef shark action and colourful coral gardens. Permission Bommie treated us to a massive school of yellow tailed fusiliers hanging out between the shallow areas of the bommie and a huge scribbled puffer fish swimming in the blue water. An octopus was spotted at Clam Gardens and under the deck lights at George's Wall for the night dive, a juvenile banded sea snake was spotted swimming around on the surface. Just as the last diver was coming out of the water and being treated to a jog full of warm water down the wetsuits a juvenile olive sea snake cruised past too!

Steve's Bommie showed its class for the morning dives at Ribbon Reef 3 with a strong current running that turned the bommie into fish soup. The stonefish was still sat on the top of the pinnacle gathering algae, nemo showed off for the collection of paparazzi divers, a beautiful hawksbill turtle swam amongst the divers and I'm sure it was posing for photos too. There were several octopus hiding in the corals at 20m and I left my torch nearby while Duncan and Abigail sat watching in amazement as the octopus' arms would stretch to investigate and then shoot back inside as a diver came near. The second dive at Steve's had much less current but still the bommie was shrouded in clouds of fairy basslets, anthias and blue lined snapper; while lionfish and pipefish hid under the ledges. Andrew W and Yosanta spotted a 2.5m Leopard Shark sleeping on the sand at Joanie's Joy to top of another great day of diving.

Congratulations to Michael who did every dive on the 7-day trip and really developed his diving skills. Tim and Michael made a great buddy team, successfully navigating back to the boat and putting their recently learnt skills into action with great affect. Zib and Kate, celebrating their honeymoon, doubled their amount of dives on the trip and did every night dive over the 3 days! Thanks to Sue, Miyako and Peter, who were also onboard for 7 days, for all the fun and great dives throughout the week.

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Mon 17th October 2011 - Thu 20th October 2011 - (21) images

The Cod Hole trip started out with 14 passengers boarding Spirit of Freedom in the sunshine. The first afternoon dives were at Saxon Reef and allowed the group to get themselves comfortable diving before we steamed overnight to Ribbon Reefs 9 and 10. The second day of diving really gelled the group together and a great atmosphere developed between the crew and the customers. Wonder Wall and Gardens excited the divers with great swim throughs, reef sharks and turtles before we headed to Pixie Pinnacle where we were enchanted by the schools of anthias, fusiliers, yellow tailed barracuda and trevally circling the pinnacle. Lionfish were abundant amongst the beautiful coral formation of Pixie Pinnacle and Challenger Bay and the night dive thrilled one lucky group with a massive green turtle. The third day started with a strong wind blowing and overcast skies but nothing could dampen the spirits of our divers as Pixie Wall delivered more reef sharks and schools of fusiliers flashing past with their brightly coloured bodies. A more challenging dive at Lighthouse Bommie with a strong current was executed perfectly by our small group of enthusiastic divers and presented us with turtles, grey reef sharks, schools of snapper, pipefish and some beautiful nudibranchs. The last two dives of the trip were at the Cod Hole with an excellent Cod Feed in crystal clear water that had our big dominant Potato Cod amazing everyone as it swallowed pilchards right in front of their masks!

The final evening was a lovely end to a great trip; with the wind howling outside and the rain lashing down on Spirit, everyone was inside talking and chatting about stories and experiences, thoroughly enjoying each others company and ending the trip on a high note.

Special mention must go to Chris and Lindsi who completed their Open Water course just to come and dive the Great Barrier Reef and dive the GBR they did, diving every single dive, including the night dive, over the 3 days! I can safely say that we may have discovered 2 more Bubble Junkies! Thanks Lindsi for looking after me on the night dive, it will be one I remember for a long time =). Also a mention to Carol and Ruth, Team Extreme, who were happy to put down their books and jump in for some excellent snorkelling with Renee.

I would like to thank all of our passengers for making the trip such an entertaining 3 days of diving, fun and laughter.

Nick Leigh

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Thu 13th October 2011 - Mon 17th October 2011 - (20) images

We set the benchmark high for this trip, starting off with 2 dives in the Ribbon Reefs were we saw a green sea turtle, more then 5 olive sea snakes, schools of blue lined snapper, 2 peacock smasher mantis shrimp and a bommie festooned with cave coral. We also saw a huge giant moray eel getting cleaned by a couple of cleaner wrasse and the Indian lionfish and common lionfish.

The next morning we awoke at Osprey Reef were we had 2 action packed days of diving. We dove along 1000m walls lined with hard and soft corals, which included huge plate corals, mushroom leather coral, fire coral, sea whips and huge gorgonian fans. The excellent visibility made it hard to miss a beat. We saw over 5 manta rays feeding on krill, a hammerhead, schools of white margin unicorn fish, moorish idols, potato and flowery cod and an array of triggerfish, including the titan, ocean and yellow margin. The shark feed was impressive with over 30 sharks gathering for the occasion. During the trip we sighted the much larger silver tip, the black tip reef shark, the white tip reef shark and the grey reef shark. We spotted the black butterfly fish that is very unique to Osprey Reef along with schools of pyramid butterfly fish. There were plenty of nudibranchs and flatworms discovered along with some more harder to find creatures like the papuan scorpion fish and raggy scorpion fish.

For the last day of diving we dove a very special place called Bougainville Reef, which made for some exciting diving. It was nearly a glass out with very little clouds in the sky. From the topside there are two visible ship wrecks that make for some stunning photos. Every one was pumped, the vis was unreal being able to see the reef and fish from the surface some 20 metres down. The highlight was diving a site called the corner shop were we saw silver tips, huge dog tooth tuna, pelagic schools of barracuda, an octopus and gigantic cabbage coral. It was a great way to finish an awesome trip of diving.

Well done to all those that reached some diving milestones aboard spirit of freedom. Congratulations to Douglas for completing his Advanced Open Water Diver Course.

Many of our experienced divers regarded it as one of the " Best liveaboards they have ever been on".

Thanks for the good times,
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Mon 10th October 2011 - Thu 13th October 2011 - (20) images

The weather was fantastic this trip with great underwater conditions. The visibility was on average 15m+, the sun was shining and the water temperature was 26 degrees. We had some larger tides due to the full moon that kept us on our toes to ensure we didn't have to dive in strong currents, which we didn't. The cod feed was highly entertaining with over 7 potato cod turning up for the feed which included a new addition to the group, a baby potato cod. There was a plethora of different marine life sighted throughout the trip, which included the following:

Thorny sting ray, tawny nurse shark, grey reef shark, white tip reef shark, pipefish, file flame shell, many species of nudibranch and flatworm, tear drop and saddled butterfly fish, hawksbill and green turtle, olive sea snake, banded sea snake, painted rock lobster, blue sea star, Indian ocean fire fish, sailor's eyeballs, moorish idol, magnificent sea anemone, tube anemone, feather stars and the hinge back shrimp. There was an abundance of healthy vibrant hard and soft corals and many colourful sponges. It's quite difficult to put in words how spectacular the under world is of the Ribbon Reefs. The top dive sites everyone rated this trip were snake pit, the cod hole and cormorant caves.

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Thu 6th October 2011 - Mon 10th October 2011 - (20) images

The four-day Coral Sea trip started with 18 new passengers joining our 4 passengers staying on from the 3 day Cod Hole trip. Our passengers started with 2 dives at Pixie Gardens on Ribbon Reef 9 ¾ in great conditions before a calm crossing overnight to Osprey Reef.
The few gusts of wind that we had allowed us to do 3 dives at North Horn, dropping divers down both walls for some spectacular dives with the shark feed in between. Over 30 Grey and White Tip Reef Sharks turned up for the feed and put on a great show. Our experienced group of divers thoroughly enjoyed the canyons, crevices and swim throughs at Admiralty during the afternoon dive and then again at night with several sharks out hunting.

The wind picked up in evening and overnight so we decided not to dive at Shark Reef and instead started our day with an awesome dive at Rapid Horn on the southern tip of Osprey Reef. The walls were covered in huge gorgonian fans and soft corals and the visibility was incredible. By the time the divers had surfaced the wind had dropped completely and the ocean was like glass, so we headed over to Castles II on the south west side of Osprey for a beautiful wall dive. False Entrance, with its awesome coral formations, beckoned for the last 2 dives of the day. The first dive at False Entrance had our divers raving about how great it was with amazing coral ridges, the deep wall just under the boat, schools of fish appearing out of the crystal clear blue water and everyone was desperate to get back in the water for the second dive and explore more of the treasures that False Entrance had to offer. Sharks could be seen lying on the sand 30m below the boat just by looking over the side, the divers bubbles creating the only ripples on the ocean and the divergent colours of the ocean ranging from azure to a deep blue with the clarity of the water. An atmosphere of tranquillity settled over the boat as the sun set on the glassy ocean but soon everyone was talking about his or her dive experiences from the day over dinner and the buzz of excitement was building about heading to Bougainville Reef in the morning.

Bougainville Reef treated our divers to some spectacular dives at Dungeons and Dragons which was rated by most as the best dive of the trip. Live drops and tender pickups were the order of the day as the divers were treated to excellent conditions and great dives at Corner Shop, South Park and Anchors Away. Bougainville Reef showed that its coral formations are truly outstanding and it was certainly the best diving we have had this year. Thanks to all the crew for pulling out all the stops to enable the dives to happen, thus giving every diver onboard such a memorable trip.

A special mention has to go to 3 of our 7 day passengers; Libby, who celebrated her birthday with us, had an awesome day with incredible diving; and also to Michelle and Thanh who not only completed their 100th dives with us but also completed their Nitrox Course on the 3 day trip and had the benefits of diving on it for the 4 awesome days in the Coral Sea. The Spirit of Freedom crew wish Thanh a very happy birthday for next week and hope to see you guys again soon! Congratulations also go to Rose, who completed her 100th dive, and Adam who hit his 200th dive on the trip.

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Mon 3rd October 2011 - Fri 7th October 2011 - (18) images

The group of passengers for the 3-Day Cod Hole trip boarded Spirit of Freedom in blazing sunshine and little wind. We began our dives at Saxon Reef just off of Cairns and had great visibility at Coral Gardens and Turtle Bommie. The colourful coral gardens were a great introduction to the Great Barrier Reef for our passengers and lots of marine life was present.

Overnight we travelled up to Ribbon Reef 10 and started our second day at the Cod Hole. Several large Cod were present during the first dive, investigating the divers to see whether it was feeding time, and also several white tip reef sharks. The excitement was building after the dive with several divers seeing their first ever shark and returning to the boat with huge smiles on their faces. The Cod Feed was a slightly more challenging dive with a good current flowing across the site but several big, hungry, cod were there to show off in front the collection of cameras. A short drift dive back to the boat followed the successful feed and then we moved to Two Towers, which presented us with more turtles, painted crays, big barracuda and several sharks. Challenger Bay was a lovely relaxing afternoon dive with tonnes of fish, several turtles and sharks appearing while we weaved our way along the gorgeous coral garden wall. Knowing what was out there in the afternoon made everyone very excited for the night dive and several of our divers, who were a little nervous about their first ever night dive, came back with very happy faces having sent the sharks out hunting!

The second day started with some awesome dives on Pixie Pinnacle and Lighthouse Bommie with everyone enjoying the schools of fusiliers, jacks and barracuda; sea snakes, sharks and turtles alongside the clouds of anthias, fairy bassets, and ever present lionfish, clownfish and clams. Rod's Rock presented us with an epaulette shark hiding underneath one of the many table corals and several different types of nudibranchs clustered together on the sheltered side of the main bommie. The final dive at Dynamite Pass resulted in many happy smiles with crystal clear water and gorgeous coral formations to leave our divers satisfied with a wonderful 3 days of diving.

We also had the pleasure of celebrating several birthdays while at sea so Happy Birthday to Maki and Bill from the Spirit of Freedom crew!

Nick Leigh (Trip Director)

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Thu 29th September 2011 - Mon 3rd October 2011 - (22) images

This trip was definitely the best trip of diving this year. The water temperature picked up to a warmer 26 degrees and the weather was outstanding, with 5-10 knots for most of the trip. The excellent conditions allowed us to explore some of the best reefs the Coral Sea has to offer, Osprey, Shark, Vema and Bougainville Reef. These reefs are renowned for excellent visibility and their 1000m+ walls teeming with life. There are few boats that operate in these reef systems and it is a rare occasion to make it to all four. These words will not do any justice to how good the diving was this trip. Have you ever been on a trip where everything just falls in place, the water is like a sheet of glass and there is just heaps of action in the water, this was that trip. Over 40 sharks turned up for the shark feed including the much bigger silver tip. The deep coral walls were breathtaking with huge gorgonian fans, sea whips, and soft corals. The hard corals were some of the healthiest I have ever seen and there colours where rich and vibrant. There was lots of big pelagic action this trip including big-eyed trevally, barracuda, tuna and sharks. Some of the bigger rays spotted included the manta and bull ray. Other interesting marine life spotted included 2 tawny nurse sharks mating, a snake eel, some seldom nudibranchs and scorpion fish. Schools of fish hung off the reef wall, which included the pyramid butterfly fish, Moorish idol, triggerfish, colourful anthias, chromis, damsel fish and much more. Huge schools of hump headed parrotfish came gliding by and many large cod were also seen.

This trip was a lucky one!  Happy Birthday to Robert!
Cheers for the good times.
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Sun 25th September 2011 - Thu 29th September 2011 - (17) images

It was a very cosy trip this week with 9 passengers onboard and 9 crew. On most of the dives we were seeing 30- 40m visibility, it had to be some of the best we have had all year. With 45 metres viz at the cod hole you could see all the different reef formations that make up this site and the inhabitants that live there. The cod feed was one of the best yet, with 8 cod turning up for the feed, although the 2 dominant cod did most of the feeding. There were two baby cod amongst the group that looked kinda cute, for a fish. We also had a few sharks cruising around including one, which was pregnant. Pixie Pinnacle was a hit with a plethora of fish life, which could be compared to a large underwater aquarium. We managed to get some excellent shots of a couple of extremely large banded shrimp and a group of 6 lionfish. Other interesting marine life spotted included a flame file shell, different species of nudibranchs, sea snakes, and turtles and of course the abundance of healthy coral that make up the GBR.

During the night dive we saw many large giant trevally's feeding, some coral crabs, shrimps and a large peacock flounder. A poor old moray eel was also getting harassed by a bunch of large fish while free swimming around. We finished the trip off with a drift dive at Dynamite Pass, which had a 4/5 current and much to see.

Thanks for a great trip.
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Thu 22nd September 2011 - Sun 25th September 2011 - (22) images

The four-day Coral Sea trip started with 13 new passengers joining our 3 passengers staying on from the 3 day Cod Hole trip. After boarding, Spirit of Freedom set out from Lizard Island to Pixie Gardens on Ribbon Reef 9 ¾ for 2 dives and dinner before heading out to Osprey Reef in rough conditions. The first dive at Silver City proved that the seasickness tablets and the bumpy journey were worth the effort with Hammerheads being seen by most of the dive groups. The shark feed was amazing as always with over 25 Grey and White Tip Reef Sharks enjoying the feed. North Horn presented us with a Manta Ray to amaze our divers and we had great dives at Castles to finish our Osprey experience. Steve's was fish soup again; the resident Stonefish still hadn't moved and had a further coating of algae on it.

Celebrations seemed to be the theme of this trip with Andrew and Sharon on their honeymoon, some awesome underwater sightings, like first Hammerhead and first Manta Ray; milestone dives with Laura, who completed her 100th dive, and also Debbie, who completed her 600th dive! More congratulations to Ellen and Bec who completed their Advanced Course and also treated us to a lot of fun and games on the boat.

The BBQ night was a celebration night and a sad farewell to Dayna, our Trip Director, on her last trip with Spirit of Freedom after 3 years on the boat. Thanks to Dayna for all her hard work and enthusiasm, the crew will miss you but wish you all the best in your future endeavours!

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Mon 19th September 2011 - Thu 22nd September 2011 - (18) images

The sun was shining as Spirit of Freedom left Cairns harbour with our new passengers on the 3 Day Cod Hole trip. We had a good mix of international passengers from Brazil, Japan, Scandinavia, the UK, and America. The visibility was absolutely gorgeous at the top of the Ribbon Reefs. We had an extremely successful Cod feed, where several large Potato Cod showed up to entertain our passengers. Pixie Pinnacle was a delight for all the divers with lots of macro and pelagic marine life: nudibranchs, pipefish, stonefish and banded boxer shrimps hiding in the coral while schools of fusiliers, barracuda and trevally circled the pinnacle. Several divers encountered their first ever sharks and were thrilled to see them again on most of the dives. Our last dive at Snake Pit treated the divers to several Eagle Rays to finish the trip on another high note. Two of our guests enjoyed some great diving and also celebrated their birthdays with us. Phil enjoyed 4 great dives on his birthday and Ralf treated himself to a birthday present with his Nitrox certification.

Also congratulations to Bradley who completed his Advanced Open Water course!

Cheers! Nick and Dayna

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Thu 15th September 2011 - Mon 19th September 2011 - (18) images

Due to a strong wind warning we stayed inside the Ribbon Reef system and dove various sites between Ribbon Reef 10 and 3. We chose sites protected from the wind, which created a more pleasant diving environment. Even though the surface was a little choppy at times, under the water the visibility was excellent with an abundance of marine life to be spotted. We got some great shots of a cleaner wrasse cleaning the inside of a coral trouts mouth. Huge moray eels were seen frequently, along with pelagic schools of big-eyed trevally. We got some great macro shots of anemone shrimp, nudibranchs and flatworms. Many of the divers commented regularly on how healthy and vibrant the coral was. 3 baby black tip sharks were seen at Yarbies 3 and 4 and a few cuttle fish were hanging above the staghorn coral at Pixie Gardens.

We conducted a cod feed this week, which was one of the trip highlights for many. 5 large cod showed up for the feed and battled it out for the spotlight. There were either signs of courtship being displayed or some heavy heated arguments as to who was the king ping. Both way it was highly entertaining and we captured some great snap shots.

The night diving had much to offer with sightings of extremely long sea worm sea cucumbers, lionfish and flatworms. Huge schools of red bass, trevally and drummer fish were congregating at the back of the boat which made for an exciting exit.
Diving Steve's Bommie on the last day was definitely another highlight for the trip. A plethora of marine life was seen which included, stonefish, true clownfish, unicorn fish, curtains of anthias and chromis, big eyed trevally and a turtle.

It was a ripper of a trip and we all had a blast. I'd like to thank everyone for joining and making it so enjoyable.
Keep on diving!

Congrats to Derek and Anna who celebrated their honeymoon on board spirit of freedom.

Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Mon 12th September 2011 - Thu 15th September 2011 - (16) images

Although the weather wasn't fantastic there was still plenty to see beneath the surface. The GBR seemed to meet and surpass alls expectations. Dolphins were spotted from the surface on a number of occasions. Many enjoyed the flame file shell accompanied by a banded shrimp at Pixie Pinnacle. 5 good-sized cod turned up for the feed and put on a fantastic show. The night dive at Challenger Bay was highly regarded for its abundance of marine life including a flatworm, basket star, sea worm sea cucumber, shrimps and the many fish hunting with the aid of our lights. The drift dive at Cormorant Caves impressed many with its clear visibility and coral rich walls. Other interesting marine life sighted through out the trip included mantis shrimp, sharks, turtles, sea snakes, nudibranchs and scorpion fish. There were pelagic schools of barracuda and trevally as well. There were no surprises that it was again another fantastic trip of diving.

Cheers for the good times.
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

Congratulations to David Desmarais and Robin Hopkins who enjoyed their honeymoon aboard Spirit.

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Thu 8th September 2011 - Mon 12th September 2011 - (20) images

We had a full boat of lovely divers for the Coral Sea trip. A few new friendly faces came on board to join our family, which consisted of Team Poland from Skalar Dive Club, and three young men from North and South America.

We had a fantastic day out at Osprey Reef, where we got to see both walls of our best dive site, North Horn. We then had a terrific shark feed. The sharks were very hungry and devoured the tuna heads in three minutes flat. Two Potato Cod muscled their way in and stole some bait from the frisky sharks. As per usual, our local, friendly Silver Tip cruised in to check out the action but didn't feed. Saturday we came back into the protection of the Ribbon Reefs and did some beautiful exploratory dives.

The most popular dive site of the trip was Steve's Bommie, with just enough current to bring out the thousands of fish, but not too much to make it difficult for the divers, we had a wonderful dive. As soon as we hopped in there was a beautiful Bull Ray gliding along in the current. We also found many colourful Stone fish, and a Wobbegong Shark. Right next to the Clown anemone fish that lives on the top, was a big Stone fish. This particular Stone fish has not moved a muscle for the last month and a half and has the algae growth on him to prove it! We finished off our trip with some nice, cruisey dives at Flare Point and Century Bay, where a massive Eagle Ray graced us with his presence.

A Wonderful trip guys. Dzie,kuje (Polish for thank you!) to all. Happy Honeymoon, and good luck in the photo competition!

Dayna

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Mon 5th September 2011 - Thu 8th September 2011 - (22) images

Our apologies to the folks on this Cod Hole and Ribbon Reef trip for the belated uploading of the images from this particular trip. Unfortunately the trip report is MIA, but we are sure you all have some wonderful memories of your time on board... If you do have some news to contribute from this trip, please feel free to email us at: guestservices@spiritoffreedom.com

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Thu 1st September 2011 - Mon 5th September 2011 - (20) images

An old volcanic atoll lying 220km off the coast, Osprey is renown for its healthy shark population, enriched coral walls to 1000m and excellent visibility. For many the opportunity to dive this remote reef system was the highlight of the trip. The weather was not looking favourable, so when there was a gap in the weather we seized the opportunity and managed to get one day of fantastic diving before heading back to the Ribbon Reefs. The ride was a little bumpy but was well worth it. The shark feed was spectacular with over 30 sharks and a few huge potato cod turning up. For some, diving sites only dived rarely was breathtaking. Exploring the crevices and swim throughs of this unspoiled wilderness was truly satisfying.
Steve's Bommie never disappoints with curtains of fish of all varieties. The pelagic school of trevally resembled a twister, rising from the bottom of the seabed to the bottom of the boat; there must have been hundreds. The turtles and well-camouflaged stonefish also captured some fantastic photos.

Cheers guys for a fantastic trip, hope to see you diving sometime in the future.

Well done Russell Ferguson for completing your advanced diver course.

Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Mon 29th August 2011 - Thu 1st September 2011 - (21) images

Great visibility, a diversity of dive sites, different styles of diving and an array of wildlife were the key ingredients to a successful trip. Not only did we see many interesting animals underwater but we also saw a humpback whale breaching, a pod of dolphins and a turtle, from the surface. Once submerged, we became at one with the underwater realm with organisms of all shapes and sizes around us. Some of the highlights this trip included the curious sea snakes, the resident green turtle on Light House Bommie and the plethora of different species of nudibranchs. The pelagic schools of barracuda, trevally and humpheaded parrotfish captured some fantastic photos. The dive at Pixie Pinnacle was stunning with clear water and array of wildlife including lionfish, clown fish, hawkfish and pipefish. The last dive of the trip at Snake Pit was suberb. This site has become well known for the eagle rays that inhabit it, along with the healthy corals, sea snakes and cuttlefish. There was plenty to see on the night dive this week with many commenting on the giant trevally and sharks that used the divers light source to hunt. Free swimming moray eels, lionfish and a plethora of crustaceans were also seen. A few of the divers also managed to find a flame file shell.

This was a great saga of diving to enjoy with you all.

Cheers for the good times!

Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Thu 25th August 2011 - Thu 29th September 2011 - (21) images

We had a lovely group of twenty divers join us for our Coral Sea trip, including a dive group from Charlestown Dive Academy. Conveniently enough, the wind came down a bit for our trip out to Osprey. We arrived at Osprey with mild winds on a beautiful sunny day.

At Around the Bend some of the divers were lucky enough to see three Manta Rays dancing in the current. They stuck around just long enough for the divers get some photos. We had a very exciting Shark Feed this week. The sharks were all stirred up and devoured the tuna heads in about two minutes flat! Two Silver Tips came right in to check out the action, and stuck around after the feed as well. One of the massive Potato Cod even pushed his way amongst the feed, and stole a tuna head. Our final dives at Osprey (the Gap and Castles) were extremely pretty. One diver described them as, "sensory overload, I didn't want to stop looking to take a photo!" We headed back into the Ribbons to dive the always-fantastic Steve's Bommie, where we found a gorgeous Wobbegong shark, posing quite nicely for photos.

Thanks for an excellent trip guys. Hope to see you back soon! Dayna

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Mon 22nd August 2011 - Thu 25th August 2011 - (22) images

We had a small group of 14 divers join us for our Codhole trip. It was a brisk winter trip, but our divers fared well and had a great time. The highlight of the trip would have to be the visibility; it was outstanding!
We had two lovely drift dives at Challenger Bay and Dynamite pass. The night dive was epic. There were Grey Reef and White Tip Reef sharks everywhere! Numerous Moray Eels and Giant Trevally were out hunting as well. Our Cod feed was a hit. Our Massive Potato Cod had a great time chasing each other around trying to win the pilchard. It wasn't just the dominant cod that fed this time, which is odd. The smaller cod snuck in for a few pilchards too. The favourite dive of the trip was Pixie Pinnacle. It was absolutely packed with life. The diver saw Eagles rays, Mantis Shrimp, massive Maori Wrasse, and even an Olive Sea Snake (which we haven't often seen at Pixie Pinnacle). It was a great trip thanks to everyone on board. Cheers. Dayna

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Thu 18th August 2011 - Mon 22nd August 2011 - (21) images

We couldn't have asked for a better start to the trip, the sun was shinning, the sea was flat and what waited around the corner of Lizard Island was unbelievable. There was a calf and mum humpback whale playing in the water. The mum was pushing the calf on her mouth out of the water, the calf was so cute trying to swim as its flukes were out of the water splashing all over the place. Then what happened after that was truly amazing, we only thought there were 2 humpbacks then out of the blue came the daddy, who was humungous. He raised his flukes clear of the water and they were huge, as they smacked the surface the water rose as high as the boat. This all happened right beside that boat. It was the biggest humpback I have ever seen and it was truly amazing to witness.

During the trip we dove the Ribbon Reefs and Osprey. The dive sites at Osprey had 1000m+ walls covered in healthy corals and an abundance of marine life. During the trip we saw schools of pyramid butterfly fish, feather stars walking along the coral a small school of scalloped hammerheads, plenty of blue spotted lagoon stingrays and many different species of nudibranchs.

Over 30 sharks were attracted to the feeding frenzy this week putting on great show for all the divers. It was only a matter of minutes before the tuna heads were violently devoured. Mostly grey and white tip reef sharks were present with the sighting of a couple of bigger silver tips.
During the trip we spotted many different species of sharks that were curious to check out us divers. We also spotted a few turtles, scorpion fish and some large schools of trevally, barracuda and snapper. Some of the divers spotted a manta ray. There were plenty of swim throughs and crevices to explore on the walls.

During the last day we had two unreal dives at a site called Steve's Bommie. The dives were definitely a trip highlight due to the abundance of fish life, excellent visibility and easy navigating. During the dives we saw stone fish, mantis shrimp, schools of trevally, nudibranchs, schools of anthias, mackerel, triggerfish, banner fish, hawkish and the list goes on. The dive could be compared to diving in a huge aquarium teaming with marine life.

After a huge trip of diving, it was time to relax in Australian tradition with a BBQ, few coldies and some great conversation.

Congratulations to Ryosuke and Asami for celebrating their honeymoon aboard Spirit of Freedom.
Well Done Tim Mason for completing your advanced course.
Happy birthday Mathew, hope you enjoyed your birthday on Spirit of Freedom.

Thanks for a great trip and hope to see you all diving again sometime soon. 

Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Mon 15th August 2011 - Thu 18th August 2011 - (21) images

The weather was great for this time of the year, with 25m+ visibility for the majority of the dives, plenty of sunshine and moderate seas. We dived a variety of sites, which included bays, pinnacles and walls teaming with life.

Was great to see up close the mutualistic interactions between randall's shrimpgoby and the alpheid shrimp. Paolo managed to find a Papuan scorpion fish hiding amongst the coral. Jenni and myself managed to get a great shot of a couple of cleaner wrasse cleaning inside the mouth and gills of a flowery cod. There were plenty of great macro shots taken too, which included nudibranchs, lizardfish, shrimps and coral.

The cod feed was another success with a few large cod turning up for the occasion. Not only did the cod turn up but also so did a few grey and black tip reef sharks that kept at a safe distance before swimming into the blue. We managed to sight a few eagle rays, a marble ray and a few blue-spotted lagoon rays throughout the trip.

There were plenty of schooling fish including barracuda, diagonal banded sweetlips and trevally. Many were marvelled at the beauty of the file flame shell found on Pixie Pinnacle. Many also commented on the safety stop at Pixie's saying there was a plethora of interesting marine life including nudibranchs, lionfish, anthias, chromis, surgeon fish, damsels, clownfish, and the list goes on. Great way to enjoy a safety stop.
We finished the trip off with 2 dives at Snake Pit. Wow! What an ending to an epic trip. Great visibility with an endless abundance of interesting marine life including, eagle rays, nudibranchs, sea snakes, turtles, eels, barracuda and much more. After a great trip, we relaxed and enjoyed a traditional aussie BBQ and a few coldies.

Cheers for coming.
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Thu 11th August 2011 - Mon 15th August 2011 - (20) images

We had a lovely group of 19 divers join us for our journey out to Osprey Reef. Amongst the group were six divers from Pro Dive Manly, who make an annual trip to Cairns to dive with us up North.
We began our trip with two different dive sites on Thursday afternoon: Challenger Bay and Lighthouse Bommie. We then headed out to the Coral Sea, and after a smooth cruise to Osprey we started with two dives at False Entrance. Our third dive was very exciting, as we had no wind we could not tie up the boat so had an adventurous ‘live drop' on North Horn, Western Wall. The divers had a Sail Fish cruise right in to check them out. It came a little close for comfort towards one of our instructors, which made for a hilarious video as he back peddled away from it! Our Shark Feed, as per usual, was an absolute hit. We had a Silver Tip Cruise in to check out the action. On our third dive, at Castles, we had a Leopard Shark on a mission, swim right underneath all the divers.
On Sunday we were bombarded with White Tip Reef Sharks, Turtles, Cuttle Fish, and Stingrays, at Steve's Bommie and Flare Point/Century Bay. We had a fantastic weekend with minimal to no wind while we were at Osprey, and beautiful sunny days. Thanks for a great trip guys. Yay! Dayna

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Mon 8th August 2011 - Thu 11th August 2011 - (22) images

Let me just start off by saying: Wow what fantastic weather we're having. An absolute glass out for three days in a row! The glass out was particularly helpful as we could see whales from miles away! We had thought our whale season was over, but looking out on the horizon over the mirror-like ocean, we could see plenty of Minkes, and one Humbback. It was fantastic! On three different dive sites we had the same mother and calf come to visit us. The mother was a little apprehensive about letting her baby play with the divers, but we caught the occasional glance.

Aside from the excitement of whales the highlight dive of the trip would have to be Snake Pit. Snake Pit was full of life. From the surface, we could see two massive Loggerhead Turtles basking in the sunshine. We also saw a Manta Ray jump out of the water. On the dives at Snake Pit, we spotted a Wobbegong Shark, an Eagle Ray and a Leopard Shark. We had a fantastic group of fun-loving and enthusiastic guests on board this week. Thank you to all of our passengers! Dayna

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Thu 4th August 2011 - Mon 8th August 2011 - (20) images

Wow! What a way to start a trip, fields of garden eels, napoleon wrasse, barramundi cod, hump headed parrotfish and speckled sand perch. If you think that isn't enough a manta ray came cruising pass, the bat fish allowed the divers to be at one with their group and the shrimp and randal's shrimp goby just seemed unfazed by us divers allowing us to get up close. A blue spotted lagoon stingray pretty much glided on top of us, and a lionfish gracefully hovered above some vibrant corals. We were pretty much apart of a school of barracuda, and swimming through a huge pelagic school of big-eyed trevally at the end of the dive just topped it off. This dive sure set the benchmark for the rest of the trip, with everyone thoroughly impressed with what the Great Barrier Reef had to offer. Oh and many people commented on how healthy and vibrant the coral was.

During the rest of the trip we dove bays, walls and pinnacles. The visibility was clear and there was a plethora of marine life to be seen. Eagle rays, cuttle fish, sea snakes, turtles, nudibranchs, flat worms and clown fish were just some of the many interesting organisms sighted. The cod feed was epic with a couple of huge cod putting on a great performance.

There was a few big reef sharks sighted, along with many pelagic schools of trevally. During the last day we dived the world famous sight Steve's Bommie. It never disappoints and this trip was no different. I think it's the easy navigating, clear visibility and the abundance of marine life that make this dive such a pleasure. It is like diving in a huge aquarium with schools of anthias, blue lined snapper, mackerel, trevally and unicorn fish surrounding you. Many managed to find the many number of stonefish that inhibit this site along with pipefish, lionfish and the wobbegong shark. Oh and on the very last dive on the safety stop a few divers witnessed a devil ray fly pass, unreal! Great end to an epic saga of diving.

After a huge trip of diving it was time to relax in Aussie tradition, a BBQ with a few drinks and great company.

Team South Africa completed their deepest dive. Michael got back into the full swing of diving after a 2 year break.

Cheers for a great trip guys,
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Mon 1st August 2011 - Thu 4th August 2011 - (19) images

The weather was a tad blowie this week making for some choppy surface conditions, but underwater we had some of the best visibility we had seen all year. It's amazing how some unreal visibility can make an ordinary dive extraordinary. It was hard to miss the abundance of wildlife down there, and the variety. We saw 1m+ sea snakes that were very curious coming right up to the divers. There were many photos taken of nudibranchs, flatworms, eels, scorpion fish and many crustaceans. There were a few hump headed parrotfish grazing around, along with some sharks cruising the coral filled walls. This trip we managed to do a few drift dives that everyone enjoyed along with some dives with neat swim throughs, crevices and caves. The huge school of barracuda on Two Towers was amazing but I think for some the highlight of this dive was seeing 1 Dwarf Minke Whale gracefully swimming around the divers before it headed into the deep abyss. The cod feed was picturesque with such clear visibility and was very visible for the snorkelers above to enjoy as well. The clear waters and plethora of wildlife encountered made the trip unreal. After a busy few days of diving it was time to relax in Australian tradition, a few beers and BBQ. Some even enjoyed the taste of skippy ;)
Cheers for a great trip,
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Thu 28th July 2011 - Sun 31st July 2011 - (19) images

We had a fantastic group of seasoned sailors and very brave divers come out to the Coral Sea with us. The conditions were tough but all of the guests handled it perfectly, I was extremely impressed with everyone. You should all feel very proud of yourselves.

To begin our Coral Sea trip we were very fortunate to have two Minke Whales show up at Monolith. They didn't stick around long, but considering we had just reluctantly accepted the fact that our whale season might be over, it was a very pleasant surprise indeed!

There were a few big critters show up to make the divers efforts out at Osprey just that much more worthwhile! We had a beautiful Manta Ray turn up on our very first dive at Osprey, at Around the Bend. The gorgeous Manta stuck around for most of the dive so that all the guests could marvel at him! Our third dive was extremely exciting as well, as we had a Scalloped Hammerhead come cruise into the lagoon area of the reef, and he even came between the divers and the reef. He was so close we could see his teeth as he turned towards us! The divers were a tad nervous, but they recovered quickly due to the sheer thrill of seeing such a magnificent animal in such close proximity. Our Shark Feed, as per usual, was also a huge hit. The sharks seemed particularly riled up this week, and were not exactly patient in waiting for the bin to open! Our two friendly Silver Tips came in to have a look. They actually came right into the feed area. Our new metal shark bin is obviously a real hit with our sharky friends!

Thanks to everyone on board. You had some difficult diving this weekend, but your cooperation, enthusiasm and courage made this fantastic weekend possible.

Cheers. Dayna

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Mon 25th July 2011 - Thu 28th July 2011 - (24) images

We had wonderful guests from all around the globe. Amongst the passengers, we had a dive group from Aquatic Sports in Oregon, USA. It's always lovely having different dive centres on board, they always have great stories of dive experiences. Joining our Codhole trip we also had some very brave snorkellers.
We had beautiful crisp winter weather, and when the sun shone it absolutely lit up the reef. We had a fantastic Codfeed, with several Potato Cod, and even a baby, baby cod snuck in. Surprisingly, the dominant Cod that was feeding chased all the other Cod out of the circle but allowed the baby to stick around and get the occasional pilchard! Rod's Rock was also an absolute hit. There were at least 6 very inquisitive and friendly Olive Sea Snakes that came right up to check out the divers. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see any Minke Whales while diving, but we had a couple breach as we were cruising from Rod's Rock to Dynamite Pass! Fingers crossed that means we will get to see them again before they migrate back down South. Thank you to all of our guests.

Dayna

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Mon 18th July 2011 - Mon 25th July 2011 - (35) images

This week we had a group of divers from the Adventure Scuba Company in Virginia, USA join us on a 7 day expedition. For the First 3 days we dove the Ribbon Reefs, then spent 2 days at Osprey Reef before heading back for 1 more day of diving in the southern Ribbon Reefs. For the first few days the surface conditions were a little choppy however underwater it was calm with 20m+ visibility. Towards the latter half of the week the wind died off a little and the choppy surface conditions subsided. For most of the trip the sun was out allowing full advantage of the sun deck.

There were 2 major highlights of the first half of the trip, swimming with up to 6 Minke Whales on a number of occasions and the cod feed. The Minke Whales were very curious of us divers with many swimming around us at arms distance, was unreal. The cod were very enthusiastic with over 6 cod turning up for the feed and putting on quiet the show.

Other interesting marine life spotted included many cuttle fish, a few giant moray eels, picturesque diagonal banded sweetlips hanging off some bolder coral and an abundance of healthy coral. I spent many dives nudibranch and flatworm hunting with a very eager bunch of divers. We were successful finding many colourful and unique species. The sea snakes were another highlight for many along with the giant clams and flame file shell.

Diving Osprey Reef was a highlight in itself. The 1000m+ walls covered in coral make for excellent visibility and some huge marine life. We spotted a few hammerheads, silver tips and a manta ray. The shark feed lived up to its reputation with over 30 hungry sharks violently destroying their meal. Many classified this as the best dive they had ever done, which says a lot considering the experience our divers had. The trip just kept getting better and better with a plethora of wildlife seen, including an eagle ray on the last dive.

Well done to Bill Toti for reaching his 200th dive and Chris Miles for reaching his 100th aboard spirit of freedom.

Cheers for an awesome trip guys.
Chris Haslam, Trip Director.

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Thu 14th July 2011 - Mon 18th July 2011 - (22) images

Ribbon Reefs #10, 93/4, 9, 7, 5 & 3 were explored over 3 days and 17 dives by our 26 passengers from all over the world. Sisters from Singapore, Father & Son from Mexico and Father & Daughter from Switzerland were all taking photos that will be appearing on the family Christmas cards, and 2 couples were on their honeymoon.

Favourite experiences this trip included a group of 5 cuttlefish at Yarbies, Ribbon Reef # 7. The creatures were relaxed in the presence of divers, and seemed happy to pose for photographers - moving slowly between the different corals, resulting in a spectrum of changing colours in order to camouflage with the changing surroundings.

A Macro lens was the choice for several of our "critter dives" with mantis shrimp at Lighthouse Bommie, porcelain crabs at Steve's Bommie, a leaf scorpion fish at Wonderland, and a hermit crab who appeared to be out collecting "pretty things" to decorate his shell with.

An extra incentive to enjoy an early morning dive at Rod's Rock was provided by the dwarf minke whales that had been spotted cruising around the southern part of Ribbon Reef #10. Divers were not left disappointed, as they were greeted by 3 whales for an extended safety stop on the mooring line. The typical call of this whale - an almost mechanical noise in a pattern of 3 short sounds then an extended upsweep - has been nick named the "Star Wars" sound by one researcher and was heard by divers before these magnificent creatures came into view. They cruised up slowly to the divers, performing rolls presenting their belly, and headed up close to the surface so that our snorkeller, Isabelle, got a fantastic view also. Another minke appeared on Sunday so our passengers had all their wishes come true - a dive at world famous Steve's Bommie, a minke whale and sunshine; a perfect Sunday morning in every way !!

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Mon 11th July 2011 - Thu 14th July 2011 - (21) images

It was a pleasure to welcome back Harbour Dive Club, from the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria "http://www.harbourdive.com.au" for the 3rd year in a row - and each year they are bringing more and more divers with them! Some of the divers were back for a second or even third time, and newer members of the dive club enjoyed their first live-a-board experience on the GBR. Those divers who had been onboard in previous years remembered the Cod Hole as a highlight dive and were delighted to have the chance to explore this premier site again this year. They were also taken to sites they hadn't explored in the past and were rewarded with an array of rays - divers could take their pick of lagoon rays at Challenger Bay, eagle rays at Two Towers, and at Cathedrals a flock of 5 devil rays cruised slowly passed and were photographed "mid flight" by several of the photographers on board.

"Graceful" "Acrobatic" "Curious" "Dancing " were words chosen by our divers to describe the dwarf minke whales after diving and snorkelling with them at 3 separate sites during the trip. On one occasion we were fortunate enough to be able to watch the interaction between a mother and her calf. Calves are around 2 meters at birth and are weaned at approx 6 months old. Snorkellers were also treated to playful "bubble blasts" by the whales, who released sudden clouds of bubbles directly under them- a once in a life time whale Jacuzzi, not to be found in any other spa, no matter how exclusive!

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Thu 7th July 2011 - Mon 11th July 2011 - (23) images

The weather conditions were not suitable for diving in the Coral Sea so we dived a variety of Ribbon Reefs. The weather was a little blowy but the surface conditions were not so bad and under the water was bliss. The water was a fresh 24 degrees with the visibility on most dives over 20 metres. The cod feed was yet again another success with many cod of all sizes turning up for the feed. The water was clear which produced vivid and detailed photos. The sharks were plentiful and seen on most dives, mainly our white tip reef shark with the occasional sighting of the black tip and the much larger grey reef shark.

The macro enthusiasts were more then pleased with the number of subjects to photograph. There was a huge variety of nudibranchs and the lizard fish, sand perch, blennies, gobies, dartfish and coral polyps also made for some outstanding photos. We dove a variety of sites between Ribbon Reef 10 down to Ribbon 3. Steve's Bommie was a favourite site due to the density and variety of fish species seen. It can all most be compared to diving in a huge aquarium teaming with life. The turtles, sea snakes, stone fish and mantis shrimp were also a crowd pleaser but it was very hard to beat diving and snorkelling with the Dwarf Minke Whales, with many up close sightings this trip. The night dive was also a hit with sightings of manta rays, and a plethora of wacky sea creatures.

The trip was a great success with much to see. After a big week of diving it was great to enjoy an aussie BBQ and a few coldies.

Happy Birthday to Ricardo and Roberto. Congratulations to Truls and Insa who enjoyed their honeymoon diving the Ribbon Reefs. 

Well done to Jackie for becoming a Nitrox diver and Sam for completing his deep adventure dive.

Cheers,
Chris Haslam (Trip director)

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Mon 4th July 2011 - Thu 7th July 2011 - (20) images

It was a little windy and overcast this trip but underwater it was excellent with visibility 20m+ and plenty of marine life to see. The main attraction was the Dwarf Minke Whales, which were seen on a number of dive sites. The divers captured some great photos as the whales twirled and glided pass the divers. A manta ray was seen at Two Towers along with turtles and olive sea snakes.

We had an awesome night dive with plenty to see, especially the macro organisms. We encountered hermit crabs with coral polyps growing on their shells, a dwarf lionfish, many banded shrimp, coral crabs, flatworms, a few nudibranchs including the heron ardeadoris and african chromodoris, and a very long worm sea cucumber.

During the last day the cod feed was definitely the highlight. The visibility was in the high 20's and many cod appeared for the feed. We saw the flowery and potato cod plus a Queensland grouper came in for a bite to eat too. There was cod of all sizes and all were getting involved, 7 in total. After the feed the cod swam all around the divers as we completed our safety stops.

After a big trip of diving it was time for an Aussie BBQ a few drinks and some great conversation.

Cheers for a great trip.
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Thu 30th June 2011 - Mon 4th July 2011 - (22) images

Our dive and snorkel adventure in the Ribbon Reefs saw us drop in at sites on Ribbon Reef # 10, 9, 7, 5 & 3. Our youngest adventurers were 12 years old and showed themselves to be very competent divers in conditions that included strong winds and currents. Divers are introduced to a wide range of fishes when diving in powerful currents; along with the colourful reef fish in the shallows the larger pelagic species come in close to the reef and divers were treated to swirling groups of giant trevally, Spanish mackerel and rainbow runners.

Highlights included our 3 night dives when large hermit crabs came out to feed, giant trevally cruised shoulder to shoulder with divers - taking advantage of the torchlight to hunt for dinner - and a hawksbill turtle was found fast asleep in his cave. Nudibranchs were out in force, and our macro enthusiasts delighted in their photographs of 2 entwined Dusky Nembrotha. Steve's Bommie lived up to its reputation as a premier dive site with 2 juvenile white tip reef sharks competing for the divers‘ attention against mantis shrimp, flame file shells and stone fish.

A couple of the guests celebrated some landmark dives with us: Congratulations to Jonathan and Nicholas for becoming Junior Advanced Open Water Divers, and to Douglas and to Simon for completing their 100th dives. An extra big round of applause please for Simon who braved the 24 degree water to mark this special dive in time honoured tradition by diving naked! Verdict "Not that cold. Actually, I really liked it but don't tell anyone"....

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Mon 27th June 2011 - Thu 30th June 2011 - (20) images

Passengers voted Two Towers their favourite dive site and probably the most exciting safety stop they will ever do!! Divers were treated to a close encounter with 5 Dwarf Minke whales, who performed belly rolls and acrobatic twists and turns. This gave divers a clear view of the characteristic white ‘flash' that extends across the whales shoulder and flipper. The markings are unique to each whale and are used by researchers to identify individuals. Back on board the guests ran up to the sun deck where they photographed the whales breaching and spy hopping - behaviours that enable them to check out what is going on above the surface of the water.

Over 2 days we travelled Ribbon Reef # 10 and highlights included 6 Potato Cod competing for dominance at our cod feed dive - they spent as much time chasing away their rivals as they did actually feeding! - inquisitive olive green sea snakes at Rod's Rock & Cathedrals, a flock of eagle rays at Snake Pit and a very large loggerhead turtle. We all have our fingers - & flippers - crossed that this amazing turtle has found a home at Snake Pit ; we have been seeing him there on more and more dives over the past months. Meeting him is definitely a highlight for any diver, if only he could tell us of some of the magical things he has seen under the water in his lifetime!

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Thu 23rd June 2011 - Mon 27th June 2011 - (21) images

We had a fantastic trip with a great bunch of people. We saw plenty of inquisitive olive sea snakes. The resident green sea turtle that has a home on Light House Bommie was a favourite among many. The variety of nudibranchs also impressed those onboard, especially the larger minor noto doris. While hanging on a line at the back of the boat, after a bit of patience the 3 snorklers that decided to skip a dive were rewarded with the sighting of 2 minke whales up close. That session started a great saga of events with more minke whales being sighted.

One of the divers was lucky enough to spot a pink frogfish. During our night dive this week myself and a group of divers decided to hunt for macro organisms and dived only 20m over 45minutes. We were rewarded with a fantastic dive and spotted a ton of life which included banded shrimp, coral crabs, flatworms, hermit crabs, 2 smaller crabs living in a borrow in the coral, and an array of colourful coral polyps feeding. We also couldn't miss the bigger animals such as a few grey and white tip reef sharks feeding along with the red bass and giant trevally. Some of the experienced divers said it was one of their best night dives yet.

Even though it was a struggle for the sun to come out sometimes, the visibility was awesome with plenty to see. We finished on a high with clear blue skies, sunshine and great vis. We had a great group on board and thoroughly enjoyed the company.

Well done to Marianne Chi for completing her nitrox course. Happy Birthday to Linda.  Cheers for all the kinds words. What a great speech from Michael on behalf of the divers, praising all the crew for a job well done.

Cheers,
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Mon 20th June 2011 - Thu 23rd June 2011 - (20) images

With the water cooling down the visibility has been increasing, with most dives reaching above 20m. The cod feed was one of our better ones with 4 huge cod, 1 medium sized and a baby cod all turning up for the show. We conducted the feed in about 8m of water, so with clear visibility plus loads of natural light it wasn't difficult to get some great photos. We haven't seen the baby cod before, which is excellent to see they are reproducing.

A few mantis shrimp and nudibranchs were spotted, a favourite among many. We have also been getting loads of great shots of cleaner shrimp cleaning the cod and coral trout. Managed to get a couple of shots of the fish with their mouths well elongated with the cleaner fish inside.

We had some awesome encounters again with the Minke's at a site called Two Towers and Rod's Rock. At least 6 minke whales were seen from the surface and while diving. Some of the divers got some great close up photos. Many of the divers were excited to see a few olive sea snakes. They are quite inquisitive and come right up to the divers, which can be a bit scary for some. The divers were thrilled with the visibility, the diversity of marine life and abundance of healthy coral. Great bunch of people to enjoy an epic journey of diving with.

Congratulations to Gabriele Obersteiner and Wibke Schneider for completing their advanced diver course.
Everyone had a great trip. Seemed the minke's and sea snakes were a hit. Our divers were thrilled with the diving and of course the food. Oh and not having to put on and take off their fins. Good times.

Cheers,

Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Thu 16th June 2011 - Mon 20th June 2011 - (19) images

We had a wonderful group from Scuba World Mooloolaba join us for the Coral Sea trip. This fantastic group has been with us the past three years now, and are always good fun to have on board. The highlight of our trip this week would have to be Hammerheads and Silver Tip Sharks out at Osprey reef. We were lucky enough to spot three Hammerheads in total; two at Around the Bend and one at North Horn. Unfortunately, they were a bit shy and didn't stick around for too long, however, we managed to get a beautiful photo of the silhouette of the big guy at North Horn.

The Shark Feed was an absolute hit. The sharks were feeling particularly frisky this week and devoured the tuna heads in two minutes flat. They were so enthusiastic they managed to rip the bin apart too! The numerous Silver Tip Sharks we spotted were also very exciting. These impressive looking sharks showed up on a few dives. One massive Silver Tip showed up at the Shark Feed to check out the action and then stuck around afterwards to survey the divers. Steve's Bommie was a very popular dive this week as well. As one of the passengers described it, "It's like swimming around in an aquarium"! A couple of the guests celebrated some landmark dives with us: Congratulations to David for his 100th dive, and to Akemi for her 50th dive! We had a fantastic trip with great weather, great passengers, great diving, and, of course, great food! Thanks to all our guests.

Cheers! Dayna

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Mon 13th June 2011 - Thu 16th June 2011 - (18) images

The highlight of the trip was definitely the Dwarf Minke Whales at Rod's Rock! The passengers were offered the option to dive the site or hang on to a surface line and enjoy a Minke encounter. Rod's Rock is a beautiful dive site, however, the majority of the passengers took us up on the once in a lifetime experience to snorkel with whales. We had five Minkes - including a juvenile- play with our guests for over an hour. It seems as though the Minkes prefer snorkellers to divers, potentially due to the lack of bubbles and noise of scuba gear. Therefore, as the guests were snorkelling, and staying nice and still, the Minkes were very comfortable and very inquisitive. The whales circled the guests, swam underneath them, displayed some belly rolls, and generally looked like they were having a fantastic time interacting with the snorkellers.

Other marine highlights of the trip were the sea snakes at Two Towers, and the Green Turtle and Bull Ray at Lighthouse Bommie. Our Night dive at Challenger Bay was also an exciting event, as we had three Grey Reef sharks circling under the boat, rounding up a massive school of fish.

We had a fantastic trip with a great visibility underwater, and sunny, crisp days above water. Thanks very much to all the great passengers for being so respectful of the Minke procedures; enabling everyone to have an amazing experience with these magnificent animals!

Dayna

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Thu 9th June 2011 - Mon 13th June 2011 - (16) images

We started the trip with 2 dives at Monolith. The water was crystal clear with plenty of things to see. During the 2 dives we saw turtle, cuttlefish, huge barracuda, cleaner shrimp, 3 pipe fish in twinned together, white tip reef sharks and purple and yellow sea squirts. As one diver explained, "there was so much to see, everything is on steroids, and they're just so huge. The small things we great to see too." It was a fantastic start to the trip. After dinner we set voyage for Osprey Reef.

We awoke at Osprey Reef for an action packed day of diving. Everyone was excited for what awaited. As one experienced diver put it "Osprey Reef has some of the healthiest coral coverage I have ever seen." During the day we saw plenty of sharks, which included the white tip reef shark, black tip reef shark, and a few huge grey reef sharks. We also had a 3m+ hammerhead come nice and close to a bunch of divers, circled around us then headed back into the deep, he then came back for another look before taking off for good into the dark abyss. What an experience! Moray eels, nudibranchs, feather stars, dogtooth tuna, giant trevally and dart fish were also spotted throughout the dives. Other interesting marine life sighted through out the day included turtles, cuttlefish, feather stars, coral polyps feeding, box fish, gobies, blennies, hawkfish and much more. During the night dive we spotted many shrimp, sharks, parrotfish, crabs, giant trevally and red bass. After a huge day of diving we enjoyed dinner followed by Sanctum the movie.

Our first dives the following day were at the world famous North Horn. Many classified these 2 dives as their favourite with a plethora of marine life to be seen. Some of the highlights included a few colourful nudibranchs, huge grouper, scorpion fish, and of course the shark feed. During the shark feed we had about 25+ sharks come into join the feeding frenzy. The species included the white tip reef shark, the black tip reef shark, the grey reef shark and the much larger silver reef tip. The feed was unreal with many photo opportunities. Once the feed was finished all the divers got to experience swimming in and around our once again peaceful shark friends. Other marine life sighted throughout the day included napoleon wrasse, potato cod, sea fans, sea whips, vibrant soft coral, hawkfish, anthias, parrotfish, bannerfish and whip gobies.

Overnight we steamed back to the ribbon reefs. Throughout the next day we saw schools of blue lined snapper and big eyed trevally, chromis, various nudibranchs, flatworms, sea cucumbers, mantis shrimp, scorpion fish and angel fish. We also saw over 5 stonefish one of which was getting cleaned by a toby fish, which I thought was about to become his lunch. Definitely the major highlight of the day included diving with the dwarf minke whales. This was a fantastic experience to see these creatures up close. What better way to finish such an unreal trip then an aussie BBQ and a few drinks. The conversation flowed as we steamed into the horizon back for Cairns.

Thanks everyone for making this a very memorable trip.
Keep on diving, Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Mon 6th June 2011 - Thu 9th June 2011 - (20) images

After several weeks of being off while Spirit had her yearly make-over, we headed out to Norman Reef looking fresher and shinier than ever. Calm sea's and clear blue skies, thanks to the end of summer and the wet season being over.

As we approached our usual Monday afternoon dive site, the crew immediately noticed another change brought on by approaching winter. Although a couple of degrees cooler (25 degrees), the water was an iridescent sparkling blue, and we all knew there was going to be an epic trip of diving ahead. During our first 2 dives at "Caves" it was hard to miss the array of marine life which included a green turtle, 2 grey reef sharks eating a fish, a flatworm and schools of bat fish and big eyed trevally.

After a delicious hot breakfast, we jumped on in expecting our regular, lively, cod feed. The ravenous cod made for some great pics as they began to snap up the food from in front of our faces, but after about 15min into the feed two large grey reef sharks showed up, keen to find out what yummy snack was causing all the commotion. We stopped the feed immediately, but that didn't calm down any of the hungry fish. A few red bass and the cod, darted restlessly between divers as the two sharks circled the group. It was clear to see the cod were keeping the sharks at bay. We hung back away from the feeding bucket to get some great photos, and then headed off into deeper water to check out some of the smaller creatures Cod Hole has to offer. This was my favourite feed yet, with clear visibility and such a diversity of marine life interacting together it was hard not to enjoy.

For the next dive we all geared up and were ready to jump in as soon as we pulled up at Two Towers, with keen anticipation of the famous Minke Whales. The Captain moored the boat long, giving us enough room on the mooring line, for everyone to hang on near the boat incase the Minkes turned up. We sat comfortably on the line in 30m visibility for a good fifteen minutes, amongst numerous large schools of yellow tailed fusiliers. No Minkes just yet, although some other large friends joined us, a plentiful group of chevron barracuda, some up to 2m long, hanging around and watching us from the depths. We headed down deeper, to explore the massive bommie, and soon found that we didn't need to go far to be satisfied. The multitude of bright clownfish at the bottom of the mooring line kept most of the photographers happy, while others followed a graceful sea snake along the bottom as it casually looked for a snack amongst the soft corals. An extremely photogenic hawksbill turtle flitted cheerfully in and around the group, posing in different positions allowing everyone to get a great shot with him, before munching on some algae and settling down for a nap on boulder coral. So doubtlessly we were pretty pleased with our dive, and headed back up the mooring to shallower water. As we completed our safety stops, you could see everyone scouring the distance in hope of a large shadow. Just as we were about to reach the surface, some of the divers glanced down for one more look and jumped at the sight of a big face staring back at them. Once they all realised what was happening, they clambered back onto the mooring line and hung on tight, in awe of the huge animal the was peacefully drifting below us. The Minke Whale was about 5-6m long and seemed happy, as it danced effortlessly next to us for a few minutes before heading off towards the front of the boat where the rest of the divers watched from the deck as it played around the surface. The entire dive was awe-inspiring but what an astonishing experience to finish it off! Oh and just quietly our one snorkeler onboard got to hang out with 2 minkes for most of the time, but let's not make the divers jealous.

Our last dives of the day included a day and night dive at Challenger Bay. Many of the divers commented that this was their favourite dive yet with so much to sea. Some of the interesting marine life spotted in the crystal clear waters included oriental sweetlip, sharks, coral crabs, cleaner shrimps, barracuda, schools of rainbow runner, huge moray eels, nudibranchs, schools of big eyed and giant trevally, pristine coral coverage and a plethora of tropical reef fish.

The next day we decided to dive an array of pinnacles. On Steve's Bommie the divers were busy taking snaps of the lionfish with a clear blue backdrop. Nudibranchs were plentiful with over 9 species found throughout the day. The schools of anthias were gorgeous, as were the anglefish. Some of the not so pretty species included the well-camouflaged stonefish. A blue spotted lagoon ray was also sighted along with clownfish and a few flatworms.

We had another fantastic experience with the dwarf minke whales, this time there was 7 and they came even closer than the last time. We managed to get a heap of photos, what an awesome experience! Everyone was so excited and could not stop taking about it, or screaming with excitement.
Some of the divers also spotted a huge cod and giant moray eel sharing a cave together. The moray seemed to want more room as he kept pushing the cod over with his mouth, unreal! The last dive at Snake Pit was a great way to finish off an epic journey of diving. We saw a huge resident turtle, schools of blue lined snapper, sea whips and an array of macro subjects to photograph. After all this diving it was time to relax with a drink in hand, enjoy an aussie BBQ and let the good conversation flow throughout the night.

On behalf of the crew and myself we thankyou for joining us on an epic saga of diving. Hope to see you again sometime. Go minkes!

Enjoy your diving.
Trip Director (Chris Haslam)

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Thu 5th May 2011 - Mon 9th May 2011 - (19) images

We had a great group of 14 divers join us for the Coral Sea trip (and one supportive and loving scuba wife!). After two dives at Pixie Gardens, we headed out to Osprey Reef.

We arrived at Osprey bright and early on Saturday morning, and dove Around the Bend. The divers had a nice, easy dive for their introduction to Osprey Reef, where they experienced the beautiful clear blue water and pristine coral. We moved on to Silver City. Some of the lucky divers were fortunate enough to spot a Scalloped Hammerhead cruise on by. Our third dive was at The Gap. The Gap was littered with curious Baby Grey Reef sharks that came in to checkout the bubbles. We spent our afternoon and night dive at Admiralty. The divers had a fantastic time exploring all of Admiralty's swim-throughs and caves.

On Saturday, we spent the first three dives of the day at our best dive site, North Horn. Our first dive was a drift down the Soft Coral Wall. As soon as we jumped in, a beautiful little Hawksbill Turtle greeted us. We then swam through a school of hundreds of Big-eyed trevally, to come out on the other side, face to face with huge Dog Tooth Tuna. Of course, this dive also introduced our divers to our friendly Grey Reef Sharks, cruising around waiting for a feed. On the corner of the Horn a silver tip showed up to check out the action. After our very exciting morning dive, we had our world famous shark feed! This was a particularly exciting feed as our Silver Tip friend came right in; he even got in amongst the Greys to try to get a nibble of the Tuna heads. This was particularly exhilarating, as we often see Silver tips cruise by, but they rarely get right in their amongst the action and feed. The big guy stole the show! After the Shark Feed, we did another drift dive up the Blue Marlin Wall. Without much current it was a bit more of a one-way swim, but still a very enjoyable dive, and the Reefies continued to hang around hoping we might give them dessert! On our last dive at Osprey, at Castles, two of our lucky divers saw a gorgeous Manta Ray glide past them.

On Sunday we did two dives at Steve's Bommie in the morning and spotted all sorts of wonderful creatures. We saw countless Stonefish and Lionfish, a very curious little Octopus and some Mantis Shrimp. At Flare Point and Century Bay we found a beautiful baby Lionfish, who had a very small body but very long and elaborate fins. On our last dive one of our eagle-eyed guests found a tiny white-mouthed Moray. After our relaxing afternoon, we packed up and began our steam back to Cairns, celebrating a birthday and an anniversary with a good old Aussie Bbq! Thanks very much to all of our fabulous guests.

Hope to see you again soon. Dayna

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Mon 2nd May 2011 - Thu 5th May 2011 - (16) images

We had a great group of passengers on board this week. We had a few keen to improve their dive skills and they participated in a Nitrox and an Advanced course. Congratulations guys!

We began with two quick checkout dives at Twin Peaks and Turtle Bommie on Saxon Reef and then steamed up to Ribbon Reef number 10. We dove Two Towers first thing in the morning, where we saw Olive Sea Snakes, sharks and a Green Turtle with a hermit crab on his back! Afterwards we spent two dives at the Codhole. We explored this beautiful site and then spent some time playing with the massive Potato Cod. They were feeling particularly frisky at the Cod feed, and the dominant Cod actually allowed the little guy to sneak a sardine or two! We moved on to Challenger Bay for the afternoon and night dive. Challenger Bay is always a gorgeous site with plenty of fish life. At night we were also entertained or (petrified in some divers cases!) by some rather large grey reef sharks.

On Wednesday we had another full day of diving with four different dive sites. We started with two dives at the Pixie Patch, the first at Pixie Wall, and the second at Pixie Pinnacle. These two sites provided a great variety of topography and fish life for our guests. Our third dive was at Lighthouse Bommie, where we found numerous nudibranchs, a wonderful, friendly turtle, and loads of Mantis shrimp. Our final dive of the trip was spent at Dynamite Pass, where the divers enjoyed beautiful coral, and a nice, relaxing last dive. We carried on to Lizard Island for a fabulous barbecue and some beverages.

Thanks very much to everyone on board! Dayna

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Thu 28th April 2011 - Mon 2nd May 2011 - (16) images

The first dives of the trip were at Ribbon Reef # 9 ¾ at a site called Monolith. Monolith is a wall dive filled with many species of coral that cascade down to a sandy bottom. The sandy bottom gradually slopes into the deep and has coral bommie's scattered all over the place. It was a great site to start the trip with an impressive array of marine life inhibiting this environment that gave you the feeling you were diving in a huge aquarium. A blue spotted lagoon ray was seen crushing small crustaceans within the sand and engulfing them. There were fields of garden eels and schooling chevron barracuda. We also saw large schools of big eyed trevally, pipefish, nudibranchs and a mantis shrimp. It was must a been cleaning time as I saw a hump headed wrasse, a many spotted sweetlip and barramundi cod all being cleaned by cleaner wrasse. It was neat to see the fish extend their mouths as the small cleaner wrasse swam into their mouth and out their gills. After an awesome couple of dives it was time to relax on the sundeck as the sun went down.

The next day we awoke nice and early for what would become an action packed day of diving. During the first dive we saw a flatworm, maori wrasse, trumpet fish, barracuda and file fish. Was an excellent start to the day, the sun was shinning and the visibility was good.

For the next 2 dives we dived at the world famous cod hole. It was here we saw many huge potato and flowery cod, a giant moray eel, a colourful nudibranch, schools of red bass, a ton of feather stars and a few reef sharks, including the larger grey reef shark. The cod feed was amazing with many opportunities to capture some great photos.

From the cod hole it was time to head south to lighthouse bommie. This site is a pinnacle that starts at 30m and heads all the way to the surface. On the dive we saw a mummy and baby olive sea snake, a large green turtle and a couple of nudibranchs. The banner fish hanging inside a tunnel that goes right through the pinnacle with a gorgonian fan in the background made for an excellent photo.

For the night dive we headed back to Pixie Gardens. What a fantastic night dive with so much to see. A giant moray eel was swimming through the reef cracks, a few shrimp were cleaning a coral trout and a grey shark was seen under the boat. Great way to finish a fantastic day.

The next day we arrived at Wonderland Wall for our first dive of the day. It was here we saw a picturesque red anemone ball, which a clown fish called home. There were also some great opportunities for some macro photography with some of the divers taking some awesome photos of gobies, blennies, a red-lined flabellina nudibranch and lizardfish.

For the afternoon dives there was an abundance of different marine species spotted. Nudibranchs (kune's chromodoris), sea slugs, cuttlefish, angle fish, trumpet fish, sharks and vibrant hard and soft coral were all seen. There was some neat swim throughs too that opened up to huge cathedrals.

For the last day of the trip we headed south to Ribbon Reef number 3 and dived on Steve's Bommie for the first two dives. We saw plenty of marine life such as, 3 stone fish clustered together, a huge school of big eyed trevally under the boat, we swam through schools of blue lined snapper and we found the real nemo!
Other marine life seen throughout the day included, opisthobranchs, lionfish, a a polyclad flatworm, christmas tree worms, ribbon worms, a chelidonura inornata, colourful anthias and a blue lagoon sting ray. Was a great trip of diving! To finish it off we relaxed and enjoyed an Australian BBQ and a few drinks.

Congratulations Elie for completing your Nitrox Course aboard Spirit of Freedom.

Well done to Antoine and Anee-Carole for reaching their 100th dive on Spirit of Freedom.

Thanks for the great trip,

See you under the water sometime,
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Mon 25th April 2011 - Thu 28th April 2011 - (19) images

We started the trip off with 2 dives at Norman Reef on a site called Clipper's Mooring. It was an easy dive to start the trip with plenty to see. A few highlights throughout the dives included seeing a white tip reef shark destroy a small fish, a flamboyant cuttlefish and some huge giant trevally hunting bait fish. After a fantastic 2 dives it was time for dinner followed by an overnight steam to Ribbon Reef number 10, some 120 nautical miles away.

After a great night's sleep it was time to begin an adventurous day of diving. During the day we saw a plethora of spectacular marine life. We managed to find a lacey scorpion fish and a small octopus camouflaged into a reef crevice. A few bump headed parrot fish were seen munching on the coral, along with a large titan triggerfish sifting in the sand.

The cod feed was unreal, with 6 cod turning up for the occasion. These guys must have been hungry, displaying aggressive behaviour towards one another to mark their territory. There was definitely a hierarchy between the group, with the elders getting to eat before the younger. We got up close and personnel with these magnificent animals and got some awesome photos.

Other interesting marine life sighted through out the day included, sea snakes, turtles, harlequin sweet lip, filefish, a few bi valve- mollusc, pipe fish, burrowing clams and sharks. The night dive had to be one of my favourite dives of the day. You know when you have one of those dives that is very tranquil and you seem to see one interesting thing after another, this was that dive. We saw a large pleurobranch, a free swimming moray eel being harassed by red bass, white tip reef sharks hunting, giant trevally and red bass hunting in our torch light, large a coral crab, coral polyps feeding, tons of shrimp and much more. After a great days diving it was time to relax and wait for the next exciting day to come.

The last day of diving brought us many unique creatures. We saw schools of colourful anthias, more potato cod, a file flame shell, a large grey whaler shark, a few lionfish, stacks of nudibranchs (one of which we had never spotted before), turtles and many cleaning stations where fish come to get cleaned. We had a couple of drift dives along walls filled with healthy hard and soft coral. The giant gorgonian fans mad for some great pictures. It was a terrific day of diving. After such an epic few days it was time to relax in true Australian style with a good old BBQ, a few drinks and great conversation.

Congratulations to Andrew, Anne- Carole and Antoine for completing your Nitrox course
Well done to Patrick, Kelli and Warner for completing your Advanced Diver course.

Cheers for coming aboard Spirit of Freedom,
Catch up with you under the water sometime. Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Thu 21st April 2011 - Mon 25th April 2011 - (20) images

We had a full boat of hardy sailors join us for the Osprey portion of our trip. Amongst the group were a dozen wonderful people from Dive Centre Bondi in Sydney, who have joined us for an annual trip for the past four years.

We had a couple of dives at Pixie Gardens on Thursday and then headed out to Osprey Reef. We had beautiful weather and a nice, smooth crossing for our trip out in the Coral Sea. We began our dives on Saturday at Around the Bend. Unfortunately, the current wasn't pumping through and therefore our big sharks and mantas that normally hang around this spot didn't make an appearance. It was still a very pretty dive, and the first time our guests got to experience the impressive walls and clear blue water of Osprey Reef. We moved on to False Entrance for another beautiful dive with gorgeous soft corals. A few of the divers even found a white Leaf Scorpionfish. At the Gap there was, as one of the divers put it, "a nursery of baby grey reef sharks". We spent the afternoon and night dives at Admiralty. The visibility was absolutely astounding, and we were able to see the divers entering the cave (at 16 meters) from the surface! The divers were very excited as they found many grey whalers (or rather the whalers found them!).

On Saturday was the real shark-spotting day. We spent the first three dives of the day at one of the best dive sites in the world, North Horn. We began with a drift dive down the Soft Coral Wall, which was lovely. We then had a very exciting shark feed, with fifty very enthusiastic grey whalers and twenty-six very enthusiastic passengers! After the feed while going down to give Tracy's plaque a bit of a clean, we had a very close encounter with a massive Great Hammerhead. He just cruised by checking us out as if he owned the spot (which quite frankly, he does!). After the extreme excitement of the shark feed, we did a dive up Blue Marlin wall, which turned into exploring the shark feed area again, as the current picked up. No matter though, the sharks were still hanging around, hopeful they might get a second breaky! Our last dive at Osprey Reef was spent at Castles, where two of our eagle-eyed divers spotted a green Leaf Scorpionfish.

On Sunday morning, we finished off our diving with two at Steve's Bommie and then moved on to Flare Point and Century Bay. Steve's Bommie, as per usual, was absolutely crawling with life. We found Wobbegong Sharks, Stonefish, Mantis Shrimp and even a tiny, little baby white Leaf Scorpionfish. After not being able to find our gorgeous little Leaf Scorpionfish friends for quite some time, we were very lucky this trip to find three! On our afternoon dives we found a massive Queensland Grouper. One of the girls was so terrified of this massive fish the size of a VW that she wouldn't go anywhere near it to take photos. We had great people on board, great weather, and great creatures. What more could you ask for in a trip!

Thanks everyone, and can't wait to see you again!

Dayna

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Mon 18th April 2011 - Thu 21st April 2011 - (20) images

This trip we had a lovely group of divers and one snorkeler from all over the planet. Special congratulations to our lovely Honeymooning couple from Cairns!

After some checkout dives at Saxon Reef, we began Tuesday morning at Pixie Wall, where we found an adorable, tiny Black Pipefish. Some of the guests were also lucky enough to spot a gorgeous Cuttlefish that was constantly changing the colours and textures of his skin. For the afternoon and night dive we moved on to Challenger Bay. In the afternoon our keen snorkeler tried his first-ever introductory scuba dive. What a better place to do it then the Great Barrier Reef?! At Challenger we found many little treasures, such as: a group of six Long-nosed Pipefish, a juvenile yellow boxfish, and a Flounder.

The following day we started our diving with Lighthouse Bommie. Lighthouse was the most popular dive of the trip. The passengers were absolutely surrounded by Olive sea snakes, and there was even a baby sea snake that was only about a foot long cruising around. The guests took some beautiful photos with a Hawksbill Turtle. The little Hawksbill was very curious and even swam up to one of the divers and nibbled on her nose! A very special marine life moment! Later on in the afternoon at the Codhole, aside from the usual impressive Potato Cod, we saw a lot of macro life. We spotted a very rare High-Fin goby, a Twin-Spot goby and a juvenile Yellow-tailed Coris. After our cruise around the Codhole, we had a very nice Cod feed with our juvenile Potato Cod, which we have nicknamed Nemo, due to his unsymmetrical fins! We finished our dives with a nice drift dive along Dynamite Pass, where the divers found a Barramundi Cod among many other little creatures. We finished the trip with some sunset drinks and a barbecue on the top deck.

Thanks very much to all our passengers for a great trip.

Dayna

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Thu 14th April 2011 - Mon 18th April 2011 - (20) images

After a fantastic time in the Ribbon Reefs it was time to begin our Coral Sea part of the trip. We collected a few new passengers and before setting voyage to Osprey Reef we completed two check out dives at Ribbon Reef # 9 2/3. During the dives we saw schools of rainbow runners, some with chunks taken out of them. A few smaller schools of giant trevally and barracuda, a napoleon wrasse and a giant moray eel. They were some very relaxing dives to start the trip. Not before long the new and old gets were having good ol time and enjoying each others company.

After a good nights sleep we awoke to the beautiful scenery at Osprey reef. We had an epic day of diving. There was a plethora of marine life to be sighted and we hit 45m+ visibility throughout the day. The coral filled walls at Osprey reef blur out to the deep blue abyss over 1000m deep. During the day of diving we encountered grey and black tip reef sharks, school of bump headed parrotfish, a purple anemone ball and a few dog tooth tuna.Their was a white tip sleeping in a coral cave, a moray eel which looked like it was yawning and awesome swim throughs and sea caves.

The highlight of the day would definitely be the hammerhead and manta ray spotted by a few divers. There were many macro opportunities as well including nudibranch such as loch's chromodoris. After the sun goes down the ocean turns into uncanny tranquil environment with much to see. During the dive we saw a couple of white tip reef sharks, a school of bump headed parrotfish, a slipper lobster, shrimp, nudibranchs, sea cucumbers feeding, coral polyps feeding, the intestines of coral fighting for territory, a moray eel and giant trevally hunting in the torch light. Great way to finish an awesome day.

Day 3 was definitely the best so far. I was sure what was better, the shark feed or spotting a whale shark, you decide. The shark feed had over 40 sharks of all different species ripping apart a few tuna heads violently, making for excellent photos. The whale shark was so elegant in the water gracefully passing under the boat along the reef wall and into the distance. Was such a fantastic experience.

During the last dive of the day a few divers were stocked with the small species of scorpion fish they found and 3 beautiful gorgonian fans lined up one after another is a small sea grotto. The big tuna that came into the reef for a look was also a crowd pleaser.

After a fantastic 3 days of diving things were set to get a whole lot better, next stop Bougainville Reef! Bougainville Reef is a small reef south- east of Osprey and is seldom visited by other dive vessels. The 1000m walls are filled with coral in pristine condition and a ton of marine species. We plunged into 70m+ visibility for the first dive and drifted from a site called Burnsie's Bend to Dungeons and Dragons. On the dive we saw a huge marble ray cruising along the wall and many sharks hiding in the swim throughs and caves.

During the rest of the day we had many crevices and swim throughs to explore. We encountered many unicorn fish, pelagic schools of barracuda and trevally, a not so common thorny ray, a ton of sharks and plenty of dogtooth tuna. This trip was amazing!

Well done to Paul, Veronica, Stephen, Andrew, Linnea and Lisa for completing your Nitrox Course. Awesome work!

Thanks for the awesome time.
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Mon 11th April 2011 - Thu 14th April 2011 - (21) images

After a week of not so good weather it was great to see the winds drop and the sun shine again. We left Cairns and set voyage for Norman Reef. The site is considered an easy dive and it was here we completed the first two dives of the trip. The conditions and underwater environment were excellent for those wanting to build up their confidence in the water again before heading for some more challenging sites. During the dives we encountered the great Australian cuttlefish, a giant moray eel, a few baby squid and a barramundi cod. It was a fantastic start to the trip.

Overnight we steamed 120 nautical miles to Ribbon Reef # 10. It was a fantastic day of diving with a variety of different sites, which included pinnacles and bays. We saw all types of wonderful and exciting creatures of the sea. Some of the interesting marine life spotted included a lacey scorpion fish, moray eels, sharks, blue spotted lagoon rays, 3 olive sea snakes, a couple of huge turtles, 3 cuttle fish, 7 lionfish, hump head parrot fish, schools of blue lined snapper, a few big eyed trevally rounding up some bait fish, over 20 clown fish and many species of nudibranch.

The cod feed was amazing with a huge potato cod putting on quite the show for everyone. He even managed to catch a large red bass and death roll it a few times before letting it go. We all looked on in shock and it took a few minutes for everyone to realise what just happened. Some of the divers got some amazing pictures of the dive.

After a big day of diving, it was time to relax and get some sleep before the next adventurous day of diving. Day 3 was set to be the most adventurous yet with pinnacles, drift dives and a final dive in a snake pit. We saw a plethora of marine life during the day with some of the highlights including, cuttlefish, flatworms, nudibranchs, a few gigantic barracuda, pipe fish, manta ray, turtles, more sea snakes, eagle rays and finishing the last dive with a pod of dolphins just topped it off.

Well done to Paul and Veronica Watkins, David Hubbard, Krista Stegemann and Jessica Levy for competing your advanced diving course.  Happy 25th anniversary to David and Janet, hope you had a fantastic day.

Cheers for the great trip,
Hope to see you beneath the ocean sometime again soon,
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Thu 7th April 2011 - Sun 10th April 2011 - (18) images

We had a very small number of guests on board this week, but with such wonderful people we became like family! Due to the strong winds and massive seas we experienced, we were unable to make our usual run to Osprey Reef. However, our guests were able to explore a variety of beautiful dive sites all along the Ribbon Reefs instead.

As many of our passengers had been on for the Codhole portion of our trip we began our dives on Thursday with a bit of an adventure. We started our Thursday diving by heading up North to a gorgeous little reef we rarely dive, called Day Reef. On Wednesday morning we went to the Codhole. We had a fantastic, deep dive in the morning, followed by a very successful Cod Feed. The youngest of our Potato Cod clan - who was just a baby in November, and has grown considerably - was the star of our show! The big cod didn't show up until after the feed, which gave our little friend a chance to show off. We had a nice relaxing dive at Princess Bommie and then pressed on to Pixie Gardens for an afternoon and night dive.

On Saturday, we began to make our way down the Ribbon Reefs. We started at Ribbon Reef 8.5, Wonderland. We then cruised on to Yarbies on Ribbon number 7, where we encountered many Grey Reef sharks. Followed by Clam Gardens on Ribbon Reef number four. The guests were all very impressed with the enormous Giant Clams at this dive site. As we did not travel as much this weekend, we threw in an additional night dive at George's Wall. There was an extremely entertaining Green Turtle on George's Wall that made friends with our guests on both the afternoon and night dives.

On Sunday we finally had gorgeous weather! We had two dives at the always-beautiful Steve's Bommie, where we found many Stonefish and a Scorpionfish that was about an inch long! We had two lovely, relaxing dives at Flare Point and Century Bay, where we found a sensational little White Mouthed Moray. We then enjoyed some beverages and yummy food with one of Andrew's amazing barbecues.

Thank you to our little family!

Dayna

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Mon 4th April 2011 - Thu 7th April 2011 - (19) images

Our small group of hardcore guests persisted through and had some amazing dives, despite the weather conditions being not exactly ideal. We carried on and found some beautiful little spots, nice and protected behind the reef. We began with some checkout dives at Saxon Reef, where we saw many Green Turtles and White Tip Reef Sharks.

The following morning we did two dives at Pixie Pinnacle. We found all sorts of creatures, including many different species of nudibranchs and quite a few Lionfish. At Pixie Wall some of the divers were lucky enough to find a gorgeous little Cuttlefish. We moved on to Challenger Bay for our afternoon and evening dive. The night dive was particularly exciting as there were hundreds of fish around the back of the boat and 5 or 6 Grey Reef Sharks had a field day buzzing through them and getting an easy dinner!

On Wednesday we started our diving at Geisha's Garden and then moved on to the Codhole. We had one leisurely dive at the Codhole and then did a Cod feed. The Potato Cod turned up fashionably late for the Cod Feed, but entertained us all the same! We had our final dive of the trip at Dynamite Pass, and then moved to Lizard Island to have two Tawny Nurse sharks visit us at the back of the boat, followed by one of Andrew's scrumptious barbecues. Thanks very much to our guests for a wonderful and safe trip!

Dayna

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Thu 31st March 2011 - Mon 4th April 2011 - (21) images

The first day of the trip we dove at Ribbon Reef number 10 at a site called Lighthouse Bommie. During the dives we encountered numerous marine creatures including a mantis shrimp, 2 green turtles, white margin unicorn fish, longnose hawkfish, a couple of olive sea snakes, a maori wrasse, schools of rainbow runners and big eyed trevally. There was also a couple of big barracuda and a white tip reef shark accompanied by a school of yellow tail fusilier. After a couple of very nice dives everyone was well in the mood to let the journey continue so we had a fantastic dinner & then headed out to the Coral Sea to Osprey Reef.

Our next two days were spent diving the sites of Osprey Reef. The first morning we awoke to some good conditions & after a somewhat calm crossing the guests were more than ready to jump in and explore the reef and all it had to offer. One of the highlights of the day was the Shark Feed at North Horn, at least 40 sharks came up from the blue abyss to take part and hopefully grab some tuna for their lunch! It was a great feed with lots of action even the potato cod got stuck in and a silver tip shark was cruising around below us. Dive four of the day was also full of action when what Jeremy could only describe as non-other than a humongous turtle was sighted and one of the guests gave a free ride/tour of the dive site to one lucky remora which attached itself to his leg for the entire dive! Other marine life sighted throughout the dive were curious worm fish, male spotted boxfish, golden trumpet fish, bird wrasse and a spot fin lionfish. Once the sun had set the mood was estatic as the time approached for our night dive, for some it was their very first time and although maybe a little nervous they were very excited and so they should have been as it was amazing down there, with lots of action. During the dive we saw a big turtle, an orange reef crab, giant trevally hunting in the torch light, feather stars crawling along the coral, parrot fish sleeping in their mucous sacs and many other crustaceans including a hermit crab.

On the 3rd day of the trip we awoke to yet again excellent conditions with the visibility reaching 50m+ throughout the day. We dove along 1000m+ reef walls encrusted with healthy hard and soft coral, which were teeming with life. There were many crevices, sea caves and swim throughs lined with vibrant soft corals and huge gorgonian fans.

The last day of the trip was not to disappoint with much to see. Some of the highlights included a grouper fighting with a white tip reef shark, schools of giant trevally and blue lined snapper, a baby octopus, schools of unicorn fish, many species of clown fish and 8 stone fish. Their was creatures of all sizes and just far to much to list. This was a fabulous trip with a great bunch of people.

Thanks for the good times,
Chris Haslam (Trip Director) and Lozza (Senior Instructor)

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Mon 28th March 2011 - Thu 31st March 2011 - (20) images

The first 2 dives of the trip really got things under way. They were uncomplicated and allowed for those divers that had not dived in awhile to get comfortable in the water again. During the dive there was much to see which included nudibranchs, a green turtle, a feather star with a crinoid shrimp inside, a white tip reef shark, a school of many spotted sweetlip, bump headed parrot fish and a school of stripped catfish. Great start to the trip!

Day 2 was a little ripper with an abundance of marine life making itself present to us divers. With well over 5000 species of animal calling The Great Barrier Reef home it is impossible to name everything we saw throughout the day. Instead we all got involved in making a list of some of the interesting marine life seen, this list included; a lacey scorpion fish, grey reef shark, bumpheaded parrot fish, starry and black spotted puffer, black- saddled toby, schultz pipefish, threadfin butterfly fish, longfin banner fish, six banded anglefish, longfin spade fish, achilles tang, spotted unicorn fish, the pink, spinecheek, clark's, true and false anemonefish, speckled sandperch, spotted eagle ray, a midnight snapper being cleaned by a couple of anemone shrimp and giant clams. I didn't say the list was going to be short. And that was just some of what we saw. It truly is one of the most diverse environments in the world.

We also had the cod feed at one of the most famous dive sites in the Great Barrier Reef, Cod Hole. Many giant groupers call this place home and are particularly used to humans. This dive was one of the many highlights of the day. The 12 divers followed 4 instructors to a sandy bottom at 8 metres, and not long after 6 enormous specimens, weighing from 40 - 150kgs, began to circle with grace as they waited for their breakfast. The show was amazing with close interactions as the cod approached only a few inches away from the divers face, sucking up the offered food with their huge mouths. The dive made for many excellent photos and memories that will last a lifetime.

During the night dive the divers encountered various marine species the highlights being a few grey reef sharks circling in the deck lights at the back of the boat along with 1000's of fish including bait fish, red bass and trevally. The divers got a nice treat when they returned from their night dive as sharks were trying to grab some dinner.

Day 3 was another epic day of diving. Again the divers compiled a list of the interesting things they saw under water that was not on their first list. This list include; a fire flame shell, painted cray, a few nudibranchs including, noto doris, hikuera glossodoris, chromodrosis elizabethina and chromodoris magnifica, a polyclad flatworm, reef lizard fish, a juvenile midnight snapper, schools of magenta dottyback and anthias, fire dart fish, leopard blenny, various species of lionfish, garden eels, shark sucker fish, slender grouper, yellow box fish in its young adult phase, schools of halfmoon triggerfish, schools of barracuda, freckled hawkfish, unicorn fish and harlequin tuskfish.

This was such an epic trip with so much to see on each dive. I really enjoyed everyone's enthusiasm in finding the many different marine species that call the Great Barrier Reef home. There were some great discussions while compiling our marine specie lists. I had a fantastic trip and look forward to diving with you all again.
Cheers, Chris Haslam (Trip director)

Congratulations Stefanie Hilder for completing you PADI Advanced Course. Thanks to, Wally, Terry, Howard, Thomas and Hank for helping in data collection for Eye on the Reef. The researchers, Spirit of Freedom and the marine life within the Great Barrier Reef appreciate your efforts.

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Thu 24th March 2011 - Sun 27th March 2011 - (17) images

We had a wonderful weekend with some fantastic guests diving and snorkelling around in the Coral Sea. We began with two orientation dives at Pixie Gardens, where we ensured our buoyancy was perfect and our safety sausages were all in working order.

Friday morning we had our first dive at Osprey reef at the Gap. One of the dive groups spotted a scalloped Hammerhead swimming off in the distance. On the following dive at Around the Bend, we had a little Silver Tip shark come and visit us on the cleaning station. We spent our afternoon and evening dives at Admiralty. As usual the afternoon dive was absolutely gorgeous. In the evening we were very lucky, as there were at least three Manta rays coming right up to the surface and playing at the back of the boat. A couple of our passengers also spotted the magnificent Mantas underwater. We spent the evening celebrating, very special passenger, Kim's, birthday! Matty made her a beautiful cheesecake.

On Saturday, we spent three dives at our best dive site, North Horn. For the first dive we did a tender drop up Blue Marlin wall on North Horn. The second dive we did the shark feed. We had plenty of hungry Grey Reef sharks turn up, as well as a massive Silver Tip cruise in to check out the action. Our final dive at North Horn was an intended drift, but more of a one way swim down the Soft Coral Wall. Plenty of sharks were still hanging around hoping for second breaky! We finished off our visit to Osprey Reef with a dive at Castles. A couple of divers found a gorgeous Bull Ray snoozing in the sand.
Sunday was spent at Steve's Bommie and Flare Point/Century Bay. We found all sorts of creatures: Stone fish, Cuttle fish, Octopus, Mantis Shrimp.

One of our snorkellers who had been on for the week even tried his first ever scuba dive. Congratulations Vagar! We had a fantastic weekend. Thanks very much to everyone on board!

Dayna

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Mon 21st March 2011 - Thu 24th March 2011 - (19) images

We had fantastic weather for the Codhole portion of our trip.   Quite a few snorkellers joined our dive group this week, and with barely any wind, and sunny days we had perfect conditions for them.  We began the trip exploring a new site entitled “Hot Spot”, on Hastings Reef.  After our initial check out dives, we headed up the Ribbon Reefs to Ribbon number 8 ½, the Wonder Patch.  We started with a deep dive along Wonder Wall, followed by a pretty dive cruising around Wonderland.  Afterwards we headed to play with some Grey Reef sharks, Turtles, and beautiful little Nudibranchs at Pixie Wall.  We spent the afternoon and night dives at Challenger Bay.  It was a great dive/snorkel with lots of very large fish hanging about, including large schools of Humpnose Unicorn fish.   

Wednesday morning we started off with a nice early drift dive at Dynamite Pass.  We spent the next two dives at the world famous, Codhole.  Our first dive was a nice relaxing swim around the beautiful site.  We then participated in the Cod feed. Two big, and one little Potato Cod, showed up for the performance.  However, as usual only the dominant cod actually fed.  He played along and came right up to the surface, so the snorkellers could enjoy this monstrous fish as well.  Our most exciting dive of the trip must have been the final dive, when the divers got to spend some time admiring a Manta Ray!  We pulled up to Lizard Island for a sunset barbecue, and had two gorgeous Tawny Nurse sharks and a massive Queensland Grouper come right up to the back of the boat to say G’day! Great trip guys. 

Thanks very much!  Dayna

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Thu 17th March 2011 - Mon 21st March 2011 - (21) images

We began our diving at a dynamic site called ‘The Monolith', on ribbon reef # 9. As we dropped down for the first dive we were greeted by a White Tip Reef Shark, lazing around under the boat. Our divers managed to seek out some interesting creatures such as a graceful flatworm, a lion fish and an amazing Flame File shell. On the second dive, we were graced with the presence of a Giant Moray Eel, and a Starry-Eyed Puffer Fish, but the highlight was the huge friendly Hump headed Napoleon Wrasse, that allowed his audience to kneel just a metre away from him as he casually wenr about his business. The divers seemed very impressed with the number of delicate Crinoids and soft corals, and I think all in all everyone enjoyed their first few ‘Spirit of Freedom' dives very much. As the sun set we slowly voyaged into the horizon towards Osprey Reef.

Everyone was excited to wake up at Osprey Reef and was pumped up for the day of diving ahead. The visibility was unreal with 30m+ and the reefs were teeming with marine life. During the day we saw a few different species of scorpion fish, a couple of flat worms, a starry puffer lazing in the sand, various types of blennies, speckled sand perch, gobies guarding their home as the hard working shrimp kept it well maintained, 2 different types of clown fish and much more.

The highlight of the day was definitely the shark feed with over 30 sharks attending. It was unreal to see them thrashing about as they destroyed the tuna heads. White tips, black tips, grey and silver tip reef sharks all arose from the deep blue to get their piece of the action. What a great experience and the pictures turned out epic.

Not before long it was time for our night dive. It's eerie when you think of diving in the middle of the ocean with creatures from the deep 1000's of metres below you and you are just a speck amongst it all. Before entering the water 2 manta rays were seen feeding on krill in the back deck lights. huge school of humpheaded buffalo fish, red bass and trevally hunting in the torch light, walking feather stars, coral polyps feeding.

We awoke on day 3 to excellent diving conditions. The visibility was on average greater the 35m and the water had a bluish- purple glow. During the day we saw garden eels, white tip reef sharks, sea whips, huge soft corals branching into the open blue, along with huge plate corals. On one of the dives a scalloped hammerhead hung around a few of the divers before departing into the blue abyss.

For dive 3 we decided to get a little adventurous and do a drift dive back to the boat. The tenders dropped small groups up current at the start of a sandy path, and then it was just a matter of following the "yellow brick road" so to speak, back to the boat. While drifting along the path we crossed paths with a few white tip reef sharks, a few clown triggerfish, a large hermit crab, numerous clown fish and some large schools of big-eyed trevally and barracuda. Due to the excitement on the boat after the dive, I would say the dive was a huge success.
The last dive of the day proved to be just as good. It was another drift dive along a sheer wall that dropped to 1000m and beyond. The visibility was awesome with plenty of marine life to be seen. Divers commented on how they saw walls coral that just kept on going. Other species spotted during the dive included triggerfish, sharks, parrotfish, lacey scorpion fish and the list goes on.

Due to the excellent conditions, we steamed overnight for Bougainville Reef. We awoke to crystal blue water and 50m+ visibility. This was diving at its best and the trip just kept on getting better. During the day we saw endless amounts of sharks, an eagle ray, walls that sunk into the deep abyss with lots of crevices, sea caves and swim throughs. Gorgonian fans, sea whips, vibrant soft coral and an abundance of hard corals lined the walls as far as the eye could see. Other marine life spotted throughout the day included puffer fish, many species of triggerfish, angelfish and butterfly fish. The walls were lite up with schools of anthias, while trevally, barracuda and unicorn swam around in the deep blue. During the last dive we had 60m+ visibility and saw huge dog tooth tuna, silver tip sharks, groupers and schooling barracuda and trevally. It was an epic dive to finish such a fantastic trip.

See you under the water some time.

Cheers, Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Mon 14th March 2011 - Thu 17th March 2011 - (22) images

The first 2 dives of the trip were at Norman Reef on a site called "Caves". During the dives we spotted a couple of hawksbill turtles and a plethora of common reef fish including butterfly, angle, damsel and parrot. We finished off our safety stop in the company of a group of spotted sweetlip, a few feather stars and a couple batfish. Once everyone was into the full swing of diving again we set voyage for Ribbon Reef # 10.

By morning we awoke in Ribbon Reef # 10 and began what was a ripper of a day of diving. The water was very inventing with ton of marine life to be seen. During the cod feed these huge potato cod put on quite the show, which was definitely a highlight for many of the divers. The cod here are so friendly and follow you around for the dive or just relax with you in the sand. They make some excellent photos and remind me of a puppy dog just so enthusiastic to be around you. There where plenty of sharks in the water which included the white and grey reef shark. There was an abundance of benthic organisms including many different species of sea cucumbers, a sea pen and giant clams. Sarah and Robert managed to find a "cute looking thingy with horns and pretty colours", according to Sarah. After researching it in some books they identified that it was a bullock's hypselodoris, a type of nudibranch. Great spotting guys, we managed to get some great photos.

Other marine life spotted throughout the day included a hawkfish resting in some soft coral, a humphead wrasse, flat worms, many different species of lionfish and a couple of blue spotted sting rays. There were also plenty of curious olive sea snakes, and one took a liking to Cameo and Maciej creeping up under Marciej's legs. Cameo kept this quiet to not frighten him and told him latter onboard. Hahaha awesome. One of the many highlights of the day for many included swimming through 1000's of bait fish being herded by giant trevally, spanish mackerel, dog tooth tuna and red bass. At one point Alice couldn't see her buddy which was not even 2 metres away due to the density of fish. It was an unreal experience!

On dive 4 we saw a few lionfish, flatworms, a blenny peaking out of a hole in the coral and school of diagonal- banded sweetlip hanging off a some coral in the shallows. After a big day of diving it was time for the night dive. On this dive we encountered hermit crabs, shrimps, walking feather stars, loads of white tip reef sharks, spawning sea cucumbers, coral polyps feeding and free swimming moray eels. Jeremy's group also sighted a large spotted fin burrfish, a spider crab and some crazy looking sea cucumber which has been identified as Euapta Godeffrayi. After the day's diving we enjoyed each others company with some desert and wine. Great day!

Day 3 was set to have it all. The first dive of the day was a crowd pleaser with sightings of over 10 lionfish. After looking them up in our fish books we identified 4 different species during the dive. Me, Marc and Sylvaine managed to also find 4 different types of nudibranchs including a anna's and diana's chromodoris. Celeste and Santiago identified as what would be latter known as the Australian great cuttlefish. Other species spotted through out the first two dives included enormous schools of anthias and chromis, pipefish, lizard fish and a flame file shell. The flame file shell has an electrical current the passes through it that looks amazing underwater. Other marine life sighted throughout the day included an eagle ray, anemone shrimp, clown fish, barracuda, more sea snakes, turtles and many different types of nudibranchs.

After an adventurous day of diving we called it a day and relaxed with a few drinks and an Australian BBQ. The conversations flowed as the night rolled on.

It was a fantastic trip. Cheers for coming along.
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Thu 10th March 2011 - Mon 14th March 2011 - (20) images

We had a fantastic group of guests on this week. Their enthusiasm, sense of humour, and general go-with-the flow attitude made it a sensational weekend. We began with our checkout dives at a wonderful spot we rarely get to dive called Vertical Gardens. If I were a fish, I would live here, but probably couldn't afford the rent! It was a great dive with thousands of fish and gorgeous soft coral fans. The sunlight and visibility helped out and made it a very special dive indeed.

Our trip out to Osprey had to be somewhat compressed due to unpredictable wind conditions, however, we still snuck out to the Coral Sea for a day. Luckily, the animals seemed to be aware we only had one day to check out this beautiful reef. Before lunch on Saturday, we had a Shark Feed, spotted a Hammerhead at North Horn, and two Manta rays cruised by at Secret Caves. Thanks very much to our critters for showing up for our guests! We then had a drift dive at False Entrance, which was described as "trying to sight-see from the freeway, but wicked fun"! Our afternoon and night were spent at Admiralty, before we came scooting home to avoid the unpleasant weather that was predicted for the Osprey region.

We spent Saturday exploring Ribbon Reef nine and ten. The weather was absolutely beautiful in the Ribbons. After a lovely dive at Pixie Pinnacle, we decided to try something new. We dove a spot the passengers have now entitled, "The Kitchen", due to the thousands of plate corals all over the top of the massive Bommie. A couple of the passengers came back a little bit over-excited as they had spent most of the dive being circled by a very curious and very hungry looking Grey Reef Shark. The afternoon dives were at Black Coral Bommie and Pixie Gardens. Both were very pretty and cruisy dives.

Sunday morning, at Steve's Bommie, we had a beautiful Eagle Ray circling the Bommie. The White Tip Reef sharks and Turtles were feeling very bold today, and hung around for the entire time we were there. We finished off the week with two dives at Century Bay/ Flare Point. Between dives number three and four our fun-loving guests participated in our "abandon ship" drill. We finished the evening with one of Drew's amazing barbecues and some drinks on the sundeck. I'd like to say a big thank you to the whole group for making it a fantastic trip. Cheers! Dayna

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Mon 7th March 2011 - Thu 10th March 2011 - (19) images

We started our trip with two lovely dives at Saxon Reef. We began by checking out Twin Peaks, and spent the following dive cruising around Turtle Bommie. After steaming up the Ribbons all of Monday night, we arrived at Ribbon Reef number 9 ¾ where we dove Pixie Wall. This was a very nice dive with some beautiful Lionfish. Our next location was Two Towers. Early on in the dive we encountered a very friendly sea snake. We also spotted some sleeping White Tip Reef Sharks, and the most massive Barracuda. The third dive we spent at a gorgeous little spot called Acropolis. We rarely dive Acropolis, so it was a nice treat to dive this beautiful patch consisting of very healthy plates, and staghorn coral. Afterwards we moved on to Challenger Bay for our afternoon and night dive. Challenger Bay was absolutely packed with fish life on both dives. I think the highlight of the trip would have to be un-dive related, for a change. We had a massive flock of migratory Brown Noddy Terns and Sooty Terns come find the boat for shelter. It was absolutely magical to watch thousands upon thousands of birds circling the boat. When we stepped on to the dive deck the terns even landed on our heads. It was great fun!

Our final day of the trip, we started our dives at Lighthouse Bommie. The divers found a gorgeous Wobbegong shark hiding in a cave. Our second and third dives were spent at Cod Hole. The first dive was simply a cruise around to check out this gorgeous site. The second dive we had a very successful Cod feed. Four Cod turned up and entertained us, as they chased each other around the divers. Our last dive of the trip was at Snake Pit. From the boat we spotted Manta Rays leaping into the air! Underwater, the divers had a fantastic time playing with Olive Sea Snakes. We then celebrated one of our very special guest's fiftieth birthday with one of Andrew's fantastic barbecues! Thanks for a great trip. Hope to see you back soon! Dayna

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Thu 3rd March 2011 - Mon 7th March 2011 - (19) images

Once everyone was aboard Spirit of Freedom, it was time to leave Lizard Island and head to Ribbon Reef 9 ½ to a dive site called Pixie Gardens. For some, these were check out dives to get into the full swing of diving again. During the dives we spotted an array of interesting marine life, which included a plethora of blue lined snapper, one of the most common species of Great Barrier Reef. We spotted a few turtles and some seemed to be as curious as the diver facing it. We saw a large moray eel entangled within the coral bommie, a white tip reef shark resting in the sand and a pink anemone fish was found partially concealed among the tentacles of an anemone. A group of spotted sweetlips were also found lingering under the vault of a cavity in the reef, waiting for twilight to venture forth in search of benthic invertebrates on which they feed. All in all it was a great start to the trip and everyone was excited to wake up in the Coral Sea at Osprey Reef.

The water at Osprey is incredibly clear and you must continuously check your gauges to avoid being caught out going too deep. A diving enthusiast who sets out on a journey to the Coral Sea will certainly return home with beautiful images of this incredible submerged world. As you descend along the walls, gorgonians and soft corals gradually replace the hard corals. They become less dependent on the penetration of light and more dependent on the orientation of the substratum and the presence of currents. The gorgonians are magnificent and the constant water movement transports more nutrients in the water, so their branches grow bigger and denser. With clear blue water as a backdrop they make for some awesome photos.

During the first day at Osprey Reef we dived 4 different and saw an abundance of marine life. The shark feed was definitely a favourite and was the product of many great photos. The procedure is quite simple, once the divers are in place underwater, a perforated bin with a few tuna heads is pulled down beneath the surface. This inevitably attracts the sharks, who begin their frantic merry-go-round around the bin. Once everyone is ready an instructor pulls a rod, which opens the bin lid and releases the tuna heads on a chain a few meters high. This sends the sharks into a frenzy as they attack the tuna heads violently. The giant grouper, often called the potato cod, confidently approaches the tuna heads as well, fearless of the many sharks surrounding it. After 10-15min everything is quite once more.

After the sun had escaped into the dark blue ocean and the stars began to shine, it was time to sink beneath the waters surface for our night dive. The water becomes an uncanny tranquil environment as the nocturnal animals come out to play. During the dive we encountered, a sleeping baby blackspotted puffer, a large blue spotted puffer, a baby grey reef shark, a few white tips hunting, brittle stars and squirrelfish being hunted by giant trevallies in our torch light. Other interesting marine life included schooling baitfish a huge coral trout, a few sleeping parrotfish, many hermit crabs, small reef crabs in amongst finger corals and many other weird creepy crawlies. After our night dive it was time to relax with some wine and desert.

Even though when we awoke it was overcast with light showers the water clarity was crystal clear with up to 50m visibility. With such excellent visibility it wasn't hard to see the diversity of marine life the Coral Sea has to offer. Some of the divers were lucky enough to have a manta ray come up and greet them on dive one. Other marine life spotted through out the day included freckled-face hawkfish perched on the coral rocks, schooling barracuda and a school of big eyed trevally circling with crescent-tail big eye fish wanting to get apart of the action. Dart fish, randall's shrimp goby, white tip reef sharks and feather stars were also spotted through out the days diving. Some divers described the shallow reef as a "beautiful coral garden, with an abundance of colourful marine life".

During the last two dives of the day we spotted pyramid butterfly fish, vibrant angle fish, trumpet fish and unicorn fish.  Squirrelfish were hiding under the reef ledges avoiding predators and waiting for the sun to fall. Some divers were even lucky enough to find an unidentified scorpion fish and a couple of pipefish.
For the last day of the trip we dove on the Ribbon Reefs. The highlights during the day included spotting a few well-camouflaged stonefish, schools of snapper, schools of anthias that painted a rainbow in the water and some lizardfish displaying courtship. We also saw lionfish, napoleon wrasse, schools of big eyed trevally and barracuda, many different nudibranchs and different species of cartilaginous fish including the shark and ray. It was a great way to finish an awesome trip. The Aussie BBQ served with wines, finished with cheese and crackers just topped it all off.

Cheers for the company, hope to see you again.
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

Congratulations Ryszard, James and Jodi for completing your advanced course, well done!

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Mon 28th February 2011 - Thu 3rd March 2011 - (19) images

It was nice to escape the rain in Cairns and begin our Cod Hole and Ribbon Reef trip. We began our diving at an excellent site called ‘Caves' on Norman Reef. We had a few green turtles, a friendly napoleon wrasse, a red fin lionfish, blue lagoon stingray, a dancing flat worm, a wondering feather star and a school of baitfish. There was a multitude of different nudibranchs to be discovered, and some of our divers checked out the spectacular swim throughs and crevices that ‘Caves' has to offer. Colourful reef fish were in abundance on these first few dives with sightings of bicolour parrotfish, hawkfish, unicorn fish, angle fish, butterfly fish and many more vibrant friends flowing around us in the clear blue water. Some of the divers even discovered a white tip reef shark resting in the sand.

After an over night steam of 120 nautical miles we arrived at the world famous Cod Hole. Our first dive was an awesome way to wake up. During the dive we had some up close encounters with a whole variety of marine species including a black tip reef shark trying to sneak up behind one of the dive crew. There were also the massive potato cod getting ready for their breakfast by charging up to divers with hungry eyes. Also sighted were an amazing lacy scorpion fish, colourful nudibranchs, schools of surgeonfish and many white tip reef sharks.

Dive 2 was awesome with a high number of cod attending our feed. As always they put on a great show turning and weaving throughout the crowd as we got many fabulous pictures. The cod were coming out from everywhere and by the end we had 3 huge cod and 3 smaller ones each playing their equal part in the show. They even followed us all back to the boat to say goodbye. This dive is always a crowd pleaser and as usual didn't disappoint.

Dive 3 at Two Towers was another fantastic dive with plenty to see. Some of the marine life spotted included a school of yellow tail fusiliers, a school of blue lined snapper, a couple of huge barracuda, a curious reef shark and a couple of playful pipe fish.

Dive 4 was at Challenger Bay were some of the divers actively took park in helping collect data for an organisation called Eye on the Reef. During the dive they recorded the numbers of the different fish, reptiles and mammals they were seeing. They also recorded observations on the state of the coral. Overall it was a great experience and great to see people get involved. This data is very useful to our researches in order to help the Great Barrier Reef, and very much appreciated. Some of the species recorded included; barramundi cod, white tip reef shark, lionfish, triggerfish and a few different species of goby.

As the sun set into a golden glow on the horizon, our divers prepared for the last day of diving. We jumped in at about 7pm to see the transformation of Challenger Bay. Night-time brings some strange and unusual creatures out of their hidey holes on the Reef.  As we headed back to the mooring line, a herd of tiny baitfish sparkled under the glow of the boat, while a few onlooking White-tip and Grey Reef Sharks cruised around below us. What an awesome way to end a day of gorgeous diving. What will tomorrow's day of diving bring?

The first dive of the day at Pixie Pinnacle is always a crowd pleaser with good visibility on the top of the tide. The divers where impressed with the number of lionfish they saw which included 2 different type, the common and indian. The file flame shell was also neat as electrical waves passed through it. We also saw a noto doris nudibranch, great australian cuttlefish and banded anemone shrimp.

Second dive was at a site called Rod's Rock, the visibility was alittle down but there was still plenty to see. We managed to find 4 different types of nudibranch, a huge school blue lined snapper getting spooked by some giant trevally and some photogenic gorgonian fans. Some divers even spotted a huge sea snake and a turtle enjoying a lazy day cruising the reef.

The third dive was at the very popular site called Snake Pit. During the dive, 5 eagle rays were spotted along with a giant moray eel. Other interesting marine life included some long sea whips, barracuda, a few different species of angle fish and some beautiful looking nudibranchs.

The last dive of the day was at Black Coral Bommie. This site is truly amazing and gets its name from all the black coral that can be seen there. Black corals (Antipatharia) are a group of deep water, tree-like corals related to sea anemones, which normally occur in the tropics. Being an eco friendly boat, it was excellent to see everyone passively observing the coral and not having an negative impact on it. Through conservation and education other will also be able to dive with the natural beauty. The last dive was a great way to finish an awesome trip.

Cheers for coming and hope to see you aboard again sometime.
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

Well done to Pascal and Olivier for completing their advanced open water course, great achievement.

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Thu 24th February 2011 - Mon 28th February 2011 - (20) images

Due to a bit of rain down South in Cairns, our passengers flying in to join us at Lizard Island got an extra long tour of the Great Barrier reef from the sky. We were slightly delayed, but we managed squeeze in one dive on Thursday, and that one dive was spent at the world famous Codhole! Therefore, our new passengers got to enjoy our flagship dive of the three-day trip and hang out with the massive Potato Cod. After our dive, we had some dinner and then headed out to the Coral Sea.

We woke up Friday morning at the most Northern Tip of Osprey Reef. The weather was absolutely beautiful. We had fantastic blue sky, sun, and no wind. We did a live drop up Blue Marlin Wall (the East Wall) on North Horn. It was a fantastic dive to introduce our passengers to the infamous walls and clear blue water of Osprey Reef. Our second dive was our always-exciting shark feed. The grey reef sharks absolutely loved it, and devoured the bait. Conveniently, one of the Tuna heads got stuck in the top of the bin and they just could not get at it. It was a shame for them, but they were persistent and stayed around for quite a while trying to get at the head. It meant more time for us to observe these phenomenal creatures.

After the Shark feed we did another live drop up the Soft Coral (or Western) wall. Soft Coral wall is definitely one of our best dive sites, and today it certainly did not disappoint. We moved on to Admiralty for our afternoon and night dives. The visibility was absolutely gorgeous. Standing on the boat we were able to make out coral formations on the 30-metre bottom.

On Saturday morning the boat crew got up extra early to bring us to a phenomenal site that we rarely get to do, called Rapid Horn. Rapid Horn is on the most Southern tip of Osprey Reef, and was voted the best dive of the trip. As one passenger came up and so eloquently put it, "That dive was bitchin'"! We had a deep wall, crystal clear blue water, colourful soft corals, and on top of it about ten Grey Reefies and four Silver Tips checking us out. One of the Silver Tips was just a teenager, and was certainly showing off in front of the divers, cruising in very quickly then turning off. He wasn't threatening; he just seemed to be playing! After Rapid Horn we made our way back up towards False Entrance. We stopped part way up the wall and jumped in for a dive at Fan Ledge. We moved up to False Entrance for our last two dives at Osprey Reef. The visibility at False Entrance was outstanding! The water was so blue it was practically purple! We tucked in to an early dinner, and an early night to steam back to the Ribbons.

Sunday was a bit of an exploratory day to finish off our trip. We decided to try a different site named Gorgonian Bommie. We rarely dive this secret Bommie as the numerous fans on it are absolutely untouched, and we would like to keep it that way. As we had a small group of experienced, environmentally conscious, and just downright fabulous guests, we decided to give it a shot. It was a very beautiful and very deep dive. On his safety stop, one of our guests spotted a gorgeous little Ornate Ghost Pipe Fish! We then moved on to our tried and true Steve's Bommie. After Steve's Bommie we moved to Flare Point, so our guests could have a nice shallow dive and snorkel for those that were flying the following day. For the very last dive we had only a few guests participating. Therefore, we decided to take them in a tender, drop them off on the bottom of Ribbon Reef # 2, and let them go exploring. They thought that was great fun and so did we!

With that, we wrapped up the trip with a yummy barbecue and some drinks. Always a great way to finish a great trip! Thanks guys! Dayna

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Mon 21st February 2011 - Thu 24th February 2011 - (20) images

We had a small, but entertaining group of guests on board this trip. Our passengers got their first look at the Great Barrier Reef at a dive site called Magic Wall on Saxon Reef. Magic Wall is a beautiful site, with many brand new baby fish sprouting up. Firstly, we saw a baby Lionfish, and then a baby black and white snapper, both only about an inch long. Very cute!

On Tuesday we started our dives at Wonderwall and Wonderland, where amongst the beautiful coral we saw some big Grey Reefies cruising around in the distance. As the weather was so gorgeous and the winds were so light, we spent our third dive in the Coral Sea, on the outer side of Challenger Bay (Ribbon Reef' # 10). We explored a very nice dive site called Garden's Edge. For the afternoon and evening dive, we snuck back into the reef and dove at Challenger Bay. Challenger Bay was absolutely full of fish life. The night dive brought out quite a few grey reefies and some massive Barracuda, who were hunting just at the back of the boat.

Wednesday morning we awoke at Lighthouse Bommie, where we swam with Turtles, and Sea Snakes. The second and third dives were spent at Codhole. The first dive we went for a nice relaxing meander through the coral gardens. The third dive we got ready for our (always entertaining), Cod Feed! Today the bigger Potato Cod were spending so much time chasing each other around that our little guy came right in and was the star of the show. The smaller of the Potato Cod, isn't quite as well trained when it comes to the whole routine. He started off a bit feisty, but settled down and put on a fantastic performance. I think the bigger cod are going to need to worry about this little guy stealing their jobs! After the feed we had our final dive at the wonderful Snake Pit. At Snake Pit, we bumped into our old friend, the gigantic Loggerhead turtle!

We dropped the lines cruised into Lizard Island to have some drinks, a BBQ and watch the sun set.

Fantastic trip, thanks very much. Dayna

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Thu 17th February 2011 - Mon 21st February 2011 - (21) images

To start this fantastic Coral Sea trip off we completed 2 dives at Ribbon Reef # 10 at a dive site called Lighthouse Bommie. During the dives we saw mantis shrimp, a hawkfish, pipefish and large schools of big-eyed trevally and blue lined snapper. We also encountered a common lionfish, a few nudibranchs and a hawksbill turtle. Was a great start to the trip before we heading out to the Coral Sea.

On day 2 we woke up at Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea. Osprey Reef is a region which boasts astonishing biodiversity. Here the water is usually extraordinarily clear, and the reefs are characterised by dramatic vertical outer walls, abundant pelagics, and lagoon bommies (isolated coral heads or small reefs) festooned with soft corals and gorgonians. Some of the creatures that make this reef home are rare elsewhere. The first dive of the day was at a site called North Horn. Here we saw a notodoris minor (type of nudibanch), egg cowrie shell, giant trevally's, sea whips and a black- spotted porcupinefish. Some were even lucky to spot a 4m great hammerhead! Some other interesting marine life spotted throughout the dive included some massive coral trout, a school of 30+ barracuda, blue fined trevally and a huge potato cod.

Dive 2 was our famous shark feed at North Horn. This dive was epic with plenty of different species of shark turning up for some easy food. Some these shark species included white tips, black tips and grey reef sharks. It made for great pictures as around 20 sharks aggressively tried to detach some tuna heads from the chain. Some succeeded, while others went home hungry. We also spotted a common lionfish which is a type of scorpionfish. It obtains its name from the venomous fin spines. The dive was unreal with many regarding it as one of the highlights of the trip.

Dive 3 was at the 3 sisters. At the bottom of the descent line were a group of white tips resting on the sandy bottom. It is sometimes said that sharks must keep moving in order to breath or sink to the bottom and drown, but this is only partly true. Some sharks, such as the white tip are able to rest on the sea floor and pump water over their gills, where they extract the oxygen it contains. They open their mouth, expand the walls of the pharynx, and cause water to rush in. By closing the mouth and raising the floor, the water is propelled over the gills and out through the gill slits. Clever sharks they are! We also saw some long trumpet fish and diverse coral coverage.

Dive 4 and 5 were at a site called Admiralty. During the 4th dive we saw some threadfin butterfly fish, some charismatic damsel fish and a plethora of christmas tree worms in many vibrant colours. We also spotted a couple of purple sea squirts, a type of tunicate with two openings. If removed from the sea the tunicate will contract and squirt out water hence common name of sea squirt.

The reef at Admiralty becomes an uncanny tranquil at night- time. After a delicious dinner, we headed back down to check out the nightlife. There was plenty to see as a school of hump headed parrot fish gracefully swam by. Many crustaceans displayed themselves such as hermit crabs, coral crabs and tiny shrimp. The coral polyps were feeding and the feather stars were dancing. A curious porcupinefish also came to have a look at the strange metal objects expelling air into the water column. After the dive it was time to relax and enjoy some desert with a glass of wine. What a great day of diving!

After a beautiful sunrise and some healthy breakfast it was time to dive. 1st dive of the day was at a site called around the bend. Oh my god, what a dive! The viz was a perfect 35m+ which made the marine life effortless to discover, and looking down a 1000m+ wall was just spectacular. If only every dive could be like this. During the dive we encountered a school of humpheaded parrot fish and needle fish, a black tip reef shark cruising along the wall and a white tip reef shark resting in the sand. The wall was covered in vibrant hard corals, sea whips, gorgonian fans and lushes soft coral. With a crystal clear blue backdrop it lit up the abundance of colourful reef fish in the water.

After our 2nd breakfast we headed to the most southern point of Osprey called Rapid Horn. With the viz staying at a consistent 30m+ it makes every dive magnificent. During this dive we spotted a curious black tip reef shark that came right up to the divers to check them out before headed back into the abyss. We also saw 100's of what looked like to be coral bream. In amongst the school were blue lined snapper and rabbitfish. After many hours of trying to look up the exact fish we have come to no conclusion. Someone even spotted a unidentified scorpion fish. Very cool!

For the 3rd and 4th dive we headed south to Shark Reef. This was a special occasion as we only dive here a few times a year, as the conditions have to be perfect. The visibility was 80-90metres and just looked out of this world. This was diving as good as it gets. There are not many divers that can say they have dived in such pristine dive conditions, so I count myself lucky. The water was very inviting with lots to see. Nisus and arc-eye hawkfish, longfin banner fish, regal and emperor angelfish and a vermiculate rabbitfish were all spotted on the dive. We also saw reef sharks, box fish, 2 star puffer's kissing and a stingray lying in the sand. Some of the divers spotted a family of painted crays popping their heads out of their homes to say hi. There was barracuda, trevally, nudibranchs, hard coral, soft coral, rays, scorpion fish and the list just goes on. This ways a great way to end a fantastic day of diving. After the diving it was time for our guests to enjoy a drink or two as the sun went down for the day.

During the night we steamed to Bougainville Reef where completed the last 4 dives of our trip. This dive trip evolved into an epic saga of diving. The water was crystal clear and the 1000m walls were teaming with life. During the day we saw clown triggerfish, mackerel, barracuda, moorish idols, a juvenile scorpion fish, parrotfish, butterfly fish, hawkfish, puffer fish and nudibranchs. We all saw plenty of sharks, a marble stingray, triggerfish, surgeonfish, a giant moray eel and walls covered in pristine soft and hard corals.
This had to be one of the best trips I have been involved in quite awhile!
Cheers for sharing the experience, and see ya under the water sometime.
Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

Congratulations to Nick Smith for completing your Nitrox Course. Great achievement.

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Mon 14th February 2011 - Thu 17th February 2011 - (20) images

Day one of our Cod Hole and Ribbon Reef trip was beautiful and sunny, and we began our diving at an excellent site called ‘Caves' on Norman Reef. We had Turtles, Nemo's and a friendly Napoleon Wrasse all waiting to meet us as we headed down the mooring line. There was a multitude of different Nudibranchs to be discovered, and some of our divers checked out the spectacular swim throughs and crevaces that ‘Caves' has to offer. Colourful reef fish were in abundance on these first few dives, with Yellow Masked Angelfish, Bicolour Parrotfish, Griddled Cardinal Fish and many more vibrant friends flowing around us in the clear blue water.

You couldn't jam more action filled excitement into day 2 even if you tried. I mean this day was bloody awesome, it was the stuff post cards are made from. Dive one was the supporting act before we had the main performance, the Cod Feed. During the first dive we encountered a few Potato Cod eagerly awaiting for their lunch, a feather star going for a morning walk and a grey and white tip reef shark. There was also many different species of sea cucumber including the thelenota anax also known as the amberfish sea cucumber, a school of Moorish Idols and yes the hunt is over, we found Nemo!

The Cod Feed was epic, with a special thanks to the 5 cod putting on a great show; we definitely got our money's worth. They were darting in and out of the crowd as they danced for their supper. They were so photogenic as they displayed their charismatic personalities. As an encore a free-swimming giant moray come out to play along with a few reef sharks. Now that's what I call entertainment!

The 3rd dive was at Rod's Rock were we saw a trumpet fish, a green sea turtle, a few white tip reef sharks and a long olive sea snake. As the day went on the conditions just got better and better. Our 4th dive was at Challenger Bay, and as one diver put it, "It was like swimming in a tropical fish tank." With 25m+ visibility, it wasn't hard to see the numerous Titan Triggerfish guarding the mooring line, along with some huge schools of Blue lined Snapper, and some friendly giants like the Hump-headed Napoleon Wrasse, Barramundi Cod and the Green Turtle. One group of divers was lucky enough catch a glimpse of some graceful Eagle Rays off the edge of the reef, while others took the opportunity of such gorgeous conditions, to pose for photos and capture memories of the thriving corals and colourful fish.

The reef at Challenger Bay becomes an uncanny tranquil at night- time. After a delicious dinner, we headed back down to check out the nightlife. The stingrays came out to prey for food beneath the sand, and a parade of crustaceans could be observed hunting in the moonlight. Some Lionfish were spotted along with a huge free-swimming Moray Eel, with a gang of its friends, including some Giant Trevallies and Red Bass. As the many sets of green eyes in the distance came closer and closer, the predators using our torchlights to hunt their prey could be easily identified as Grey Reef Sharks and White Tip Reef Sharks, topping off our last dive of the day with an eerie excitation.

The last day of the trip was not to disappoint with an array of marine life awaiting us. Dive one was at pixie pinnacle were we saw lionfish, a file flame shell and schools of surgeon and unicorn fish. We also spotted a curious mantis shrimp, a flowery cod and schools of anthias of all different vibrant colours making an underwater rainbow. For dive 2 we headed to a site called Two Towers. On the dive we witnessed huge schooling blue lined snapper, a spanish mackerel darting through a school of bait fish, a school of 100+ tuna rounding up bait fish in the blue and a huge Bull Shark joined the feeding frenzy. It was going off!
Dive 3 was at Snake Pit where we got to see a few olive sea snakes up close and personal. It seemed that those who didn't want to see them couldn't get rid of them with some nervous divers eyeing one off as he followed them for the whole dive. Snake Pit never disappoints and it was no different this time with sightings of a Manta Ray, a huge Bull Ray and a couple of turtles.

Some were sad to see the last dive of the day arrive, especially as there was so much activity in the water. We headed to black coral bommie. This site is truly amazing and gets its name from all the black coral that can be seen there. Black corals (Antipatharia) are a group of deep water, tree-like corals related to sea anemones which normally occur in the tropics. Though black coral's living tissue is brilliantly colored, it takes its name from the distinctive black or dark brown colour of its skeleton. The skeletons from Black corals are common in jewellery and are the Hawaiian national gem. The living corals are considerable rarer then their skeletons that are used in jewels. The collection of black corals for use in the jewellery industry as well as for other uses such as nature medicine has caused the Black coral populations to diminished. It is such a great opportunity to see so much of it in its natural surroundings and looking so healthy. Being a eco friendly boat, it was excellent to see everyone passively observing the coral and not having an negative impact on it. Through conservation and education other will also be able to dive with the natural beauty.
Well everyone, this was a fantastic trip. The diving was awesome and it was great to have you all aboard to share the experience. Also this week I would like to give a big cheers to Sammy one of our new team members for helping out with our trip report. Yeeeeow! See you all again sometime under the water.
Take it easy, Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

Well done to Andrew Kane, Jean Luc and Ruben Donkervoort who completed their advanced course. Keep up the diving! Congratulations to Lindsey O'Farriell who completed her nitrox course, great start to your technical dive career.

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Thu 10th February 2011 - Mon 14th February 2011 - (19) images

For our 4 day Coral Sea trip, our A1 Scuba group from America was joined by a group of 14 Japanese, and a couple from New York, on their honeymoon. All got along very well, and were friendly, chatty, and entertaining even with the minor language barrier!

We began our dives with two at Pixie Gardens. Pixie Gardens was a lovely dive, with the water starting to get a bit clearer and the coral looking strong and healthy. We did some orientation dives for the newcomers, and then set off to play with the big stuff out at Osprey reef.

One complimentary roller coaster ride, and we arrived at the very tip of Osprey, North Horn. The conditions at North Horn were so beautiful we decided to stay at this amazing dive site for three dives. Our first dive was a tender drop up the "Blue Marlin" (East) wall. The visibility at Osprey was fantastic, and the coral managed to remain untouched even after our cyclone friend Yasi came by for a visit. We had a great first dive with many very large Dogtoothed Tuna coming in to have a look at the divers. As we came towards the end of the dive, we went down to the point to admire "Tracy's Plaque" and turned around to see a Tiger Shark swimming towards us! He was just a curious little guy, about 3- 4 meters long. He swam towards us, and then decided we weren't very tasty looking so swam off into the blue. It was an awesome experience!

Our shark feed has seen better days. We're not sure whether it was the Tiger shark that scared them off, or the live bait on the surface quite far from the boat, but the grey reefies just weren't interested in our Tuna heads this week. We had two White tips and three massive Potato Cod steal the show, and munch on the heads instead. For the third dive we took tenders again and were dropped up the "Soft Coral Wall", which is always a fantastic dive. A few grey reefies had returned and were circling around in the current. We finished our dives with an afternoon and night dive at Admiralty, where we explored the cave and the gorgeous corals.

Saturday we started the day with a dive at "Around the Bend". The current was pumping, so it brought out tons of sharks to play with. We couldn't quite make him out, but one of the instructors swears there was a hammerhead in amongst them! After ATB we moved on to Castles, for a nice easy and pretty dive after our excitement in the morning. A couple of the group from A1 were lucky enough to see a Hammerhead shark swimming just below them down in the deep. We went to "False Entrance" for our third dive of the day. False Entrance is always a pretty dive, with its beautiful purple and yellow soft corals on the wall, and nice pretty coral in the lagoon. We saw a Potato Cod at Falsey, which was a pleasant surprise considering the big guys don't usually hang around at that spot. Our last dive at Osprey was at the Gap. Where the majority of the divers were lucky enough to see a Manta Ray cruise by!

After our successful Osprey trip, we packed up and returned to the Ribbons. Sunday morning we dove Steve's Bommie first thing. Steve's Bommie was absolutely beautiful, with grey sharks hanging around in the distance, and turtles, stonefish, and Mantis Shrimp all around the Bommie. Our Japanese instructor even found a baby Leaf Scorpionfish, which is fantastic news because his parents have been missing for quite a few months now. We finished the trip with some nice dives at Flare Point/ Century bay, and then partied the night away with a great Aussie BBQ.

Thanks for a great trip. Hope to see you back soon! Dayna

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Mon 7th February 2011 - Thu 10th February 2011 - (19) images

We had a wonderful bunch of brave sailors join us for the Cod Hole portion of our trip. Our hardy sailors included a lovely group from A1 Scuba, in Colorado, as well as many other guests from all over the planet. We began with two checkout dives at Norman Reef, Caves. After working out all the kinks, we hunkered down for the night steam up to the to of the Ribbon Reefs.

We began our dives on Tuesday at the wonderful Two Towers. It was a fantastic dive, and almost felt like swimming through a planned out underwater zoo. We first came across our turtle section; where two Green Turtles and one Hawksbill turtle were hanging out together. We then moved on to the shark section; where we found a big grey reefy and a substantially sized white tip as well. Later on we stumbled upon the sea snake section of the dive site, where we encountered two rather large and one rather small sea snake cruising around together. It was quite a special dive. We left Two Towers and moved up to the world famous Codhole for two dives. We enjoyed two pretty dives at Codhole simply exploring all that this wonderful site had to offer. After the Codhole we had an afternoon and night dive at Challenger Bay. The giant Trevallies and sharks on the night dive were particularly active. The Giant Trevallies gave a few of the guests a bit of a fright as they bumped into them while chasing a fish!

The following morning we started the day with a dive at Pixie Wall. At Pixie Wall our guests stumbled upon a beautiful Cuttlefish. For dive two and three we explored the pinnacles. We started with Pixie Pinnacle and moved on to Lighthouse Bommie. Both were extremely popular sites with many sea snakes and turtles to entertain the guests. We finished off with the grand finale of dives: the Snake Pit. Snake Pit was voted the favourite dive site of the trip. Which is not very surprising considering our fortunate guests spent most of the dive with not one but two Manta Rays! What a way to end the trip!

Thanks guys! Dayna

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Thu 27th January 2011 - Mon 31st January 2011 - (19) images

For our Coral Sea trip we had quite a few passengers staying on from the Codhole section of the journey. We also had a group from Melbourne that join us frequently. Therefore, our little family were all feeling well at home for this portion of the trip. We began with our orientation dives at -as one of our passengers put it- "la crème de la crème", the Codhole! While our newly arrived guests sorted out their new gear and buoyancy, the guests who had been on the boat for the last three days went for a drift dive around the corner. We had two dives playing with the massive Potato Cod, then battened down the hatches, early to bed and steamed out to Osprey.

We were very lucky to sneak in one day at Osprey; the low-pressure systems held off just long enough to let us have our fun with the sharkies! We began our day with a dive at False Entrance. With great visibility the divers enjoyed the steep walls, beautiful soft corals and even a Hammerhead! After False Entrance we went to North Horn. As no boats had been out to feed the poor little guys in a while, the sharks were all circling around the shark feed area, extremely excited for show time! Our next dive, we gave them exactly what they were looking for, a bin full of Tuna heads... yum, yum! They rewarded us with a fantastic performance! After our thrilling morning at North Horn, we went to Admiralty. We only expected to sneak in one dive at Admiralty, but yet again, the weather held back, and our guests got to enjoy an afternoon and a night dive at this gorgeous dive site.

Saturday morning, we awoke to find ourselves back in the Ribbon Reefs. We started with a dive at Two Towers. As always, Two Towers provided a great dive for our guests. Afterwards we went to the very pretty Pixie Gardens. Our third dive was spent at The Monolith, a nudibranch's paradise. We decided to hold a Nudibranch finding competition, due to the sheer number of nudis that live there. Congratulations to our two winners! Our last dive of the day was spent at Princess Palace, where our adventurous divers had a great time getting back to the boat!

On Sunday we continued our dive adventures at Steve's Bommie. The guests enjoyed two great dives at Steve's, hunting for Stonefish, Mantis shrimp and hundreds of other little treasures that this fantastic dive site holds. In the afternoon, we finished off our Coral Sea trip with dives at Flare Point and Century Bay. Two great, and pretty dive sites to finish the trip with. We had a final evening together, which we celebrated with a good old fashion Aussie BBQ! Thanks for the great trip! Dayna

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Mon 24th January 2011 - Thu 27th January 2011 - (19) images

Our small group of passengers certainly lucked out on the weather for our three day Codhole Trip. The sun was shining, the winds were light, and the reef looked absolutely fantastic. We began our dives at Saxon Reef just off of Cairns. We explored Coral Gardens and Turtle Bommie. Fortunately, the sites lived up to their names and provided many turtles and colourful coral for our guests' entertainment.

The following day we began moved up to Ribbon Reef number 9 ¾ to continue our dives at the Pixie Patch. We started with a dive at Pixie Wall, where we saw a beautiful school of hundreds of Bumphead Parrotfish. Our next dive was a wonderful, relaxing drift dive along the wall at Pixie Caves. There was a gorgeous Cuttlefish hanging out amongst the coral. He was practically posing for photographs. We finished off our exploration of the Pixie Patch with a dive at Pixie Pinnacle. There seemed to be even more Lionfish lurking around the bommie then usual. We did our afternoon and evening dives at Challenger Bay. On the night dive at Challenger the passengers reported they had seen numerous free-swimming, Polyclad flatworms.
On our last day of the Codhole portion of our trip, we began with a dive at Lighthouse Bommie. Our very friendly turtle was feeling particularly sociable. He stayed around the divers and posed quite nicely for some photos. The guests were also delighted that they got to spend some time under water with the Olive Sea Snakes. After Lighthouse, we ventured over to the world famous Codhole. We had one dive simply exploring the fantastic site, and then we had a Cod feed. The dominant cod was very hungry and eagerly took the pilchards while keeping a close eye on the smaller cod, which was trying to sneak in for a freebie. Our final dive of the trip was at Snake Pit. Our brave divers were rewarded for all their efforts with a massive turtle, sea snakes, and a Manta ray that stayed around for half an hour of the dive.

After all of our great diving we celebrated Australia Day, as we should, with a big Aussie BBQ and some beers! Happy Australia Day everyone!!!
Dayna

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Thu 20th January 2011 - Mon 24th January 2011 - (20) images

The first dives of our 4-day trip were at Ribbon Reef # 10 at a site called Cathedrals. There was plenty to see on these dives including schools of rainbow runner, a common lionfish, a minor notodoris, a couple of inquisitive black tip reef sharks, trumpet fish and a small school of blue lined snapper.

Throughout day 2 we dived 4 different sites along Ribbon # 10. We manged to dive some sites that were hardly dived and it showed with such a great diversity of healthy soft and hard corals. Some of the many marine species spotted during the dives included, a spotted unicorn fish, a dwarf lionfish, barracuda, 3 humungous queensland groupers, 1 white and silver tip reef shark, 2 painted crayfish, a large school of giant trevally, pristine coral coverage, clown triggerfish, schools of anthias, 5 or so curious blacktip reef sharks and a silvertip charging through a bait ball. We also saw turtles, red bass, toby fish and a few stingrays. The day was action packed with many awesome dives.

After a good nights sleep, day 3 had arrived and it was time to dive. Diiiivvvvve Time! The day brought us epic diving along the Ribbon Reefs. We saw a moray eel, barracuda, spectacular reef walls full of fans, whips and the coral was just stunning. We also witnessed parrotfish, butterfly fish, surgeonfish, yellow tail fusilier and even coral polyps having some breakfast. Great start to our day. We also spotted throughout the day a starry puffer, a coronation grouper, a school of giant trevally, dash- dot goatfish, threadfin butterfly fish, stripped surgeonfish, vlaming's unicornfish, moorish idols and a face fox. There was also an adult and juvenile freckled porcupinefish that I watched for ages. The adult kept going into his home and the juvenile would follow then the adult would chase him back out, this happened more then 10 times, highly amusing!

For nudibranch lover's day 3 had a few photo opportunities with sighting of a black protaeolidiella, a black- margined glossodoris, a heron ardeadoris, aphyllidiella pustulosa and a minor notodoris. Good luck trying to pronounce them, luckily they are easier on the eyes then they are on the mouth. To finish off the day we sighted a tawny nurse shark, common lionfish and a unique sea cucumber that burries itself in the sand with its tentacles exposed. It uses its tentacles to pass food to its mouth. Was a sight to see.

Day 4 had arrived on us all to soon. To finish off a great trip of diving we saw stonefish, dolphins, reef sharks, nudibranchas, and surgeonfish. The trip brought us many different species of marine organisms and the divers were seeing something new on every dive. Every night we would get together, open up the marine books and discuss all the interesting things we saw. It's amazing how many organisms call the Ribbon Reefs home. I had a great trip.

Keep diving and see you under the water sometime,
Signing off, Chris Haslam (Trip director)

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Mon 17th January 2011 - Thu 20th January 2011 - (19) images

This trip had it all, pinnacles, walls, bays, bommies and drift dives. We started the trip off easy with a couple of check out dives on Norman Reef at a site called Caves. While some were getting their feet back and brushing up on their diving skills the more adventurous were exploring some neat swim throughs. Some of the highlights on the dives included doing a safety stop with not 1 but 3 turtles. They were so graceful in the water and we both seemed to enjoy each other's company. We also spotted some vibrant angelfish, a couple of spotted sweet lip, a couple of huge mackeral darting in and out of the blue water and a few parrotfish munching on the reef. Oh and some of the divers even spotted an eagle ray, half your luck. What a great way to start the trip. After everyone was back into the full swing of diving it was time to up the ante on our diving adventure.

The next morning we arrived at Ribbon Reef # 3 and dived some of the best sites the Great Barrier Reef has to offer. During the day we saw a plethora of different marine organisms including stonefish, schools of anthias, white tip reef sharks, huge schools of big eyed trevally and barracuda. During the day we also saw tones of rainbow runners that were darting for the sand and giving themselves a quick rub against it. I assume this was to get rid of any parasites that had decided to make themselves at home. Through out the day we slowly voyaged throughout the ribbon reefs stopping to do some dives at Ribbon # 5. While diving a few different sites we encountered a flat worm, many speckled sandperch, various blennies, nudibranchs, blackside hawkfish, lionfish, trumpet fish, huge giant clams, lizard fish, tubeworms, unicorn fish, pufferfish and much much more. There is just so much to see on the Great Barrier Reef it's impossible to name them all.

After day 2 we steamed up to Ribbon # 10 to complete the 3rd day of diving, and what a day it was. We started with a drift dive at the famous cod hole. Man what a cool dive, these cod were huge and so chilled. We got many awesome photos. While swimming around not only were we impressed by the cod but also the number of sharks. We managed to get up close and personnel with a few which got the adrenalin pumping. Other interesting organisms we spotted throughout the day included a few engrossed sea snakes that loved to come and play with the divers, and whether the divers wanted to play with them was another story. We also saw a beautiful sea pen, some chilled turtles, a really vibrant boxfish, a leather jack, some moorish idols, a starry pufferfish, schools of blue linned snapper, some ugly looking titan triggerfish and tonnes of healthy soft and hard corals in every colour of the rainbow. Oh and the manta ray and huge barracuda schools seen of the last dive were pretty cool too.

I hope everyone enjoyed his or her trip aboard Spirit of Freedom, as it was a pleasure having you onboard.
Keep connected to the ocean, and hope to see you underwater again soon.
Signing off, Chris Haslam (Trip Director)

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Thu 13th January 2011 - Mon 17th January 2011 - (20) images

We had a lovely group of guests on board. Just under half of our passengers were from Japan and the other half were from England, Canada, Austria and the USA. As the winds were being a bit unpredictable, our group of adventurous guests got to experience many brand new dive sites in the Ribbon Reefs. We were unable to go to Osprey, due to cyclone Zelia threatening to head that way, therefore, our ever-positive guests were rewarded with some amazing exploration dives and three extra night dives.

We began the trip with the usual check out dives at Pixie Gardens. Then dove it again in the dark, after dinner. Pixie Gardens is always a wonderful dive, and at night it is home to many creatures we don't see as much of during the day. The number of free-swimming morays was absolutely phenomenal!

The next morning we started the exploration adventure with a dive on (what the passengers have named) "Freedom Wall", just across from Challenger Bay. This was an absolutely gorgeous wall; it resembled our "Blue Marlin" Wall at North Horn out at Osprey. Just as we were thinking how like the Osprey Wall it was, a massive Dog-toothed tuna swam by. After leaving Freedom Wall we moved on to a site we rarely get to see, Vertical Gardens. Vertical Gardens is in a protected bay, therefore, it made for a fantastic, current-free dive with thousands upon thousands of fish and beautiful untouched coral. We then moved on to an old favourite Pixie Pinnacle. As always, the guests came up raving about how gorgeous a dive site it is. We went to another new site named Geisha Gardens for our afternoon and night dive. Let's just say, we will definitely be returning to that spot for night dives! We saw many sharks, including a Silver tip! The sharks were very inquisitive and came right up to the divers.

The following day we woke up to find ourselves at Ribbon Reef number 5, where the adventure continued. We started the dives at Andy's Postcard. Andy's Postcard is a large pinnacle absolutely covered with fish! There was a bit of current, but nothing unmanageable for our brave troops, it just brought in many more large predators, and made for an action-filled dive. After Andy's we went to a spot we've never been to before, named the Blowhole. Entitled "The Blowhole" due to a massive cave that starts at twenty meters and goes straight up to about six meters. On the exit of the cave we were a bit tentative to continue as eight Grey Reef sharks were circling the opening. We carried on through and realised they weren't looking for breakfast they were simply interested in what exactly these strange things blowing bubbles were! Our après lunch dive was at a great little spot called Permission Bommie, a very pretty bommie we dive very rarely. We then moved on to Clam Gardens for our afternoon and night dives. As the name would suggest, Clam Gardens was littered with beautiful, and enormous, Giant Clams.

On our last day of the trip, we went back to some of our tried and true dive sites. We began with the usual two dives at the, always popular, Steve's Bommie. Of course, the passengers emerged absolutely thrilled at all the creatures they'd found: Stonefish, Mantis Shrimp, and even two Wobbegong sharks. The afternoon was spent at Flare Point/Century Bay, where we enjoyed some shallow, calm, yet very pretty dives. We ended our trip with one of our chef's delicious barbecues.

Thanks for the great trip guys. Dayna

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Mon 10th January 2011 - Thu 13th January 2011 - (20) images

I'd like to start off by saying WHALE SHARK!!! Yes, that's right! At Challenger Bay, just as we finished up our afternoon dive, a 6-metre whale shark swam right up to the boat. It was an absolutely exhilarating experience to be in the water with such a fantastic animal.

As far as the rest of the trip... we started our dives at the wonderful Jorgie's Patch in the outer reef. We had two beautiful orientation dives there, and two of our passengers were lucky enough to see a Manta Ray on their very first dive with us. We then packed up the dive deck and cruised up the Ribbons to Ribbon Reef number ten.

First dive of the morning was at Fish Market, where we did tender drops. Fish Market was an absolutely beautiful wall where the divers and snorkellers saw Devil Rays. We then crossed the channel for a couple of dives at the world famous Codhole. The conditions were a little bit difficult, but our brave divers and snorkellers powered through and had an excellent time exploring this fantastic dive site. The Potato Cod turned up fashionably late for the feed, but came just in time to put on a great show for our guests. We finished the afternoon with dives at Challenger Bay, where, (as you all ready know, but I'll just mention it again!) we saw a Whale Shark! After all the excitement, we tucked in to bed so that we could be fresh the following morning and enjoy another full day of diving.

On Wednesday we had four dives at four different dives sites, we began the day with a dive at with the wonderful Two Towers. Then moved on to Lighthouse Bommie, where the divers saw many sharks. At Lighthouse the snokellers had a Sea Snake come all the way to the surface and follow them around! It was a delightful and terrifying experience for our brave snorkelling friends. I particularly liked when one young lady used me as a human shield! After our lovely dive at Lighthouse we moved on to Rod's Rock, which was buzzing with fish life. We finished our fabulous Codhole trip with a dive the gorgeous dive site, Snake Pit. It was a beautiful dive with some very entertaining Batfish and Olive Sea Snakes that followed us around for the entire dive.

Great trip guys. Thank you.

Dayna

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Thu 6th January 2011 - Mon 10th January 2011 - (20) images

We started this trip off with 2 check out dives at Pixie Gardens. Such a beautiful site and with good visibility there was plenty to see. On the 2 dives we saw a huge humphead wrasse, flatworm, lionfish, giant moray eel, garden eels, randall's shrimp goby with alpheid shrimp, white tip reef sharks and much much more. Was an awesome start to the trip.

Day 2 was a pearler of a day for diving. The visibility was between 15 to 20m and we participated in many different types of diving, including drift dives out of tenders, wall dives to pinnacles. During the day we saw a plethora of different marine animals. Some of the highlights included, reef sharks, olive sea snakes, green turtles, 3 huge potato cod, flatworm, a soft coral and arrowhead crab, a cowry shell, cleaner and black coral shrimps, titian triggerfish, bat fish, lion fish, vibrant soft and hard corals, schools of blue linned snapper, barracuda and trevally. Things were truly in full steam for our diving trip.

We dived a variety of sites on day 3 which included walls and pinnacles. The following is some of the marine life we spotted on the dives; spotted, black- blotched porcupinfish, inornate chelidonura nudibranch, yellow stripe goatfish, blue triggerfish, whip goby and red breasted wrasse, mantis shrimp, orangespine unicorn fish, clown triggerfish, 6 lionfish, blue aqua coral tree, brownbanded pipe fish, juvenile lionfish, turtles, feather stars, giant clams, eagle ray and a few reef sharks including the silver and white tip. Unreal!!!

Everyone on the boat was an extreme dive enthusiast, with most not even missing a dive. As a special treat after the diving on day 3, we steamed overnight to Bougainville Reef. Bougainville Reef is some on the best diving the Coral Sea has to offer and not too many vessels get out that way. This means it's just you and the open ocean and some of the healthiest coral in the world. It was an awesome experience. 40m+ visibility with out of this world coral coverage and depths as far as the eye could see. The day had much to offer. The following is an array of some of the marine organisms sighted. Huge marble ray and grouper, schools of barracuda, butterfly fish, parrotfish, angelfish, turtle, schools of anthias and many reef sharks.

Congratulations to Phillip and Craig for completing there advanced course. Big applaud to Tilo and Gillian making their 200th dive aboard the spirit of freedom. Happy Birthday to Chad and Nicholas.

Cheers everyone for the positive feedback. The crew had an awesome trip and glad we could enjoy it with you. Awesome trip, thanks for being apart of it ,

Signing off, Chris (Trip Director)

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Mon 3rd January 2011 - Thu 6th January 2011 - (20) images

On day 1 we completed 2 dives on Norman Reef at a site called caves. To state the obvious the site gets it name from the large cave found near the boat at 14m. On the dive we saw, surgeonfish, a napoleon wrasse, butterfly fish, moorish idols and schools of yellow tail fusilier.

Day 2 we saw an array of marine life. Here is the list of what we saw; white tip and grey reef sharks, lacey scorpion fish, various nudibranchs, eels both garden and moray, both flowery and potato cod, schools of blue lined snapper, many spotted and diagonal banded sweetlips, spadefish, red bass, giant trevally, olive sea snakes, hawksbill sea turtle, a green turtle with a triton shell attached to its back, blue lagoon sting ray, common lionfish, napoleon wrasse, clown fish and many beautiful hard and soft corals. On the night dive we saw many crustaceans, 2 large reef sharks feeding in a large school of big-eyed trevally, red bass and coral feeding. Also congratulations to Annette for completing her 100th dive, well done.

Day 3 started with 2 drift dives and drift snorkel at Dynamite Pass. The conditions were excellent with flat seas and great visibility. Marine life spotted on this dive included a flatworm, titan triggerfish, emperor and regal angelfish, boxfish, speckled sand perch, fire dart fish and a barramundi cod.

The last 2 dives were at Black Coral Bommie and Snake Pit. Marine life on these dives included; longnose hawkfish, butterfly fish, longfin spadefish, surgeon fish, arc eye hawkfish, harlequin tuskfish, blennies, olive sea snake, cuttle fish, barracuda, yellow tail fusilier, lion fish and a bumphead parrot fish.

There is just such a great diversity of marine life on the Ribbon Reefs it is hard to name them all. You see something new every dive, its awesome. Our dive team had a great time exploring the reefs and having many group discussions at the end of the dive about what creatures we all saw. I also enjoyed our chats on a number of topics including environmental issues that our world reefs face, your views on the fishing industry, whaling boats and mass dolphin slaughters. It is obvious that you to share my passion for the undersea world and want to make a positive change. I had a fantastic trip and thank you all for being a part of it.

Congratulations to Annette, Hideko and Ekuko on your 100th dive, impressive! Well done to Natasha and Kelly for completing your advanced course.

Thanks for all the kind words. We appreciate the positive feed back. It was a pleasure to have you aboard the Spirit of Freedom, hope we can enjoy it again sometime soon.Keep diving and I will see you under the water sometime, 

Signing off, Chris (Trip Director)

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