Spirit of Freedom - TRIP Gallery

Thu 3rd November 2011 - Mon 7th November 2011

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)

Phone :	+61 (0) 7 4047 9150
Fax :	+61 (0) 7 4047 9110
Email :
PO Box 1276, Cairns QLD 4870 Australia

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Spirit of Freedom - TRIP Gallery

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