Spirit of Freedom - TRIP Gallery

Thu 1st December 2011 - Mon 5th December 2011

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)

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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