Spirit of Freedom - TRIP Gallery

Thu 12th January 2012 - Mon 16th January 2012

Our 7-day passengers, Demelza & Craig, Orlaith and Sally were joined by our 2 new passengers at Lizard Island after our walk through the mangroves and up over Chinaman's Ridge. Spirit of Freedom left Watson's Bay with not a breath of wind blowing and the sun shining down on us as we headed to the Cod Hole for our afternoon dives. What a great start to the 4 Day Coral Sea trip with 2 dives at the Cod Hole where the big Potato Cod were probably quite surprised to see us again so soon! There were white tip reef sharks, grey reef sharks and a huge school of trevally there also to greet our new divers.

Overnight we steamed across the flat and calm Coral Sea and woke up with a beautiful sunrise over the glassy ocean at Vema Reef. The deep sea mount was a stunning start to the day with crystal clear water and several grey reef sharks but Shark Reef for the second dive had 5 Silver Tip Sharks under the boat and lots of grey reef Sharks along the beautiful coral gardens on the edge of the drop off. To top those two dives required something special so we headed to Osprey Reef and dropped the divers in at Rapid Horn for a taste of the 1,000m plus wall diving that Osprey is famous for. A stop at the legendary Admiralty gave us some canyons and crevices to explore alongside the swim through with the anchor inside which is always a highlight of the dive; although the collection of Grey Reef Sharks circling under the boat as the night dive drew closer was almost as much fun from the top deck as it was from underwater! The sun set in glorious fashion as a huge red glowing ball that seemed to shimmer as it hit the ocean and lit up the clear sky with a fiery red and orange glow.

We started Day Three with a great dive at North Horn, along the Soft Coral Wall, and then prepared ourselves for the Shark Feed. Over 35 Grey Reef Sharks were circling around as Ahi and I pulled the shark feed bin down to the bommie and once the bin was opened, the sharks went into an awesome feeding frenzy. From out in the blue a 3m to 4m Silver Tip came in and cruised slowly around in the background, coming close enough for us to get a great look at the size and power of the oceanic sharks. Our third dive was at False Entrance, which was stunningly beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine with the huge fans on the wall, reef sharks resting on the sandy patches between the giant coral mounds and formations and a school of Jacks circling under the boat that gave us all an opportunity to get in the middle of them and be surrounded by fish.

With the amazing diving and perfect weather conditions we headed south from Osprey over night and woke up to see the wrecks of the Atlas and the Antonia Terrabocchia on the horizon as we approached Bougainville Reef. With the lack of wind we pulled out all the stops with tender drops, live boat entries and temporary moorings to give our divers access to wonders of the wall, gigantic ridges of corals, canyons, swim throughs and masses of schooling fish at Bougainville Reef. Eagle Rays were seen along with even more sharks and before too long the perfect trip was coming to an end. It really has been a phenomenal four days in the Coral Sea; the diving has been sensational and the group of people onboard has been fantastic.

Congratulations to our new Advanced Open Water Divers Craig, Demelza and Ian; special mention to our recently certified Open Water Divers Shao and Christian, you guys have been amazing and I hope you have enjoyed some of the best diving around!

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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