Spirit of Freedom - TRIP Gallery

Mon 17th January 2011 - Thu 20th January 2011

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)

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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