| Date: 18 October, 2005 |
Vessel: Spoilsport |
After five minutes of meeting Mark Smith and his group from Underwater Adventures, plus the other six fortunate adventurers who were on board this week, the crew realized this was going to be an entertaining week - and so it was! With the usual fantastic weather on the Great Barrier Reef and in the Coral Sea, plus great visibility on all the sites everyone thoroughly enjoyed the diving. Cod Wall and the magnificent giant gorgonian fan, Scuba Zoo and the 30 gray reef sharks, and Wheeler Reef and the 20 mobula rays were high on the list of favourites. The skippers guitar playing and sing song on party night did get a honourable mention by a few, especially Jill, although it took her two days to recover!
It was a pleasure diving with all of you, and a special thanks to all the crew and their professionalism throughout. |
Trip Director: Andrew Sutherland. |
Photo Video/Pro: James Hutchinson. |
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Guest Comments |
| Joey van Metre, USA. "All of it was excellent - hard to pick a 'best' bit." |
| Susan Tham, USA. "Crew made everything so pleasant and easy - the dive sites were fabulous." |
| Rob Breard, USA. "The diving was phenomenal, as was the service of the crew." |
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| Date: 11 October, 2005 |
Vessel: Spoilsport |
5 bull rays, 4 hammerheads, 3 guitar fish, 2 bull sharks and a silver-tip shark at Scuba Zoo!.. WHAT AN EXPEDITION!!
The usual great weather and fantastic visibility allowed us to do 3 full days out at Flinders Reef, including a full morning at Cod Wall where Brian W. saw 4 scalloped hammerhead sharks with photo's to prove it. Scuba Zoo was a great success, with over 30 sharks coming in for the feed. 2 full days at the Yongala wreck gave everyone the opportunity to fully appreciate this fantastic site. With so much spotted it was difficult to pick the best, but, alongside the 2 bull sharks, the anemone fish eggs with the young anemone fish visible inside, which hatched overnight was very unique. The wreck was capped off at Wheeler Reef, before our return to Townsville at the end of a great expeditions for all.
Thanks for Hosam for leading his group from Beach City Scuba, Kat and Alison for being the token Pom's on board, and Joe for being the very entertaining 'Drager Myster'. |
Trip Director: Andrew Sutherland. |
Photo Video/Pro: Daniel Foote. |
Guest Comments |
| Bobby Arnold, USA. "Ability to DIVE DIVE DIVE!!" |
| Keith Howington, USA. "Great diving, superb staff, very fun orientated." |
| Daniel Blattmann, Switzerland. "Everything!! Safe diving, friendly and helpful staff, excellent meals, dry towel after every dive." |
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| Date: 4 October, 2005 |
Vessel: Spoilsport |
On this expedition we had guests from France, Russia, America, United Kingdom, Spain and Italy. We started the diving at the SS Yongala - where guests saw a manta ray, bull rays, shovel nose ray, sea snakes, bull sharks and a tawny nurse shark along with the resident turtles, nudibranchs, trevally and huge grouper.. all posing for pictures. We then set off for the crystal clear waters of the Coral Sea. With 40m+ visibility divers saw schools of tuna, trevally, fusiliers and a wide variety of soft corals, gorgonian fans and great coral reef formations. More of the same followed with 40m visibility gray reef sharks, schooling barracuda at Coneheads, at Two Up divers saw white-tip reef sharks a beautiful anemone garden and wonderful soft corals. Everyone then went over to Flinders Cay where we were subjected to the most amazing sunset and guests and crew took pictures of the magnificent bird life on the cay. A traditional Aussie BBQ was served with a great atmosphere back on board Spoilsport as a few drinks were shared under the star's.
The last day at the Coral Sea started at the Cod Wall with divers descending to 42m to pay homage to gigantus gorgonian and swim along the 300m deep wall with tuna, trevally and gray reef sharks, a really beautiful start to the day. Scuba Zoo followed with over 30 gray reef sharks posing for photographers with a few lucky divers exiting the water with a shark tooth from the feed. The following day we visited sites from the Great Barrier Reef where divers saw pristine coral gardens, white-tip reef sharks, gray reef sharks, lionfish, nudibranchs and the pelagics harassing bait fish.
The final day was spent at Wheeler Reef with 30m visibility, great coral and fish life to end a wonderful expedition. |
Trip Director: Richard Kennedy. |
Photo Video/Pro: Daniel Foote. |
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Guest Photo Competition
1st Place
Congratulations to Isabel Creo for getting this great headshot of a moral eel in the Coral Sea.. |
2nd Place
David Friedel, Gray reef sharks - Scuba Zoo,
Coral Sea. |
3rd Place
Isabel Creo, Sea snake - Coral Sea. |
Guest Comments |
| Alex Fabrikant, Australia. "Food and crew were both excellent." |
| Diane Friedel, USA. "The live aboard experience - the staff was incredible, the area beautiful and the marine life healthy and beautiful." |
| Simona Gabrielli, Italy. "The dive staff is excellent and the cook is the best!" |
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