| Spoilsport - 23 August, 2007 |
|
|
| |
Written by Trip Director - Kerrin Jones
For this week long Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef diving expedition, we welcomed aboard a total of 23 passengers with a wide range of nationalities – Italian, Hungarian, French, New Zealand, American and a bunch of Aussie's as well. Two days were spent diving Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea where shear walls, deep drop offs and good currents provided plenty of shark sightings, including hammerheads and silver-tips, along with lots of great soft corals.
Popular dive sites on the Great Barrier Reef included the newly discovered Acropolis, old favourites the Cod Hole and various pinnacles including Lighthouse Bommie, Pixie Pinnacle and Steve’s Bommie. Among the marine life spotted were leafy scorpion fish, stone fish, lion fish, nudibranchs, octopus, turtles and sea snakes.
Congratulations to Tina L – who completed her 1000 dive during the trip, Merit who hit number 400 and our old friend Vinnie who completed his 500th dive-aboard a Mike Ball Vessel – quite a record. An Excellent trip. |
Guest Photo Competition |
Photo & Video Pro - Laurence Buckingham |
|
|
2nd Place |
3rd Place |
|
|
|
Tom Bizzell - turtle. |
Jim Davie - hammerhead shark. |
Mike Drumm - white-tip reef shark. |
| Guest Comments |
|
|
Merit Greaves, USA. "The crew! The Spoilsport is great, diving is excellent but the crew makes the trip – an amazing experience." |
| Vig Vapusine, Hungary. "Professionalism of the crew, good organisation, helpfulness, the fantastic corals and big fishes." |
| Laura Freyland, Germany. "The crew made the trip, always friendly, smiling and helpful even though working hard." |
|
| Spoilsport - 16 August, 2007 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Trip Director - Kerrin Jones
For this week long expedition we welcomed aboard a group of 21 divers from Diver Instructional Services (Melbourne), a group of 5 divers from St Petersburg, Russia and two Italian divers. Throughout the week we dived the best of the Great Barrier Reef with highlights including newly discovered dive site Accropolis with excellent coral, sea snakes, lion fish and a hammerhead shark sighting.
Other popular sites were the Cod Hole, with plenty of potato cod and white–tipped reef sharks, and Steve’s Bommie with stone fish, pipe fish, leafy scorpion fish and a flame file shell. This group also enjoyed relaxing with a few quiet drinks at sunset and a couple of great party nights during the trip. We look forward to the return of D.I.S – next year. |
Guest Photo Competition |
Photo & Video Pro - Daniel Foote |
|
|
2nd Place |
3rd Place |
|
|
|
Manuel Florid - mantis shrimp. |
Stuart Kent - turtle. |
Nicole Johnstone - lion fish. |
| Guest Comments |
|
|
Anita Morianas, Australia. "Could do as many or as little dives as I Liked. Experienced and communicable dive crew. Excellent dive sites." |
| Claire Liew, Australia. "Chance to explore the reef and look at new dive sites. Due to services provided on the boat, ease and comfort of trip, assistance and dive info about each dive." . |
| Wendi Kent, Australia. "The care taken by all staff to ensure each individual divers needs/requirements were catered for." |
|
| Spoilsport - 13 August, 2007 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Trip Director - Daniel Foote
Our new dive site again provided the goods with sea snakes, eagle rays, sharks, three flame file shells and one of the largest giant clams I've ever seen. Divers also enjoyed puffer fish and porcupine fish at Challenger Bay. Grey reef sharks, white-tip reef sharks and our little nemo made a great dive at Steve's Bommie. |
Guest Photo Competition |
Photo & Video Pro - Laurence Buckingham |
|
|
2nd Place |
3rd Place |
|
|
|
Eric Abjoubel - nudibranch. |
Eric Abjoubel - lion fish. |
Dave Hines - lion fish. |
| Guest Comments |
|
|
Pamela Turner, USA. "Staff was great. Good fish life with healthy reefs. Overall the flyby by the minke whale was the high light." |
| Kaitlyn Hines, Canada. "Being the first ones on the 'Table Mountain' site - awesome dive site. Food was excellent as well as service." |
| Dave Hines, Canada. "I thought that the crew and professionalism on the boat was superb and made the while trip onboard a fun and great experience - within days it ws like we were family. Awesome job crew!" |
|
| Spoilsport - 09 August, 2007 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Trip Director - Daniel Foote
Brilliant encounters with minke whales at Lighthouse Bommie certainly made for a great north Queensland experience. Team Townsend from the USA found a huge wobbegong shark and sea snake. Eric and Danielle saw dogtooth tuna, eagle ray, huge grouper and lots lots more. All divers dived a brand new dive site which was found this week - which was brillient with plate corals, boulder corals - a great find. Our drift dive at Dynamite Pass was great.
|
Guest Photo Competition |
Photo & Video Pro - Laurence Buckingham |
|
|
2nd Place |
3rd Place |
|
|
|
Andres Bradshaw - lion fish. |
Deborah Bradshaw - hawk fish. |
Deborah Bradshaw - blenny. |
| Guest Comments |
|
|
Gianpaolo Piattella, Italy. "Great boat and service. Crew always nice and available." |
| Anish Kejariwal, USA. "The trip director Dan was great - high energy, fun, responsible and positive. The same can be said for the entire staff." |
| Deborah Bradshaw, UK. "Lots of grea diving - variety of sites - ease of everything - friendilness of staff. Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our trip - Thank you." |
|
| Spoilsport - 06 August, 2007 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Trip Director - Kerrin Jones
This south-bound trip started off with a half-day spent at the world famous Cod Hole with divers enjoying great coral, lots of white-tip reef sharks and of course the potato cod.
The great diving continued as we made our way south down the Ribbon Reefs with dives at Pixie Pinnacle, Pixie Gardens, Challenger Bay, Steve's Bommie and Flare Point.
Among the marine life seen were: leafy scorpion fish, stone fish, turtles, great barracuda, lion fish, white-tip reef sharks, a wobbegong shark and a huge Queensland grouper.
The end of the trip was celebrated with sunset champagne, a BBQ and party night. |
Guest Photo Competition |
Photo & Video Pro - Laurence Buckingham |
|
|
2nd Place |
3rd Place |
|
|
|
Tobias van Vredenburgh - flowery cod. |
Tobias van Vredenburgh - turtle. |
Chris Leach - barred thick-lip. |
| Guest Comments |
|
|
Tobias van Vredenburgh, UK. "Really well run expedition, not backpacker or over crowded. Was recommended MBDE from UK so was on my list of things to do while I lived in Australia." |
| Sue Franks, Australia. "Diving A1 - staff excellent - food excellent." |
| Amanda Winter, USA. "Challenger Bay was the best dive site and the food was amazing." |
|
| Spoilsport - 02 August, 2007 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Trip Director - Kerrin Jones
This trip we welcomed a group of divers from Queenscliffe Dive Group a well as a bunch of international visitors from a range of countries.
We had some fantastic diving at Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea with all divers seeing manta rays at the cleaning station at Round The Bend. Divers also witnessed plenty of sharks including a hammerhead at North Horn.
On the Great Barrier Reef - Lighthouse Bommie and the Cod Hole proved popular sites with divers getting up close encounters with turtles, sea snakes and potato cod. |
Guest Photo Competition |
Photo & Video Pro - Laurence Buckingham |
|
|
2nd Place |
3rd Place |
|
|
|
Sarah Stuckelburger - manta rays. |
Tobias van Vredenburgh - snapper. |
Sarah Stuckelburger - manta ray. |
| Guest Comments |
|
|
Claudio Tabanelli, Italy. "Professionalism of all the staff and their good humour." |
| Agurtzane Echebarria, Spain. "Safe and professional diving. Kerrin's organisational skills and energy and good humour. Much help from the staff so you can enjoy your dive. Keep on going!!" |
| Lori Strodthoff, USA. "Incredible dives." |
|
