– Australia Working Holiday
There are a lot of tours in Cairns to get out to the Great Barrier Reef, including snorkeling and diving, one day or overnight tours.
I went for a Pro Dive 3 days 2 nights Liveaboard Trip and here is the brief.
11 dive in 3 days, including 2 night dives. You can join even if you don't know diving, because there are various options to choose from:
1. Only snorkel (Price is relatively cheap, but you might miss some of the gems)2. Don't have Open Water License, but you would like to get one during the trip (Extra 2 days before the tour)
3. You have Open Water License, you would like to get Advanced Open Water License during the trip
4. Either have Open Water or Advanced Open Water License and want to enjoy Great Barrier Reef
5. Either have Open Water or Advanced Open Water License and want to take the Enriched Air (Nitrox) Course (Extra 1 day before the tour)
6. You have Advanced Open Water License and want to get Rescue Diver Cource during the trip
So basically anyone can join the tour and experience how sleeping on a boat will beYou can see sunrise, sunset and moon out in the sea.
I went there around Easter 2015, there were 30ish people in my group. They pick up people the first day at 6am in different hotels/hostels. After that they will drive you to the shop of Pro Dive and people can store their luggage there. At the same time, you need to give your license to the staff for approval. If I am coming to dive in Great Barrier Reef, I need to have either Open Water or Advanced Open Water Licence. We need to sign a declaration that we haven't eaten any pills, or other things.
Then we will be transported to the pier. In the ship, we all have a tray with a name on it with all diving gears in it.
The crew will introduce themselves one by one. There are 4 diving instructors and one chef. One of the instructors is so funny. He always says things full of humor. You can feel how he loves his job through his attitude and what he says.
According to the time schedule, the first day we will dive 4 times, second day 4 times and third day 3 times. As we need to be at outer Great Barrier Reef in the first day, the schedule was quite tight that day. It seemed you will dive again straight away after you dive the first one. I felt a bit tired. But the second day it was much better and the third day I didn't want the time to pass so fast.
Diving schedule for 3 days
Every time the diving time is around 30-45 minutes. It depends on how much air left in the tank of you and your buddy. After every dive an instructor will mark down data from your electronic device.
Lining up after diving to let diving instructor record our depth and time
Dive Computer
This is used when we had night diving
This is used when we had night diving
Food:
There was a chef help cooking all our meals. We just need to clean our own utensils after eating. Food were good, buffet style. Sometimes we even get desserts. You can buy soft drink/beer in the boat. All you need to do is jot it down on the record sheet when you take it out from the fridge.
Sleep:
The whole ship has 30ish people sleeping. Each of us has only a tiny little space for sleeping. Usually two people sleep in a 'room', top and bottom. Some do have windows some do not have.
Ship:
There were two storeys. The first one has the diving gears which there is a deck you can jump into the sea after you put on your gears
In the inner part is where we usually eat and with A/C on. We will chat/discuss here. Some of the rooms are here too.
The second floor is the chill out area after diving. You can sunbathe here. There is also a white board. Instructor will draw the routine under the sea and explain to us about the depth of each point and what we can see in each dive.
After diving, all people rush to the top and sunbathe
Before diving, we will gather in front of the white board and instructor will explain things about that diving
The last diving will be finished before noon of the third day. Then the boat will go back to Cairns.
After coming back to the city, we will go to the shop and pay the extra stuff we had on the ship, like drinks/camera renting. We also pay the Government Environmental Management Charge as well as a Port Departure Tax and administration costs here.
Here are some photos I took with my camera.
All in all, the trip is great and I really enjoy it. 3 days are a good duration to enjoy Great Barrier Reef. The price is reasonable and the instructors here are professional. Recommanded to all of you.
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