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The Coral Sea - 5 days - 4 nights Live-aboard dive trips. The Coral Sea is a mountain group that rises approximately 2,000 meter (6,600 feet) from the ocean floor and comes all the way up to the surface. The Coral Sea is located 100 to 200 kilometers east of the Great Barrier Reef and is renowned for its unbelievable visibility which is a minimum of 30 meter (100 feet) all year round. The main difference between the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea is the fish life. This is big fish country. It is not unusual to encounter a hammerhead, silver tips or whaler sharks. There are so many white tip reef sharks that you don't even notice them any more after a while. TAKA II is a 22 meter mono hull steel vessel which was specially rebuilt for extended live aboard dive travel. Taka II carries 26 passengers in 3 deluxe 2 berth cabins, 4 by 2 berth cabins and 3 by 4 berth cabins. All accommodation is air conditioned. Taka II has a cruising range of 5,000 nautical miles, has a water capacity of 15,000 liters and can make up to 3,000 liters of fresh water per day. All dive gear on board is made by TUSA and for photographers slide processing is available. Departures: Every Friday afternoon reaching the Cod Hole by the next morning. The first dive day is at the world famous Cod Hole where you will feed the Giant Potato Cod. This is a must for all photographers. Over night you travel to Osprey reef in the Coral Sea, around 120 kilometers to the east. This is where you will encounter a minimum of 30 meters (100 feet) visibility and BIG FISH. On your second dive at Osprey Reef at a place called North Horn you will have the opportunity to be under water during a shark feeding and come face to face with oceanic silver tips, gray whalers and white tip reef sharks. After the shark feeding we move to a different location on Osprey Reef and do two more dives. Tonight we depart the Coral Sea towards the Great Barrier Reef. You will spend Monday and Tuesday diving down the ribbon reefs back towards Cairns. All up you have 4 days of the best diving Australia has to offer while doing 14-15 dives. Itinerary: Day 1: Pick up from Cairns accommodation at 5:00 pm. and transfer to TAKA II which departs from Cairns Harbour and travels over the smooth waters inside the Great Barrier Reef up to the Ribbon Reefs. Day 2: We usually start our first day diving at Ribbon Reef Number 9 (Challenger Bay.) This gives our divers a scenic place to to get back into the swing of things and check out some beautiful coral formations. The boat then moves a bit further north to the cod hole where we do 2 dives. The first dive is to check out the general geography at the cod hole and take a look at the huge variety of marine life that lives in this area. The second dive at the cod hole is the cod feed where huge schools of fish and Maori Wrasse compete with the large family of giant potato cod for a fish dinner. This would have to be one of the worlds premier diving experiences. We do another dive in this area at either Dynamite Pass or Snake Gully then TAKA II departs at approximately midnight to travel out to Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea. Day 3: We do 4 dives on Osprey Reef area, including 2 dives at North Horn, an area famous for its Pelagic fish life and shark action, North Horn has a natural amphitheater where we do a shark feed on the second of these dives. The sharks involved are usually Grey Whalers, Oceanic Silvertips and White tipped Reef Sharks. TAKA II then travels overnight to the Northern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Day 4: Temple of doom and Steve's Bommie are near Ribbon Reef no 3 and are stunning locations that have an extremely varied amount of coral and fish life. We do some dives at these sites before moving down to Ruby Reef and some of the more popular dive sites such as "Beergarden". During the course of this day you will see giant clams up to 2 metres across, huge coral gardens, and an abundance of marine life unmatched anywhere on this planet. We do 3 day dives and 1 night dive on this day. Day 5: On the last day we do 2 dives as we are now nearing the end of our trip. These dives are on the outer edge of the great barrier reef at agincourt and opal reefs featuring unique coral formations and fish life. Taka II then cruises through the reef then heading back to Cairns at approximately 3.30 p.m.
or Call Toll Free 1300 880 835 |
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