Whitsundays and GBR

My wife and I enjoy taking vacations that combine sailing and diving (most
recently we went to British Virgin Islands). We are considering a trip to
Whitsunday Islands. We would rent a sailboat for 7 nights and sail it
ourselves. Typically we don't dive directly from the sailboat, but arrange
to have a dive boat pick us up for a day of diving and return us to the boat
afterwards.

I have heard recently that diving on the GBR, and in particular around
Whitsunday Islands, is substandard. I've heard that the quality of diving,
and visibility in particular, is orders of magnitude better on the outer
reef and Coral Sea, and that it requires a multiday trip on a liveaboard to
reach them. Unfortunately, that wouldn't allow us to combine sailing with
diving since the sailing grounds are near Whitsundays.

How is the quality of diving in an area accessible in a day from Whitsunday
Islands?

Is the diving best at a particular time of year?

Any suggestions on dive companies around Whitsunday Islands?

Thanks!

In article <d99iel$mr1$1@sm-news1.rand.org>, brien@rand.org (Brien Alkire)
wrote:

>
> I have heard recently that diving on the GBR, and in particular around
> Whitsunday Islands, is substandard. I've heard that the quality of
> diving,
> and visibility in particular, is orders of magnitude better on the outer
> reef and Coral Sea, and that it requires a multiday trip on a
> liveaboard to
> reach them. Unfortunately, that wouldn't allow us to combine sailing
> with
> diving since the sailing grounds are near Whitsundays.
>
> How is the quality of diving in an area accessible in a day from
> Whitsunday
> Islands?
>
> Is the diving best at a particular time of year?
>
> Any suggestions on dive companies around Whitsunday Islands?

A friend that we met while diving the Coral sea did exactly what you are
planning after we did the Coral Sea......he said he had a fantastic time
sailing and diving around the islands, i'm not sure where he dived but i
know i was a little surprised by his comments.

I would only say that you should avoid the big operations,
Prodive....Takka etc only because i dont think they are what you want, you
should go for the smaller dive outlet and ask for their opinion.

http://thewhitsundays.org/
www.diversionoz.com/en/qld-heron.htm
Dave Morgan @ Work in the UK
Take out the "goes diving" bit....
Trip photos on line at www.morg.co.uk

Hey Daniel,

Thanks for the detailed response. The information is quite useful.

I'm certain that the charter company would not allow us to take their boats
outside of a fairly small radius. Otherwise, we're probably experienced
enough sailors to undertake the sail you described. I'm a fairly
experienced diver (just over 100 dives). My wife is in her second season of
diving (20 dives).

We're looking at some other alternatives. I think Tahiti is a great place
to combine diving and sailing (I dove their on our honeymoon), but we're
planning to go there in a few years for a big anniversary.

St Martin in the Caribbean looks interesting. The sailing looks quite nice.
I need to research the diving a bit more, but tentatively it looks good.

Thanks again,

Brien

Thank you.

Speaking of "sailing"....I had a dive trip once to Va V'au...that's in Tonga or
a part of the Tonga "group" and lies up North from "Tonga tapu" where the
capital is located. Va V'au is quite a haven for sailing boats and has a
wonderful protected harbor. One of the best kept secrets is....Va V'au is one
of the prettiest places in the entire Pacific -- imagine fijords and palm trees,
if you will.....and you will get the idea.

Va V'au has a few good dive sites and a couple of snorkels that are rather fun.
They have this cave there whose mouth is just below the water line, probably by
8/10 feet. You free dive down under water and come up inside the cave where
there is air-- some people might be a little freightened to do it but I wasn't.
There was even a fine restaurant in Va V'au that served a good logster dish.

Va V'au is very colorful and has a runaway population of feral pigs...the cocks
crow (even before dawn)...and the faithful are summoned by chruch bells at 6 AM.
(a few minutes before you were finally able to catch a few winks) The run down
roads are of crushed coral and taxi drivers have hacking coughs from the dust.

Remember that TV series called the "Twilight Zone?"

If you go to Va V'au...you will think you've entered a time warp and are
experiencing the South Pacific as was portrayed in novels written by Somerset
Maugham.

Brien Alkire wrote:

> Hey Daniel,
>
> Thanks for the detailed response. The information is quite useful.
>
> I'm certain that the charter company would not allow us to take their boats
> outside of a fairly small radius. Otherwise, we're probably experienced
> enough sailors to undertake the sail you described. I'm a fairly
> experienced diver (just over 100 dives). My wife is in her second season of
> diving (20 dives).
>
> We're looking at some other alternatives. I think Tahiti is a great place
> to combine diving and sailing (I dove their on our honeymoon), but we're
> planning to go there in a few years for a big anniversary.
>
> St Martin in the Caribbean looks interesting. The sailing looks quite nice.
> I need to research the diving a bit more, but tentatively it looks good.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Brien

In article <42B9592C.36E53BCE@pop.cybernex.net>, dkessler@pop.cybernex.net
(Daniel Kessler) wrote:

> The narrow window or best time slot for coral sea
> diving is late Sept through early Dec.

We were there in December -January, and it was as you say a little rough
on the way back to Cairns, it was fine while out in the Coral Sea but
closer in it got rough.

We dived Holmes and Bouganville for 7 days......the water is extremely
clear and the smim throughs and coral formations reminded me of Nabq in
the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea).

The Barrier Reef has gained its reputation from the beautiful and
magnificent views you get when flying over it at low altitude, Cairns
to Lizard Island by 6 seater was how we saw those views, under the water
though we found it to be "ok !....So"........and wondered what all the
fuss was about.

Dave Morgan @ Work in the UK
Take out the "goes diving" bit....
Trip photos on line at www.morg.co.uk

<morgand@cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote in message
news:-ISdna3VqPSe9yffRVnygw@pipex.net...
> In article <42B9592C.36E53BCE@pop.cybernex.net>, dkessler@pop.cybernex.net

> The Barrier Reef has gained its reputation from the beautiful and
> magnificent views you get when flying over it at low altitude, Cairns
> to Lizard Island by 6 seater was how we saw those views, under the water
> though we found it to be "ok !....So"........and wondered what all the
> fuss was about.

The GBR gained it's reputation because in the early '70s when the rest of
the scuba world discovered it, it was magnificent. The rep was well earned,
but over the years it has suffered dramatically from a variety of impacts.

What you are saying about GBR is exactly what people will say about
Galapagos and PNG in 30 years...."ok!...So?". And some diver who wasn't
around to dive them when they were great will think , like you, that the
locations never did warrant the acclaim.

well..... yes and no...

my first trip through the GBR and onto the Coral Sea was in 1982....steaming all
the way out to Marion reef (Marion reef is so far out that it does not even
appear on the maps of Australia that show coastal waters). To find Marion Reef,
you have to look at a world atlas.

I don't believe the GBR ever had the clarity of water one would find out along
those reef island out in the coral sea, such as Osprey, Bougainville, Flinders,
et al..... I mean, the very nature of the GBR was that tidal action causing
lots of scatter in the water. Of course, I have to admit, my only visits (and
on a subsequent trip out to the Coral Sea via the "ribbons reefs "later in that
decade) was only during the time of the "spring tides," i.e, Sept - late
November.

Ross Garrett wrote:

> <morgand@cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:-ISdna3VqPSe9yffRVnygw@pipex.net...
> > In article <42B9592C.36E53BCE@pop.cybernex.net>, dkessler@pop.cybernex.net
>
> > The Barrier Reef has gained its reputation from the beautiful and
> > magnificent views you get when flying over it at low altitude, Cairns
> > to Lizard Island by 6 seater was how we saw those views, under the water
> > though we found it to be "ok !....So"........and wondered what all the
> > fuss was about.
>
> The GBR gained it's reputation because in the early '70s when the rest of
> the scuba world discovered it, it was magnificent. The rep was well earned,
> but over the years it has suffered dramatically from a variety of impacts.
>
> What you are saying about GBR is exactly what people will say about
> Galapagos and PNG in 30 years...."ok!...So?". And some diver who wasn't
> around to dive them when they were great will think , like you, that the
> locations never did warrant the acclaim.

In article <jjAue.16$hM4.6025@news.uswest.net>,
frederickrossgarrett@hotmail.com (Ross Garrett) wrote:

> And some diver who wasn't
> around to dive them when they were great will think , like you, that
> the locations never did warrant the acclaim.

Your right..........but we tell it as it is dont we.........not how it
was, thats for grandfathers with kids on their knees......"you should have
seen it, it were beautiful"....

Anyway i fly out of here in an hour or two, 11 days diving Mabul, Sipadan
etc then on to Sangalaki for a week......aaaahhhhhhhhhh......29C and great
diving......bliss.


Dave Morgan @ Work in the UK
Take out the "goes diving" bit....
Trip photos on line at www.morg.co.uk

"Daniel Kessler" <dkessler@pop.cybernex.net> wrote in message
news:42BB1CB9.CB6ACB69@pop.cybernex.net...

> I don't believe the GBR ever had the clarity of water one would find out
> along
> those reef island out in the coral sea, such as Osprey, Bougainville,
> Flinders,
> et al.....

Oh, I don't think there is any question about that. My first visit to GBR
was in 1974 and I don't know that I could say there has been any change in
viz or particulate levels between then and any of my subsequent visits. My
intent was to respond to the statement that "The Barrier Reef has gained its
reputation from the beautiful and magnificent views you get when flying over
it at low altitude". That's simply incorrect. And even more important, it
begs the belief that GBR was never spectacular in health and spectacular in
diving, and in doing so eliminates the concern for what man has wrought.

I think it is important that when reef systems die off or go bad, or simply
contract for what they used to be, that we to look at our part in it. But
before that can take place there has to be realization that it was better
before.

I agree with all your comments about Coral Sea. it's a wonderful diving
experience and it is the very best viz I have seen anywhere (which is what
one would expect of a reef system some 200 miles from mainland shore). I
have done Spirit of Freedom a couple times and am doing it again this coming
August.

from the air, the GBR looks like a great big "brown thing." Passing through it
at sea level....one time, on one of those passes, I thought I saw some brown
structures way out there, so that the "thing" is not totally featureless and
flat---it looked like some sculptor had been at work, such as the work of Henry
Moore. Perhaps it was a "cow" grazing way out there.

Ross Garrett wrote:

> "Daniel Kessler" <dkessler@pop.cybernex.net> wrote in message
> news:42BB1CB9.CB6ACB69@pop.cybernex.net...
>
> > I don't believe the GBR ever had the clarity of water one would find out
> > along
> > those reef island out in the coral sea, such as Osprey, Bougainville,
> > Flinders,
> > et al.....
>
> Oh, I don't think there is any question about that. My first visit to GBR
> was in 1974 and I don't know that I could say there has been any change in
> viz or particulate levels between then and any of my subsequent visits. My
> intent was to respond to the statement that "The Barrier Reef has gained its
> reputation from the beautiful and magnificent views you get when flying over
> it at low altitude". That's simply incorrect. And even more important, it
> begs the belief that GBR was never spectacular in health and spectacular in
> diving, and in doing so eliminates the concern for what man has wrought.
>
> I think it is important that when reef systems die off or go bad, or simply
> contract for what they used to be, that we to look at our part in it. But
> before that can take place there has to be realization that it was better
> before.
>
> I agree with all your comments about Coral Sea. it's a wonderful diving
> experience and it is the very best viz I have seen anywhere (which is what
> one would expect of a reef system some 200 miles from mainland shore). I
> have done Spirit of Freedom a couple times and am doing it again this coming
> August.