Giant Moray Ell - Taka Liveaboard

Last week I went out on Taka liveaboard in the far north Great Barrier Reef.  It was a great 4 days having dived 10 dives.

Here are some scores I give the trip

Diving 9/10

Diving was great. Pristine reefs that had all the little and big critters you could want. This included leaf stone fish, grey reef sharks and all the anemone fish you could want. Cod hole was really fun watching the big guys push in for food.

Instructors / Dive Staff 6/10

As with all people, you get some you get along with really well and some you don’t. Having worked on boats as a Dive master Trainee I know how much a hastel some customers can become and push you to your wits end. Looking at the customers on the boat I think the staff got pretty lucky with all of them pretty competent divers and open to suggestion to improve. Unfortunately I think 1 maybe 2 of the dive instructors had a bit to big of a “I’m way cool look at me” attitude for me. Dive briefings by one instructor were a lists of what not to do rather than a positive experience and I felt like I was getting told off rather than getting excited for a dive. But on the other hand the other instructors were great and 6 out of 10 is probably a bit harsh. I think its the negatives that stick in you head that made me give them a 6.  I think it was an sentiment that another “new to diving” customer told me about a statement one of the dive instructors gave her about her air consumption that stuck with me.  He gave her a bad feeling with negative comments about her air consumption rather than suggest techniques to improve. For me that’s just not on!

Other Staff 10/10

Other staff were friendly and gave you the time of day to have a chat. This included the photographer who made a fantastic video of the trip and had I had the money would have purchased it for sure, but had to pay the rent and the trip was a stretch as it was. Special mention also goes to the other staff on board who were also very friendly.

Food 8/10

The person cooking was an instructor and a cook. The food was good and there was plenty of it!!! This is important when you are diving lots as you need the energy. There was also a person on board that was wheat intolerant. He seemed well catered for.

Conditions 7/10

I believe that it can be better. The weather probably sat around 15-20 knots which was alot better than it was looking when I looked 4 day before the trip. For me if its about 10m vis I’m pumped. The week after I got back was probably the best week of weather we have had since I moved to Cairns in 3 months.

Overall the trip was great the diving was great. Although there were some staff that I did not see eye to eye with I did not let that ruin my trip. Did all the dives with my best buddy in the world so the instructors did not really affect me to much. Overall I would recommend Taka for sure.

• Clothes: Light and not to many seems to be the rule
• Shoes: 1 pair you will probably be taking them off as soon as you get on the boat.
• Ear Plugs: Everyone seems to suggest this. Boats and passengers can be pretty noisy
• First Aid - cloth band aids, athletic tape, duct tape, sea sickness tablets, panadole, sudafed, Chap-stick, Ibuprofen
• Torch: For use in the night when you don’t want to wake people up.
• Short extension cord and 3 way power splitter: Just in case there are not enough power outlets on the boat.
• Book: may not be a good idea if you suffer from motion sickness
• Mp3 player: for just chilling
• Travel alarm clock: or mobile phone
• Lots of bathers: at least 3 pairs seems to be the rule.
• Credit card: you can buy stuff on board.
• Large Memory Stick: to put other peoples photos on
• Chocolate

Dive Stuff

• Dive log
• Mask
• Spare Mask
• Snorkel
• Fins
• Dive socks – for full fins
• Booties – for non full fins
• Wetsuit
• Regulator – SPG
• BCD
• Computer
• Dive torch
• Spare bits – o-rings, mouth pieces,
• Defog for mask.
• Silica Gel – great for tropical places dont want it fogging up inside the housing.
• Dive slate – to discuss what you want for lunch underwater with your dive buddy.
• Attention getting device for buddy – key chain thing to hit your tank with is fine.

Photography Equipment

• Camera and Strobe.
• Memory cards – enough so you don’t have to think about deleting an image.
• Camera / strobe manuals.
• Spare o rings for camera and strobe. – They don’t take up much room.
• Chargers for camera and strobe.
• Spare batteries for camera and strobe
• Silicone grease
• Lens cloth

Pack everything in soft side luggage or “soft as you can” bag.

Where:

To get there drive 15km along the Brinsmead–Kamerunga Road from Cairns and turn left into Stoney Creek Rd and drive to the end.

View Larger Map

Considerations:

You walk up a rocky path so you need to have good closed shoes. The best time to photograph this spot is when its overcast to avoid the harsh shadow and contrast you get on a clear day. Another useful item to bring along with you is a tripod. This will help you get some nice long exposure shots like bellow.

Stoney Creek Cairns

What the hell is a live-a-board?

A live-a-board is a trip where you live on the boat and go diving heaps and just relax when you are not diving.

Why would you want to go on a live-a-board?

You get to dive first thing in the morning. This is a different time of day so hopefully different things are going on this time of day? But better than that you get to dive at night. I have not done so many dives at night (only 2) so I can’t say yet if I like them or not. To most people it sounds really freaky jumping into the ocean when it dark but all the fish are sleeping then so this affords you some good opportunities to get some good shots.

Often live-a-boards go to places where you could not access with a day boat. They head of in to the far reaches where less people venture. Less people should mean better diving!

What do they cost?

Prices range. One of the biggest cost to diving is fuel for the boat, because you are going a long way live-a-boards are often expensive. But if you work out paying for accommodation food and diving they often look a little better and almost the same as taking lots of day trips and sometimes even cheaper.

Would I go on a live-a-board if I’m not a diver.?

Live-a-boards are targeted at divers. You can often get cheaper rates if you are not diving. But they will also go to spots that cater for divers more than snorkelers. The answer is not no but I would check to make sure the operator you are looking at going with will go to snorkel/dive not just dive sites.

So at this stage I have to

• Get me camera gear charged, cleaned and more silicon grease on the o-rings.
• Buy some more memory cards.
• Organize a second underwater camera from wetrez.
• Check my dive gear is all working and in good order.
• Get some sea sickness tablets.

Hello and welcome to the new CVW (chris vs world) I site I meant to build many years ago.  So I hope unlike most of the sites I build it gets further than 1 week.

Interesting links

Wordpress: the CMS that this wite is built with
Woo Themes: The site that I got the original template from
Delicious: The font I used in the title of my web site

Why the picture of the Clown Fish…. Well I just like it and I think every page needs a image of some kind…

Peace Out everyone.