We spent four amazing days, literally, on top of the Great Barrier Reef. We boarded Sea Quest a day trip transfer boat on the 24th Sept and headed out to the Great Barrier Reef for 3 nights.  Simon had been on a liveaboard with deep sea divers den previously but that was 8 years ago, so we were unsure what to expect when we got there. The company have changed their routine slightly, from taking the main vessel Ocean quest from Cairns to the reef with a specific tour length already planned, to now having a constant liveaboard vessel out on the reef and using sea quest to run backwards and forwards with the constant turn over of divers wanting to enjoy the reef.

Whilst on Sea Quest we met people who were staying just one night and many who were staying three nights like us. Once on board Sea Quest we were briefed about the boat and what would be happening over the next few days as we headed out to the reef. We were excited as we knew we would be diving within an hour and a half. Simon and I had not dived for over two years so we had to demonstrate some skills on our first dive. That completed we were free to enjoy the reef. 30 seconds in I saw a shark, and then two green turtles later on in the dive. Now obviously I’m not going to rabbit on about every single dive, but i will give you an overview of what we did and saw on our next 16 dives.

So we had morning dives with amazing visibility and the reef abundant with life just waking up, changing dive sites twice a day three more dives during the day and a night dive where we saw 5/6ft grey reef sharks which was simply amazing. Throughout the day frequent sightings included the most beautiful parrot fish I have ever seen (sorry National Marine Aquarium) many different spices of puffer fish, clown fish jealously guarding their anemomes, green turtles, black and white tip reef sharks and grey reef sharks. During the dark night dives we saw  stealthy night hunting trevallies and loads of red eyes from crustaceans caught in your torch beam, some rays, pipe fish and hump head wrasse of many different maturities.

The best way to describe the reef is to compare it to the Red Sea reefs we have dived in the past. I was pleased to see the coral was not as bleached and destroyed as i was expecting. However we did come across some dive sites that were either bleached or had areas of broken and destroyed coral. All our dives were non guided and we could have paid $30 extra per dive for a guide. An expense very few could afford.  Its easy to see how the reef could become destroyed through carelessness whilst diving and we did personally witness divers around us either through lack of awareness or bad buoyancy control damage the reef.

Whilst on board Ocean Quest the facilities were very nice, the food was lovely, but some guests felt the portion sizes were lacking. We thought they were perfect. By the end of our time on the reef we were exhausted and even though we were sorry to be leaving we were also relieved as 5 dives per day had taken its toll. We’re now looking forward to our next liveaboard in March with Loveday and Joe and also hoping to do some more diving in the next week or so whilst we travel down to the Southern Great Barrier Reef.

Most animal footage is videos i’m afraid, but we will share that as soon as it has been edited together.