Diving the Great Barrier Reef with Mike Ball Expeditions

The first thing I wanted to do in Australia was go diving, so I flew into Cairns. The Great Barrier Reef is on many a-diver’s bucketlist, and it was time to check it off mine. When I first began to research diving the Great Barrier Reef I was disappointed to hear that the amount of people travelling to the reef was beginning to show.  The charters were big tourist traps and the reef was slowly being destroyed. This worried me, because if I went all the way to the Great Barrier Reef I wanted to do it right. So I spent lots of precious time looking up the best possible way to go diving.

During my research I came across a well-setup website with lots of helpful Great Barrier Reef dive information. They also had a toll-free US number, which many other sites did not have.  After trying to narrow down my options I needed help with the final decision. I played phone tag for a few days, but finally got in contact with Joel.  I told him my concerns and what I was looking for. An hour later he emailed me several options I might be interested in, and highlighted two that he would specifically recommend. He was extremely helpful and I decided to go with Mike Ball Dive Expeditions 3 night Fly/Dive Cod Hole.

When the time came I dragged myself out of bed early Monday morning and headed to the dive shop. After filling out some paperwork I waited for the shuttle with a group of 20 people. RD introduced himself and asked if I was a fellow single-traveler. He was from the UK and we chatted on the way to the airport. He was fairly new to diving, and like most people had always wanted to dive the Great Barrier Reef. We got to the airport and there was a tiny cessna waiting for us. Half of us hopped in and waited as our pilot slowly turned on one propeller, then the second propeller. After some quick instructions and security checks we turned down the runway and took off. The plane was so small you could feel every little bump and turn that it made, but the view was amazing!

We flew low enough that I had a perfect view of everything. It was great to see the Great Barrier Reef from above and get an idea of just how big it is. We banked the final stomach-twisting turn and landed on Lizard Island. After a short walk to the beach we climbed into little boats which waited to take us to Spoilsport.

Spoilsport was very welcoming. The crew was nothing but smiles, and they even made the boring safety lecture entertaining.  Our Captain was just how I’d picture an Australian Pirate captain with his thick, barely understandable accent.  During the introductions I found out that half the divers were from California. I can’t get away from them! My roomie was ZC who was a fairly new diver from New Orleans.

It didn’t take long before we headed to our first diving destination. We had a 1 1/2 hour ride in front of us and were told it was going to be “a bit choppy.” That’s one way to put it, because 30 minutes later I was on the stern puking up my breakfast into a baggie. Thankfully it was much calmer once we got to the dive site because the reef was sheltering us from the rough waters. One of the crew came up to me and told me some good news. Someone had upgraded rooms and I was able to have my own little room. Good thing too, because ZC would have had to deal with me wallowing in my sea sick-self pity.

Our first site was Cod Hole, the main attraction of the dive trip. People-sized cod that were known to be friendly and easy to spot. I was paired up with WB, who would be my dive buddy for the remainder of the trip. We were similar dive-levels, both from California, and ended up getting along very well.

The Potato Cods weren’t just friendly, they were puppy friendly! They swam so close that I tried to lean away from them in case they touched me. The cod were fun to play around with, and they certainly delivered on personality. Even after WB and I swam away one found us and just floated in front of us for a bit of attention. Needless to say I would have brought it home if I could have.

Besides the potato cod, the thing that jumped out at me the most were the corals. They were beautiful and showed off all sorts of different colors. It was like swimming in an aquarium, and the visibility was the best I’d ever had, ranging from 80-120 ft. The first dive wasn’t super interesting otherwise, but the dives to come would blow me away.

Our next dive was at Gotham City. Called such not because of batman (unfortunately), but because of the bat rays. We didn’t see any bat rays, but we did see plenty of other interesting things. We did our night dive here, which I was very excited about. Night dives have always been my favorite. The Trevally (big silver fish) used our lights to hunt, and they kept whipping around us and hitting WB’s camera. There were also lots of white tipped reef sharks prowling around. The best thing about the night dives were the soft corals. Many soft corals wait to feed at night and we saw many more than during the day.

After a delicious dinner, as was every meal on Spoilsport, I crawled into bed for some much needed sleep. Too early in the morning I was woken up  by a sing-song “Goooood moooorning! Wakey Wakey!!” I dragged myself out of bed mildly surprised that I didn’t feel seasick. I went up for a small breakfast and quickly jumped in the water (that’s really the only way to wake this girl up). The next dive site was Goggle Gardens which was incredibly clear. I couldn’t have asked for better visibility. The corals were out in full force, and there were plenty of critters to keep me happy.

The next 2 dives were at Lighthouse Bommie. “Bommie” basically means “lump of coral.” The dives just kept getting better, and this was my favorite one thus far. There was a huge school of yellow snapper, olive sea snakes (yes, sea snakes!), a school of barracuda, and lots of anemones with clown fish. I swear I saw everything on this dive.

WB and I swam after the first sea snake we saw. While taking pictures I saw another sea snake swimming around WB’s legs! I must have looked very silly dancing around trying to get his attention, but as most divers will tell you, it’s hard to get someone’s attention under water. By the time he looked at me the snake was swimming away, but I had to laugh at myself. We also saw a snake swim up to the surface to breath, much like turtles do. Very cool!

We did this dive twice and there was a huge school of barracuda swimming menacingly on one side of the bommie.  WB snapped a picture that would take 2nd pace in the Spoilsport photo contest. I’d like to say I’m the diver in the picture, but I could be making that up 🙂

After lunch and a quick nap…oh wait, there was no nap today because we had a fire drill…we dove again. The site was Pixie Wall and we would do our night dive here too. We descended and the trouble began (there had to be something right?) My right ear began to give me trouble as it occasionally does. WB signaled that he had spotted garden eels but I couldn’t descend to see them. He was patient as ever when I ascended several feet before going down again. After my ear equalized we checked out the garden eels. They are tiny little eels that look like grass in the sand. When you swim up to them they hide back in the sand, and as you swim away they pop back out. Impossible to take a picture of, but it was something I’d always wanted to see.

The night dive at Pixie Wall was similar to the first night dive. Trevally’s were using our lights to their benefit, and poor little fish would become dinner before our eyes. WB sat out this dive and my new dive buddy brought a black light, which lit up the coral spectacularly. It’s spooky swimming along with nothing but a black light lighting your way. Unfortunately, my right ear really started to give me trouble, and I was thankful when we ended our dive. During dinner my ear was pulsing and WB offered me a Claritin. I figured it wouldn’t hurt and took one before bed.

“Goooooood Mooooorning! Wakey Wakey!” My ear felt a lot better today. Thank goodness! Five dives in one day must have screwed with my sinuses and I was glad to take the decongestant (need to remember that for next time). We jumped in the water for the first dive of the day at Steve’s Bommie, which I think was my favorite dive. No really, this one was my favorite! RD also joined us, so we had 1 more person to find all the cool stuff!

Can you see the Wobbegong Shark?

I didn’t expect to see anything new but this dive proved me so wrong! The dive crew swam around with glowsticks and tagged where everything was, so we just went to the glowsticks and saw all the cool things. There was a wobbegong shark, a big purple rockfish, a mantis shrimp, a beautiful lacy scorpionfish, and a giant puffer.

After a big lunch we went to our last dive site, Graceland. I almost want to say this was my favorite dive but I won’t! At first I didn’t think much of it, but the further we swam the more amazing the reef structures were. It was like swimming through someone’s well-maintained garden. I swam along, taking picture after picture, aimlessly following the guys.

Towards the end of our dive a huge seabass swam in front of me. I turned around to tell my dive buddies, but when I spotted WB he pointed vigorously to something else. There was a giant Parrotfish swimming towards him! I couldn’t believe how big it was.

After the excitement of the parrotfish I knew it was time to head back to the line. I looked around and suddenly realized I had no idea where I was! I had been aimlessly following the guys and didn’t pay attention to our route. After a few more minutes of swimming I realized they didn’t know where they were either. Whoops!

We ascended and saw the boat off in the distance. I thought back to our dive brief and realized we were in the exact opposite spot we should have been. We started the long swim back. The crew had spotted us and were on the way to pick us up when the motor in the little boat died. Oh well, I needed the exercise after eating so much on Spoilsport.  We made it back safely and had a good laugh. ZC heard the crew yell “3 on the starboard side!” and immediately knew it was us. Always an adventure!

My ear was beginning to hurt again, and this dive seemed like the perfect end to the trip. Although I could have dove Graceland one more time, I sat out the 12th dive and had a hot shower instead.

Our last evening was reserved for (you guessed it) more eating! It was BBQ night, and the Spoilsport crew whipped up steak, lamb, and shrimp for our last night. They also brought out the champagne and some live entertainment which was…well, entertaining! The Captain put on his “fun shirt” and a bandanna, and played on the guitar for us. I must say I was surprised he didn’t have a platinum record. He really was gold, and he couldn’t go the whole set without some audience participation. Somewhere there is a video of the 20 of us dancing to “Home Among the Gum Trees.”

Give me a home among the gum trees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clothesline out the back
Verandah out the front
And an old rocking chairAfter lots of champagne, a little bit of wine, and too much food, it was time to head to my tiny room. Rumor had it we were in for another “bumpy night” and I wanted to fall asleep before the rollercoaster started. I tried really hard to sleep and ignore my body flying 5 inches in the air and slamming back down on the bed. Sadly it was too late and the delicious champagne and BBQ was wasted on the toilet. I finally fell asleep, but certainly didn’t sleep. I remember thinking in my dazed slumber that I couldn’t wait for the night to be over.

After a terribly long night I was very thankful to hear “Gooooood Mooooorning! Wakey wakey!” In fact, I had placed my phone right next to the bed and was ready to hit the record button. I couldn’t think of a better alarm than “Gooooood Mooooorning! Wakey wakey!” But I rapidly looked around the room and couldn’t find my phone! It had flown across the room in the middle of the night and by the time I found it I was too late to record my favorite wake up call. Sad Day.

We were back on land! After paying our tabs and a quick breakfast we said our goodbyes. I was sad it was over because the diving was awesome and I’d made some great friends. However, I was very ready to get off the boat. Little did I know I’d have sea legs for 2 days, which I hope is normal. I did keep in touch with my new found friends through, and we decided to try for Maldives 2017! Let’s see if it actually happens. I’m not sure I can do much more than 4 days, but darn it I’ll try.

My trip to the Great Barrier Reef was everything I had imagined. The colors, corals, reef, marine life – everything was amazing! Many things that I wanted to see for a very long time were now checked off my list. While walking around Cairns later that day we heard a local say “I’ve always wanted to go on a Mike Ball trip.” I completely understand how Mike Ball got this great reputation. The boat was great, I didn’t want for anything (except a cooperative stomach), the food was delicious, and the crew was spot-on. If you decide to do a liveaboard on the Great Barrier Reef go with Mike Ball. You won’t regret it!