As published in Divelog Australasia #311, June 2014

You know you’re in a remote location when you turn full circle and see nothing but water and sky, an exhausted bird lands on the boat deck for a rest and your mobile phone clearly has no service.

I’m at Osprey Reef, aboard SpoilSport, the luxury liveaboard run by Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.  I’m very lucky to be on the 4 night dive trip as a winner in the Underwater Festival 2013.  This 4 night trip is best suited to advanced divers who are comfortable at deeper depths and diving plummeting walls in exposed sea conditions.

I’ve been to Osprey and the Great Barrier Reef before, around 6 years ago when I was fairly new to diving and underwater photography and didn’t fully appreciate liveaboard trips.  Now I’m back, armed with a better camera and a lot more dive experience under my belt.

Our expedition started in Cairns at Trinity Wharf where the friendly crew welcomed us on-board with champagne and cheese.  I’m the only Aussie guest, with a dozen divers from Russia, couples from Austria and Argentina and a few Americans.

As the boat is guided out to sea, we settle into our cabins, sort out our dive gear and nitrox, and introductions take place along with safety briefings. With so many non-English speaking divers on-board, the safety brief and subsequent dive briefs are ‘interesting’ as trip director Kerrin speaks slowly and makes extensive use of the maps and hand gestures to ensure everyone understands.  He pauses regularly while messages are translated from English to Russian and Spanish.

I’m staying in a standard cabin and due to a last minute cancellation, I have it all to myself.  This is probably a good thing as it doesn’t take long for me to completely cover the second single bed with all my camera gear.  All guest cabins are on the main dive deck level and a standard cabin has its own ensuite and views over the open ocean.  In the cabin, the air-con runs 24/7, fresh towels are no problem and the two single beds mean no tricky climbing onto bunks.

This is SpoilSport’s first trip since a month-long refit and after a slight delay in departure, she begins her overnight journey of 130 nautical miles towards Lizard Island for our first day of diving.

The next morning we’re at the top of the Ribbon Reefs on the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea.  After a cooked breakfast to rival that of any 5 star hotel, we gather on the dive deck for our first dive brief.

We’re at Challenger Bay, an easy dive to get everyone familiar with their gear and the dive conditions.   I opt for my 60mm macro lens as I get my photography eye back in and we see giant clams, pink eye gobies, pipehorse, lizardfish, coral trout, basselets and shrimp gobies in the sand.

Our second dive is at the famous Cod Hole and I swap over to my wide angle fish eye lens.  Within seconds of descending, there are two large Potato Cod sitting right under the boat.  They pose perfectly, swaying left to right so you can photograph their every angle, they’ve clearly done this before!

After a few photos, we head along the reef and there always seems to be a cod in sight, some opening their mouths and gills wide for the cleaner wrasse to pick out the parasites.   White tip reef sharks cruise by as we explore the bommies surrounded by sand patches.

At the end of the dive, we’re called over to a small patch of coral to see a Rhinopius that was spotted by one of the Russians.  It’s a Lacy Rhinopius, one I’ve not seen before so I’m grateful to take a few photos.

Our third dive is at Snake Pit, and as the name would suggest, there are snakes!  I’ve seen Banded Sea Kraits before but not Olive Sea Snakes so I’m keen to jump in and find some.  They are much bigger and thicker than I expected as they curiously explore the reef.  We also see more sharks, lionfish, soft and hard corals, moray eels and seafans and although the vis is down and the water is a bit milky, it’s still a fun dive.

I decide to skip the night dive and opt for an early night after the big pasta dinner.  SpoilSport will again be steaming overnight, this time 85 nautical miles to Osprey Reef, and I’m keen to get to sleep before the rough ride over open seas.  As someone prone to seasickness even on the flattest of days, I always take seasickness tablets daily when on liveaboard trips.

We awake the next morning to nothing but ocean, as far as the eye can see.

After a light breakfast, we’re jumping in at Fairy Grotto.  The first thing I notice is the colour of the water, a deep dark blue, it reminds me of the water in Papua New Guinea.   This site has caves and swimthroughs plus lots of seafans, whip corals and anemones.

Returning to the boat for second breakfast (or Hobbit’s breakfast as I like to call it), we then have open deck diving at the Admiralty Anchor dive site.  There’s plenty of time to get in two dives and we explore swimthrough tunnels and steep walls and I photograph more corals and seafans, using my unsuspecting dive buddy as a model from time to time.

After lunch, it’s the dive we’ve all been waiting for, the shark feed at North Horn!  A ripping surface current sees us all tightly holding onto the rope as we head to the reef wall.  Looking down you can see the shark numbers building, they certainly know what’s coming. Once at the reef wall, the current drops off and we take our positions along the wall.  I choose a spot at the very end of the coral amphitheatre in the hope of getting bubble-free shots of sharks in the blue.  The feed bin is hauled down onto the bommie and then brought around in front of each of us so we get a close look at the sharks as they follow.  There’s at least 40 sharks casually cruising around us including white tips, grey reef sharks and a few silvertips.  As the lid of the bin is opened, the feed begins and even the big potato cod are fearless in amongst the action.  Five or so minutes later, the food is gone and so are the sharks.  We finish the dive with a swim along the wall with a few curious sharks before heading back into the surface current and onto the boat.

We head back to Admiralty Anchor for a night dive where we spot large bumphead parrotfish sleeping cuddled up to the reef wall.  I’ve put the 60mm macro lens back on my camera and spend the dive looking for small things including all the cool crustaceans that come out after dark.  There’s also feeding sea cucumbers, baby lionfish and lots of open and feeding crinoids and basket stars.

We moor overnight at Osprey, enjoying a delicious roast dinner and a reef ecology talk.

Our final day of diving at Osprey sees us jumping in at False Entrance and the wide angle lens is back on the camera.  Once again I’m amazed at the deep blue of the water and photograph the fans and soft corals hanging off the walls.

After breakfast, we pile into the dinghys to be dropped along the North Horn wall for a drift dive back to the boat.  The reef wall is stunning, dripping with colourful seafans and bright red whip corals.  Sharks patrol out in the blue and a large school of barracuda sits just off the wall.

After lunch, it’s open deck again at Halfway.  We fit in another two dives and I decide to shoot wide angle for the first dive and macro for the second, concentrating on fish portraits.  Halfway has lots to see including anemomes full of families of anemomefish, seafans, basselets, yellow damselfish and hawkfish.

The last night is party night and the champagne is popped again as we enjoy prawns from the BBQ as the sun sets.  With the full moon shimmering on the water’s surface, we tuck into a BBQ (including kangaroo for the overseas visitors) before sadly packing up our gear for the trip home.  The boat is on the move again too, steaming overnight back to Lizard Island where we’ll disembark the following morning.

After a group photo on the sundeck, we farewell the crew and are ferried over to Lizard Island in the dinghys for the flight back to Cairns.  There is a little bit of time to explore the island, named by Captain Cook in 1770, and get views from the hill of the water and the boats anchored in the bay.  We then wait at the airstrip for the planes to arrive which are carrying the next batch of divers for the 3 night trip back down the Ribbon Reefs back to Cairns.

Surely there is no better way to end a dive trip than a low level flight over the reef, giving a different view of the beauty of the reef.  The sky is clear and the green and blue hues of the reef are stunning from above.  The stricken Emily wreck, perched on top of the reef and now a safe haven for birds, is a highlight of the flight.

Sometimes it’s the small things on a trip that really make a difference – the mints left on your pillow after your cabin has been cleaned, the water bottle in your dive tub and the endless supply of tea, coffee, biscuits and fresh fruit (if you get there before the Russians!).

Thanks to the SpoilSport crew for a great trip – Trevor, Rich, Marcus, Kerrin, Levi, Siana, Froya, Bryce, Ollie, Howard, Scott and Stuart.  And a very big thanks to Mike Ball and the Underwater Festival.

All photographs taken by Tammy Gibbs with a Nikon D7100, Nauticam housing, 2 x Inon Z240 strobes.