4 Days 3 Nights – Coral Sea Reefs Shark Diving Expedition (Oct – April)

Explore Where the Ocean Rules in the Coral Sea Queensland

DEPARTURE INFORMATION

Boarding is from Marlin Marina, E finger, Cairns at 3:00 pm, return time 8.00 am

THE DIVING

Diving in this section of the Coral Sea is a great experience for both new and experienced adventurous divers. This trip visits Holmes Reef (and sometimes also Flora Reef), reef systems lying some 90 miles outside the Great Barrier Reef. Due to its isolation the reef has incredible visibility (almost always over 30 meters, (if you don’t have at least one dive at Holmes Reef of 30m plus or see any Sharks, Rum Runner offers a 100% Money back guarantee!), abundant sharks and large pelagic fish life. Divers have observed the reef sharks here at shark feeds for 35 years, and it is still a spectacular sight.

We can’t think of any Coral Sea trips where you can get up to 10 more amazing and adventurous dives. We emphasize the term ‘adventurous’ as any open ocean trip can get bumpy, and once outside the Great Barrier Reef there is no protection from Pacific Ocean swells on the trip out to Holmes Reef (or back, but it’s always better, we highly suggest seasickness medications).

While the diving is always amazing all year, the most certainty of a comfortable trip would be between October and April, the less windy months even though that’s cyclone season.
The diving on this trip is suitable for beginner OW divers with our crew, to the experienced diver wanting to do their own diving schedule.

OVERVIEW

With this trip you get the amazing visibility that the Coral Sea Reefs are famous for, with visibility reaching 50 meters plus and is rarely less than 30 meters.

Very little of these reefs have ever been dived, surrounded by depths of 1000 meters, rising vertically to the surface, offering magnificent wall and shark diving opportunities.

On this trip you can make up to 8 Holmes Reef dives including 1 night dive.
You also get to dive with large pelagic, (yes sharks are seen on nearly every dive here!), as well as huge gorgonian fans, resilient hard and soft corals and several species of tropical fish endemic only to the Coral Sea, making Holmes Reef a truly unique dive location. As of this time, Rum Runner is the only vessel that visits Holmes Reefs regularly, so you are diving at amazingly pristine dive sites.

Being such large reefs, sand cays and large sheltered areas have formed over the centuries, with good anchorages and dive sites manageable for novice divers. The beauty of these Coral Sea Reefs is their diversity in dive sites and marine life, offering extremely good dive conditions and excellent visibility, leaving room for us to explore new realms of diving and keeping it adventurous, yet safe.

The open ocean isolation also draws in large pelagic fish such as dogtooth tuna, mackerel and barracuda. These reefs are great places to spot sharks of all kinds, especially white tipped and grey reef sharks. With Rum Runner expect Silver tip sharks and more!

Scuba diving the Coral Sea reefs can be a pretty expensive proposition, with trips being focused on 5-star comfort, service and priced out of the range of many novice and beginner diver budgets