Itinerary

Sample itinerary, subject to change based on conditions.

Thursday:

• Check in at our office (3 Abbott St, Cairns) between 8.30am and 4pm.
• From 4:00 pm: Make your own way to Mondos Café, Bar & Grill (200m from MBDE office) to meet your fellow passengers. Please note that dinner is not provided on the first evening so you may wish to eat before boarding.
• 5:50 pm: Our crew will lead you from Mondos to board Spoilsport. Enjoy a glass of champagne and light snacks while your Trip Director provides a full briefing.
• 6:30 pm: Spoilsport departs Cairns
• Time to organise any rental equipment and put your dive gear together on the dive deck.

Friday: (4 dives + night dive)

This is a sample of a ‘typical day’, however exact times may vary to optimise the prevailing weather conditions on the day.

• 6:30 am: Wake up call, light breakfast available in dining room
• 7:00 am: Dive brief & diving commences
• 9:00 am: Full cooked breakfast
• 10:30 am: Dive briefing & dive. “Open decks” accommodate 1-2 dives either am or pm
• 2:00 pm: Lunch
• 3:30 pm: Dive brief & diving
• 4:30 pm: Afternoon tea
• 6:30 pm: Night dive brief & dive
• 8:00 pm: Dinner

Saturday: (4 dives + night dive)

• As per above

Sunday: (4 dives):

• Early morning docking.
• 7.00 am: Light breakfast.
• 8:00 am: Disembark and courtesy transfer to Cairns inner city hotels, the airport or our office where we can store your luggage until 5pm if you have a later flight.

• As per above. Exit last dive by 4pm.
• As the sun sets we pour the champagne, lay out the nibbles and get ready for an Aussie BBQ party night. Don’t forget to wear your loudest tropical shirt or dress and sing along to music played by our talented crew.
• Overnight cruise to Lizard Island.

Monday:

• 7:00 am: Light breakfast
• 8:00 am: Disembark Spoilsport. Our crew will walk you to the airport on Lizard Island.
• 9:30 am: Board a light aircraft for a low level flight over the reef back to Cairns (flight time approx. 1 hour).
• 11:45 am: Land Cairns and courtesy transfer to inner Cairns city hotels, the airport or our office where we can store your luggage until 5pm if you have a later flight.

Important:

• We recommend that you allow 24 hours between your last dive and your onward flight (all diving is finished by 4pm Sunday).
• A luggage allowance applies to the flight from Cairns to Lizard Island:
- 25kg / 55lb per person plus 3kg / 6.5lb – carry on.
- An additional 10kg/22lb is allowed for professional photo/video housed syste

Highlights:

Itinerary selection subject to weather forecast, 6:30pm Thursday departure.

A: Standard Itinerary:

• All dives 100 miles north of Cairns.
• Great Barrier Reef: Steve’s Bommie, Joani’s Joy, & Clam Beds.
• Coral Sea walls with huge soft coral trees.
• Big fish action in 40 metre viz. at Osprey.
• 2-3 shark attraction dives, 100’s of sharks.
• False Entrance, deep wall pelagic action

Or B: Fair Weather Itinerary (Preferred):

• Weather permitting our best selection of Coral Sea dives at, Holmes, Bougainville & Osprey. Max out on viz. pelagics & sharks.
• Holmes -Descend the spectacular Nonki Bommie thrusting up from 35m.
• Bougainville – Explore the Dungeons & Dragons labyrinth of caves & caverns.
• Osprey -2-3 shark attraction dives, 100’s of sharks.
Spectacular topography, visibility & pelagics at False Entrance.
• Giant Potato Cod at Bougainville & Osprey.
• Great Barrier Reef not included in Itinerary B.
• If itinerary B doesn’t proceed, reverts to A.

A & B: Stunning 250km low level Great Barrier Reef flight from Lizard Is. to Cairns.

Steve's Bommie - Great Barrier Reef

Steve’s Bommie is a photographers dream with an incredible quantity of diverse marine life. Hunt out such creatures as stonefish, scorpionfish, octopus, clown anemone fish and turtles, not to mention the many schools of fish that call this place home

Joani's Joy - Great Barrier Reef

Hard coral bommies rise vertically from 20m depth in turret-like formations swarming with blue damsels, sweetlips and the odd cuttlefish. Further along the reef, the gardens meet a vertical wall cut with caverns where sunlight filters down through the nooks and crannies.

Clam Beds - Great Barrier Reef

Hard coral gardens spread along the reef slope from 20m to 5m, dotted with giant clams that grow to over a metre in length and weigh over 200kg. Vibrantly coloured mantles make for fantastic photo opportunities and an abundant fish population adds to the magic.

Amazing - Holmes Reef - Coral Sea

A maze of bommies create tunnels and swim throughs, great to explore. The site provides a great habitat for fish as well as creatures such as octopus, cuttlefish and rock lobster, plus it’s a hotspot for grey reef and silvertip sharks which patrol the shallow reef wall.

Nonki Bommie - Holmes Reef - Coral Sea

Soft coral and sea fan enthusiasts will love this dive. Nonki Bommie rises to the surface from 35 metres and it is split with a huge crack down the middle filled with giant yellow and orange sea fans. Sharks and other fish are attracted to the site, making for an exciting dive.

MV Antonio Tarabocchia - Coral Sea

This cargo ship struck the Reef in 1961. The scattered remains include a huge engine block and propeller which now lie on the gentle sloping terraces of the reef. The clear water, strewn wreckage and abundant fish life, including resident potato cod, make fantastic diving.

Fairy Grotto - Osprey Reef - Coral Sea

A ‘mountain range’ of big coral bommies flanked by a steep wall dropping to over a 1000 meters. The many small caverns and swim throughs at this site give it its name, the largest of which is spacious enough to fit several divers.

Admiralty Anchor - Osprey Reef - Coral Sea

Named after an anchor lodged midway through a tunnel that makes for an exciting swim through. A maze of huge towering bommies are home to plenty of fish and a delight to explore. Below them a sheer wall attracts sharks and occasionally manta rays.

Shark Diving

This expedition offers three shark attraction dives: a shark observation dive with around 10 sharks; an exhilarating shark feed with up to 40 sharks; and a private shark shoot, for small groups of photographers allowing extremely close and clean shots.

Dungeons & Dragons - Bougainville - Coral Sea

The reef top here is cut with an incredible maze of caves, tunnels and swim throughs – great to poke around to discover fish and other critters. Or venture beyond the shallows to a wall descending to around 1000m, where you can find sharks and barracuda.

Crystal Plateau - Bougainville Reef - Coral Sea

The reef top descends to a spectacular terrace of hard corals at 20-30m before edging over into an abyss hundreds of metres deep. Sea fans and soft corals adorn the reef wall where sharks also patrol.

False Entrance - Osprey Reef - Coral Sea

This site never disappoints with exciting fish action alongside colourful gorgonian fans, whips and soft corals. Resident barracuda and schooling big eye trevally make for great photo opportunities, and keep an eye out for cruising hammerheads out in the blue.

North Horn - Osprey Reef - Coral Sea

Welcome to shark central! Watch a controlled shark feed with 10-30 grey reef, white-tip reef, silver tip sharks. Keen photographers will have the opportunity to do a private shark shoot dive with limited numbers of divers, ensuring fantastic, clean and up close photos.

Western Wall - Osprey Reef - Coral Sea

Drift along a sheer wall plummeting over 1000m, cut with overhangs and grottos lined with soft corals and fans. Surgeon fish and fusiliers flow up and down the wall like waterfalls. Search for dogtooth tuna, grey reef sharks, barracuda and other pelagics out in the blue.

Scenic reef flight

End with a low level scenic flight over the reef from Lizard Island back to Cairns. Captain James Cook landed on Lizard Island in 1770, climbing to its peak to search for a way through the labyrinth of coral. He named the island after the many monitor lizards that live here

Dive Site Guarantee!

Spoilsport’s outstanding stability minimizes disruption to your itinerary and your scuba diving experience. If weather forces an itinerary change we divert to the best, ‘safe, accessible sites’ to ensure you get the best scuba diving available. Unfavorable weather conditions prevent access to the Coral Sea 9% of the time. Most reliable Coral Sea access, September to January.

All itinerary details are subject to change, specific marine life cannot be guaranteed