GBR CAIRNS TAKA or Spirit of Freedom Which Live Aboard 2 Pick????

CleveYank

CleveYank

20 Years and Over
Need help from your experiences on these live aboards.

1
Pluses and minus of either and or your good or bad experience.

2
Is there an experience limit? I'm at 52 or so dives with advanced open water. Wife I think from memory only 30 dives regular open water.

3
Is there anything about diving around Osprey that one should know about? Currents, wildlife etc?

4
The larger cabin suite is behind the engine room, is that a noisy cabin??? (light sleeper...I practically wake up when a spider from the cieling touches the floor, LOL )

Anyone with experience please offer any useful information. Like to make sure that this trip of a lifetime is remembered for all the right reasons.

Thanks for your help and advice.

Mike
 
I went out to Osprey on the Nimrod back in 2004. The Nimrod was sold and became a research vessel (I believe) so I can't directly comment on TAKA or Spirit of Freedom.

Having done a couple of live aboards on the GBR, I think one thing I'd look for at this point is a boat that carries less people. I'd also look at the itinerary of the live aboard. I'd go with the one that goes the furthest out on the reef for the longest period of time. I think it may be TAKA, but I'm not 100% sure, that has exclusive mooring rights at a couple of reefs, so that may be a nice perk to see a reef that the other dive operators can't visit. If you've never been to the GBR before, you'll be surprised by how much traffic the typical dive sites get, especially the closer reefs that are accessible to the day trippers and the short live aboards (2-3 nighters.) There is absolutely wear and tear on the heavily touristed reefs and, anecdotally, I'd say that the fish get spooked away as well.

For me, having a ton of other divers in the water detracts from any scuba experience, but that's just my opinion.

I really lucked out when I went to Osprey. We were the only boat out there and there were only nine other divers on my boat. Overall, Osprey is quite good (definitely a cut above most offerings out of Cairns or Townsville) and has tons and tons of sharks. Some parts of the reef get a lot of current but those are the dives I would want, as I've also found in my experience that current tends to attract bigger fish. I'm sure that both of those boats will offer drift dives.

I'm not sure how long you're staying in Australia, but if you have more time and money, I highly recommend getting up to Papua New Guinea. I dove there last July, and it was magnificent and better overall than what I saw at the GBR or Osprey.

Osprey is very good though.
 
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