Adrian S 5
15 Oct 2021
I had the most amazing time on board the Ocean Quest on the 5 day/4 night liveaboard dive trip this October. Levi and his team were fantastic, fun, friendly and highly professional.
The food onboard was plenty and excellent (compliments to the Chef!) and the dive sites were nothing short of spectacular, and we also had perfect conditions all week, which helped.
I was lucky to board the Ocean Quest in Cairns at the start of the voyage and return to Cairns the same way after 4 nights. People booking different trips (1,2,3 nights) would have been picked up by day boat, dive on it in the morning, and then meet up with the Ocean Quest on an outer reef site - and/or vice versa. This way, the mix of people on board changes every day.
This doesn’t affect the daily routine much for the remaining passengers, in fact the schedule is the same every day: breakfast, 2 dives, lunch followed with a longer break (during which the above mentioned changeover occurs), one afternoon dive, and a night dive after dinner, then dessert before the bar closes at 10pm. The only thing I would change is to have a first dive before breakfast instead, because both the first morning dive and the night dive is done with a pretty full stomach straight after the meals.
The boat is moved twice daily, in the morning before breakfast and at lunchtime, which means there were plenty of sites to explore during the trip. However because the boat only visited the Norman and Saxon Reefs, they could not avoid visiting two sites twice, which was not a big deal but more variety would have been appreciated.
The twin cabin was more spacious than expected, but they could use a little TLC with the cupboard walls showing some black mould and could generally be cleaned around the edges a bit more. The window shades are also not supposed to be opened, perhaps they could be replaced at some point with new ones or a different system. But with a desk, enough power ports and a reasonably spacious bathroom with shower and a button-push toilet (as opposed to a “pump” marine toilet) still very comfortable all in all. And did I mention the showers? Always hot and with excellent water pressure, just perfect every time!
When travelling solo, you most likely share a cabin with someone else. I was matched with a diver roughly the same age, same qualifications (Rescue Diver), same number of dives (we both did our 100th dive on this trip), and on top of that similar jobs - it was either well planned or just a coincidence, but of course we got on extremelywell and remained dive buddies for the whole trip, and therefore never needed to pay for a guide to dive with us (which is otherwise $15/dive/person).
I could definitely recommend Divers Den and the Ocean Quest Liveaboard. The longer, the better and I would do it again, although next time perhaps on a Minke Whale trip for something different.
