Australia Liveaboards
Spirit of Freedom
Spirit of Freedom is a 120-foot liveaboard built to explore the Great Barrier Reef in comfort and style. It hosts maximum of 26 guests in 11 air-conditioned cabins with private bathrooms. There is a variety of cabins to suit your needs and budget. Three large staterooms have either a queen-size bed or a double bed and televisions with DVD players. Five double cabins feature a double bed and an upper single. One twin share has single bunk beds and two quad shares have two sets of bunk beds. Common areas are spacious and all diving is done from a water-level dive platform.
There are four different itineraries to choose from. Cod Hole & Ribbon Reefs 3-night itinerary departs on Mondays from Cairns and returns by low-level flight from Lizard Island back to Cairns. Coral Sea 4-night itinerary departs by low-level from from Cairns to Lizard Island on Thursdays, and returns to Cairns by boat. Cod Hole & Coral Sea 7-night itineraries depart on Mondays (depart by plane, return by boat) or Thursdays (by plane both ways with a 5-hour stop in Cairns on Monday).
Spoilsport is a 100-foot fully air-conditioned liveaboard diving Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Twin hull design makes the vessel very stable and a huge dive deck with great entry and exit platform diving a breeze. Spoilsport is known for its excellent Aussie crew, relaxed athmosphere and fantastic food. Onboard you will find fifteen cabins for a maximum of 29 guests. Four premimum cabins – two with one double bed, two with a double and a single bed – have oceanviews and private bathrooms. Four standard cabins with two single beds also feature oceanviews and have private bathrooms. Four club cabins have a twin bunk each and a private bathroom. Three budget cabins also have a twin bunk each and share a bathroom. Perks such as free Australian wine with dinner and free reef ecology course are included in the price.
Coral Sea Safari is a seven-night itinerary with unlimited dives at Cod Hole, Osprey Reef, Ribbon Reef and Lizard Island departing on Thursdays from Cairns. Four-night Fly Dive Coral Sea itinerary departs Cairns on Thursday with a return low altitude flight from Lizard Island on Monday. Fly Dive Cod Hole itinerary is the shortest with three nights starting with a flight to Lizard Island on Monday and ending at Cairns on Thursday. Spoilsport offers Nitrox and dive courses and has two tenders onboard.
Taka II is a new 100-foot liveaboard launched in 2004 diving Great Barrier Reef, including Osprey Reef and Cod Hole. While Taka has been diving these waters for almost twenty years, the new vessel makes the experience more comfortable and fun! A variety of different cabin types suit all needs and budgets. The master stateroom is located on the upper deck and features a double bed and a private bathroom. Four cabins with a lower double and upper bunk and a private bathroom, and a twin cabin with a bunk bed and a private bathroom are also located on the upper deck. The lower deck features five twin cabins and two quad cabins, all with shared facilities.
Taka offers two main itineraries that can be combined to one weeklong trip. Cod Hole and Northern Great Barrier Reef departs Tuesdays for three nights, and Cod Hole and Coral Sea itinerary is for four nights departing on Friday. If you combine these two trips, you will have a couple hours in Cairns between the two trips. From June to August, Taka II is involved with dwarf minke whale research that gives you the opportunity to swim with these gentle giants.
True North is a luxurious 112-foot cruise vessel exploring Australia’s remote coastal waters and beyond. From March to September, the ship sails around Kimberley on 13-night itineraries between Broome, Wyndham and Hunter. Rest of the year is devoted to one-of-a-kind adventures including Rowley Shoals, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and during the holidays, Sydney. Six expedition boats whisk you into the narrow river ways to explore further, and onboard life is easy with plenty of space to relax and excellent meals to enjoy. For an extra thrill and to reach places that can’t be accessed by boat, the True North has a seven-seater helicopter onboard. Activities offered include naturalist presentations, scenic walks, cultural visits, fishing, snorkeling, diving and more depending on the location. Even today the Kimberley remains as one of the world’s truly unique wilderness areas, a wild and beautiful panorama of rugged mountain ranges, spectacular gorges and majestic waterfalls, immense reefs and extraordinary flora and fauna.
True North has eighteen cabins onboard for a maximum of 36 guests. The four Explorer Cabins are on the upper deck and feature a king-size bed which can be converted to two single beds. The River Cabins are located on the main deck and also feature convertible king-size beds. The Ocean Cabins are on both main and lower decks and have twin single beds. All cabins have private bathrooms, air-conditioning and satellite telephones. True North has an internet café. If you are lucky, you can join in the fun when the crew steers the vessel underneath a waterfall to wash it!