The Spirit of Freedom was custom built for cruising Australia’s Coral Sea region. Design features include electronic stabilizers for passenger comfort, heavy duty medium rev marine diesel engines giving fuel efficiency, reliability, low vibration and sound emission, and a state of the art air-conditioning system, specifically suited to tropical conditions. Spirit of Freedom has 11 guest cabins, all with private bathroom and air-conditioning. There are various cabin styles to best suit your requirements and budget. Cabin types available are Ocean View Deluxe, Ocean View Standard, Stateroom, Standard Double/Twin cabin and Quad cabin.
The dining saloon in the centre of Spirit of Freedom serves as a meals area, briefing area, theatre room and general meeting place. The 42 inch wide screen TV is often the focus of attention for briefings, movies or documentaries. The forward lounge is another great place for chilling out and relaxing, with comfortable couch seating and beanbags. Here you will find a coffee machine, library – including marine reference books, Flat Screen TV & DVDs and a camera work station for photographers. The Spirit of Freedom’s top deck is a great place to relax between dives, with undercover and open areas containing tables, chairs, comfortable lounge seating and sun-lounges. The top deck is also a great place in the evening, where you can enjoy a quiet drink or get together with fellow divers. On the Spirit of Freedom you will eat well! With four plentiful meals each day, including a continental and cooked breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in-between dive snacks. During your trip you will enjoy at least one alfresco BBQ dinner on the top deck. The ships bar contains a good range of quality Australian and New Zealand wines, plus beer, UDL spirits and soft drinks. The Spirit of Freedom’s dive deck contains individual stations for each guest. There are options for both air and 32% Nitrox. For photographers there is a camera wash tub, small camera table and air gun. Fresh water showers are located aft of the dive deck, and deck towels are provided after each dive.
Spirit of Freedom offers the following itineraries:
-7 night Cod Hole, Ribbon Reefs and Coral Sea
-7 night Far North Expeditions
7 night Cod Hole, Ribbon Reefs and Coral Sea trips
Spirit of Freedom offers weekly 7 night trips to Cod Hole, Ribbon Reefs and the Coral Sea. These trips start and finish in Cairns on Mondays. During these trips you will travel 240km along the rarely visited Ribbon Reefs, to the Cod Hole. Along the ‘Ribbons’ you will encounter clouds of colourful tropical fish, an incredible variety of vibrant healthy corals, giant clams, anemones, huge schools of cruising pelagic fish, and a family of giant Potato Cod. During your 7 days, you will also spend 2 days at Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea. An old volcanic atoll lying 220km off the coast, Osprey Reef is renowned for its spectacular walls to 1000m, its massive soft corals, shark action, and exceptional visibility. ‘North Horn’ at the tip of Osprey is a site where Grey Reef Sharks, Blacktip Reef Sharks, Silvertips, and the occasional Oceanic Whitetip congregate. Here you can experience Spirit of Freedom’s shark attraction dive! These 7 night trips also includes an overnight stay in secluded Watson’s Bay and a couple of hours ashore at Lizard Island. Each year during June and July Dwarf Minke Whales migrate to the Ribbon Reefs giving divers and snorkelers a rare chance for an underwater encounter with these beautiful baleen Whales. The inquisitive nature of the Minke Whale brings them close to boats to linger with divers and snorkelers, at times as close as a metre away. The Whales are mostly encountered alone or in family groups of two or three, but can be in groups of up to eight.
7 night Far North Expeditions
The Far Northern Reefs are known as the isolated reefs north of Lizard Island that extend to the east the tip of Cape York peninsular, around 500 nautical miles north of Cairns. One of the last totally pristine areas of the Great Barrier Reef, these reefs are seldom visited by any boats, and many of the hundreds of reefs in the region are yet to be fully explored. The Far Northern reefs are famous for their fantastic wall dives, pinnacles alive with fish, massive coral heads, and reef fish and invertebrates of incredible variety and colour. The nesting season for the Green Sea Turtle runs from October to March, and during this time thousands upon thousands of Turtles descend on the many small coral cays in the region. The Australian Spring is also the best weather season to dive the outer walls, offering a great chance of encounters with Sharks, Manta Rays and massive schools of pelagics. A small number of trips to the Far Northern Reefs are available each year in the months of October and November.
Prices include: Cabin accommodation on Spirit of Freedom, all diving, tanks/weights, all meals, Australian wine and soft drinks with the evening meal, tea & coffee, and return transfers between Cairns hotels and the vessel on the day of embarkation and disembarkation.
Reef Levy: 25 AUD (all 7 night trips)
Nitrox: 180 AUD (all 7 night trips)
Domestic flight: 390-400 AUD (Far North Expeditions only)
Spirit of Freedom Video