Yongala Wreck & Coral Sea

The Yongala Wreck and Coral Sea Expedition is a very unique and incredible expedition and live board with Mike Ball Expeditions and Spoil sport. This is a diving trip that combines adventure diving with the world famous SS Yongala Wreck with dramatic vertical walls at Holmes and Flinders Reef. The reefs here are sites on the Great Barrier Reef off Townsville in eastern Australia which are both teeming with marine life. Yongala wreck & Coral Sea is a diving trip and expedition that is booked as a 7 night tour and only runs a few times a year.

Weather permitting, you will also dive at the SS Gothenburg wreck. A ship that sank under similar conditions but is considerably less well known. She can only be visited if the weather permits. Dive back in time and into history.

Summary: Large and abundant marine life and wreck diving. Large and numerous sharks are common around the wrecks, including tiger sharks and copper sharks. Here it is teeming with marine life and sometimes you are completely surrounded by fish. Sometimes you can also see large groupers here patrolling the artificial reefs. If you are lucky, a wobbegong or large stingray lies on the wreck and rests. Often there are schools of medium-sized fish that hunt and fill the reef with action.

Experience: You must be an Advanced diver or have logged at least 15 logged dives in the sea. You must have done at least 5 of these dives in the last 12 months.

Embarkation and Check-in: 18:00 at Spoilsport at Breakwater Marina, Townsville

Disembarkation: Thursday 8:00 - If multiple trips here are made then at Breakwater Marina, Town. Thursday 08:00 – Trinity Wharf, Cairns for all other departures

Highlights

Wheeler Reef
A very popular dive site located approximately 100 km from Townsville. With an average visibility of 30 meters plus and dive site depths ranging from 2 to 30 meters, perfect dive profiles and long bottom times are easy to achieve. Wheeler ranks as one of the best night dives on the reef, so enjoy.

Yongala Wreck
This world-class shipwreck is one of the main subjects of Sir David Attenborough's documentary about the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef. This 111-metre wreck, recognised as one of the world's best historic wreck dive sites and most famous wreck, lies on the starboard side at a depth of 30 metres. She sank during a cyclone on 23 March 1911. The wreck is now home to a spectacular concentration of marine life. Most spectacularly, tiger sharks regularly circle around and above the wreck.

Flinders Reef / Flinders Cay
Experience the spectacular walls that here drop 300 meters straight down and with an average visibility of 40 meters. Dive down to large gorgonians over 5 meters wide and view the huge swaying soft coral gardens. Mix this with patrolling sharks, tuna and barracuda out in the blue.

Holmes Reef
This is a twin reef system about 240 km east of Cairns. Holmes Reef offers adventurous divers a range of caves, tunnels, swim-throughs and deep crevices to explore. Go a little deeper to explore the dozens of caves adorned or even overflowing with soft coral. Or swim a little higher up and be seduced by the playful fish and schools of different species here on the reef. Some of the dive sites you will visit: Nonki Bommie, Amazing and South Holmes.