The best scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef is found on this luxury charter

Just as surfers know the feeling of the eternal search for the perfect wave, if you really want to discover the best scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, you need to leave the wake of the traditional tour boats and take the charter route instead.

Boarding the M.Y. Flying Fish at the Port Douglas Crystalbrook Marina is a one-way ticket through some of the most pristine and revered dive spots on the Great Barrier Reef.

Over four nights and five days, this luxurious liveaboard dive charter to Lizard Island promises as much fine dining and first class service as bubbles blowing from your regulator.

Day 1

Live the superyacht life as you steam three hours towards Mackay Reef Sand Quay. Beaches don’t come much more secluded than this and a gourmet lunch will be served on the sand – a show-stopping entree to the two dive opportunities that will follow.

Day 2

While you were sleeping, the powers that be – aka your Captain – have prepared an exclusive morning date with Ribbon Reef #3. Well removed from land, pontoons, and reality, some of these reef systems are rarely visited, promising pristine coral gardens, vast plate corals, and remote pinnacles masked in curtains of fish. Case in point: Steve’s Bommie – well worth the hype you’ve read before.

This afternoon, Andy’s Postcard (aka Ribbon Reef #5) offers incredible immersion amongst hard corals, lionfish, nudibranchs, octopus, schooling trevally and barracuda.

Day 3

Another day, another morning surprise. Wake to Ribbon Reef #8 and wetsuit up for the Pixie Pinnacle and Pixie Gardens, renowned for their exceptional visibility. Scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef takes on an entirely new dimension after dark. Tonight, Challenger Bay awaits for a night dive.

Day 4

If this trip had a headliner, today would be it. Behold the Lighthouse Bommie at Ribbon Reef #10 – a 20-metre tower of coral that rises from the sea floor, where schools of snapper swarm at the base and the top is usually engulfed in a whirlpool of trevally. If you’re scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef in winter, expect the odd dwarf minke whale to pop by.

While you refuel with a sumptuous lunch onboard, you’ll steam to the very top of Ribbon Reef #10 – home of the famous Cod Hole where friendly potato cod await. Don’t be shy, they love to be hand-fed by divers. After the chance of a drift dive at Dynamite Pass, the final hour steam north to Lizard Island will allow you enough time to decompress for a final supper – an Aussie-style BBQ under the stars.

Learn more about scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef here.