by Trevor Jackson

There’s a genuine steamships’ telegraph in my loungeroom. Salvaged from the depths. It’s in pretty good condition considering the time it spent underwater. Its bells still ring, and on the faceplate, it reads : Full Ahead, Half Ahead, Dead Slow, Finished with Engines. Inside; a series of chains and cogs once connected it from a wheelhouse, to an engine room. An identical telegraph in each room, enabled the captain and the engineer to ‘speak’ to each other. That’s how it was done in the golden age of steam. Famous ships like Titanic and Bismarck had them. Closer to home, Captain William Knight, master of the SS Yongala, now the world’s most fabulous wreck dive, had one beside him. It was the evening of March 23, 1911. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Cyclone Tracking Map of Yongala Wreck.

18:00: Full Ahead: Captain Knight could see the Whitsunday Passage begin to open up before him to the north. A brisk breeze from the south west wasn’t concerning him too much. If he had seen the warning flags when he left Mackay earlier, he might have done the prudent thing and anchored up. But he hadn’t seen them. The Dent Island lighthouse keeper watched the ship pass by at dusk. All seemed fine. Yongala steamed north at ‘Full Ahead’.

22:00: Half Ahead: Well before midnight, the weather took a dramatic turn.
A full gale from the south east kicked off. With the Whitsundays now well behind them, the developing gales ran rampant in the open sea space. Waves were mounting up to the east of Cape Upstart. By 22:00, Captain Knight was faced with the proverbial ‘rock/hard place’ decision. To his port, mainland Australia. To starboard, the coral. He couldn’t turn either way. His only option was to just run with it, but the further north he got, the greater the fetch behind him. The waves just kept getting bigger. Yongala was a fast ship. With a gale behind her she may have been doing close to 20 knots.
To steady the ship, and to keep her steering straight without actually surfing, Knight signals, ‘Half Ahead’.

23:30: Slow Ahead: Near the centre of a cyclone, you can attest to two things… mind numbing wind, and zero visibility. The poor visibility is caused by rain, and the rain would become Yongala’s nemesis. With the ship now struggling to keep straight, Captain Knight noticed a lagging in steam pressure. His fires were dying. Ordinarily, no amount of rain down the funnels would have any effect, but Yongala was now in the grim clutches of the cyclone…Niagara falls were cascading straight down the funnels. The fires went out…No fire, no steam, no forward motion….I like to think Captain Knight, in a fruitless gesture to give the engineers time to escape the ships’ bowels, tried to utilise the very last of his dwindling steam. The telegraph bell rang for ‘Slow Ahead’.

00:00: Finished with Engines: In a few minutes, Yongala would turn side on to the wind. Her fate was sealed. The next big set and she’d be gone. The ship and 122 souls, condemned to the dark depths. Silenced forever. Knight would have been on the bridge up until the waves swept him away. Perhaps in a final act of command, his knarred fingers shunted that telegraph handle one more notch, and a final bell, rang out that night, ‘Finished with Engines’.

Dive back in time and into history.
7 Night Yongala and Coral Sea Expeditions February | March | April 2023/24

The post Finished with Engines appeared first on Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.

Read More Go to Mike Ball Archive Mike Ball Dive Expeditions

On Spoilsport, there’s an unwritten mindset. It’s not in any manual and never spoken of too much.
It’s this… Go further. Do more. Be better. Give the most…. That’s the first time I’ve written it down, but in this past 6 or 8 months, we’ve seen it in its truest and most enduring form. Normally it just manifests itself as say, constantly improving itineraries, or finding ways to excel in the galley. But in 2022, it’s come down into the heart and soul of keeping a great company at the top of its game, and to be frank sometimes, it’s even been a matter of survival, one might even go so far as to say…. It’s been trench warfare!

Let me explain.

In the last six months we’ve had more than a few departure days that have gone thus. One minute we are good to go, the next we are two dive staff, a chef and an engineer down.  Covid protocols suddenly had us staring across the desk wondering if this is the time we have to cancel because we simply couldn’t crew the boat properly. Then it comes…. An email has been sent out, a phone call, a text, a facebook message….The mighty crew respond. In a matter of hours, a First Mate is ironing his old chef whites, an Engineer is setting up his dive gear, a chef is learning to make beds. We’ve flown Skippers back from interstate, had Instructors cleaning windows, and had a General Manager who came out and did lookout duty for 22 dives in a row!

No matter what it took, by the time the mighty ship cast lines each Thursday evening, she was competently and safely crewed, with people we knew could get the job done seamlessly. And they did!

Thankfully, those days look to be well and truly behind us. We can now reflect on how everyone just stood up and cracked on when the going got tough. There’s no doubt the crew of Spoilsport have a workplace worth believing in. All of them want to be part of something enduring and great, but mostly, I think we sailed proudly through those troubled waters because they themselves, as individuals, are inspiring.

The guests that have joined us this year have experienced trips that have equaled and exceeded any that we’ve ever done. The diving has been stunning, the food incredible… But above all, they’ve seen a crew bonded with joy and commitment, to always be the best…..  Go further. Do more. Be better. Give the most ……  That’s the kind of liveaboard experience I’d want … How bout you?

The post Go further. Do more. Be better. appeared first on Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.

Read More Go to Mike Ball Archive Mike Ball Dive Expeditions

“As soon as I gave my daughters their phones, I lost them. They disappeared into their rooms and came back 5 years later”…This was the warning our ship’s engineer had for me when the inevitable came. “Dad, can I get a phone?”. In our household we held off for as long as we could, yet at just 13, our eldest is now fully connected to the world. Each morning when I drive her to school we go past several school bus stops…..It doesn’t seem to matter who’s at those bus stops or what school they are heading to, or if they are boys or girls…all those kids are doing exactly the same thing…Staring at phones….and not just some of them, ALL of them, without exception.  Nobody is talking face to face to anybody! The most common thing I hear when I have a winge about this modern affliction is, ‘Well these are the times we live in and that’s what kids do nowadays, you wouldn’t want them to be left out would you?”. Usually this is enough to have me slinking back in behind my desk to check out my likes…but are we just copping out as parents by using that excuse?

Frankly, I don’t want to lose my eldest to 5 years of self-inflicted isolation. For that matter I’m not keen on losing any of the younger ones to that when the time comes. Sure, a smartphone might connect you to your friends, or to TIK TOK, or Twitter, or whatever social media is the flavour of the day,…but we are most assuredly disconnecting them from the world. The real one that is. The one with hot and cold, light and dark, wet and dry, pain and joy. On a phone, you can only simulate that stuff. To get it for real you need to get real. Trouble is, if you try and get them away from the cyber world, by going camping or bushwalking or fishing, the sneaky little cherubs will outsmart you. Out there in the bush, under the milky way, they’re under their blankets, hiding the fact that they’ve got phone range. The tell-tale glow from beneath the covers, will let you know it’s been folly.

There is however, one solution. One sure-fire way to inch your way back. You’ve got to get out of range, proper good. Lament no more mums and dads, there is a way! Get out here, with us, on Spoilsport. Out here there is NO RANGE. Out here there’s only real people, a real ocean, the real world. Out here you can reconnect. Not by phone, face to face. Reclaim the small joys in life. See the delight on the kids’ faces when they’re face to face with creatures of the deep. Turtles, Stingrays, Giant Clams. It’s all there in the shallows. All they need is a mask, a snorkel and a sense of adventure. Dropkick the Nokia and kickstart the ‘oohs and aahs’.  All you’ve got to do is take that first step and [the irony is stunning] pick up the phone.

The post The place to get grounded appeared first on Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.

Read More Go to Mike Ball Archive Mike Ball Dive Expeditions

When I was a boy, my life was straight out of an adventure novel. We lived a few hundred metres from a quite little bay, filled with fish, coral and rocks. At about age 13, our little gang built a raft from oil drums, timber and rope. We’d pole the raft around in the shallows spearing flathead and bream, then it would be frypans on an open fire and dreams of grander things. There was a book. A book I held dear. It was my blueprint for life. I read it cover to cover at least twice a year until it literally fell apart. A month back, my wife and I were chatting one night and I remembered the book. I told her about how it had been the driving force behind me wanting be a sailor and a diver, and that had shaped both of our lives. Google…Amazon…. it wasn’t hard to find a copy. Two weeks later there it was, a ragged old copy of my inspiration…the true story….”Escape to Adventure”.

The story starts in 1945. Ex-soldier George Konrat is having a hard time in the year immediately following the war. He and his friends are ostracized by their own people and hunted by the Allies. They have nowhere to live, no food and no hope. Together they decide to escape their perils by ‘procuring’ a small steamship anchored in Hamburg harbour. They steal the ship and after a year of evading just about everybody….they settle into a life of diving, thieving , black marketing, romancing, smuggling, gun running, bribery and general treachery. [All the cool stuff]. But mostly, they just dive.

They dive for sponges in Portugal, guns in Turkey, treasure in Morocco. They evade the law, they evade the mafia, heck they even evade the tax man!!! For 10 years George edges his way, bit by bit, towards the place where he will eventually settle down and leave his tiny ship. He steps off the boat onto the very wharf that Spoilsport now leaves from, in Cairns Australia.

I read my new copy, cover to cover the moment it arrived and decided “My crew must have this”. I brought the book on board and spread the word. “Read this, it set me on this path, it will inspire you too.”

Over the next few trips, the book made its way through many hands. Its message is simple and powerful. It reminds us that, despite the troubles of modern life, world is your oyster. One by one, the crew have come to the wheelhouse and we’ve marvelled at Georges story. To me the fact that he made his way right here, to Trinity Wharf, always amazes.

Our adventure though, is ongoing. Every Thursday we fire up the Yanmars, point our ship to sea, put the harbour lights behind us, and we go diving. So if you ever find yourself at Trinity Wharf, and the inclination for excitement takes you over, look to the north over the Coral Sea and take that step. I’m not suggesting you nick a ship and spend the next decade pillaging the ocean and evading the law; but for a week at a time, you could jump on Spoilsport, pretend you’re George and just, ‘Escape to Adventure’.

Latest Expeditions | Availbility

The post Escape to Adventure? appeared first on Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.

Read More Go to Mike Ball Archive Mike Ball Dive Expeditions

I turned all the lights off, just to take it all in. It was spooky calm and overcast. Spoilsports compass read North by northwest. Ahead lay 7 hours of magic carpet ride. The lighthouse at Bougainville Reef began to dip below the horizon in our wake. All I could hear was the faint hum of the motors and the swish of water. Everyone had retired for the night, the crew were asleep, it was just me and the Coral Sea. I took a sip of coffee and leaned, nose pressed against the window… then across the stillness I heard it… ”When you’re an adult, no one is going to pay you to stare out the window”

It was my grade 6 teacher coming for a visit. Coming to remind me that the world is a serious place. And you know, lately, it has been a serious place. Very serious.

You don’t need me to rehash the goings-on… But what I can tell you is about a way out, even if only briefly. You see I’ve discovered something that will change your world… I call it… the ‘Spoilsport Time Machine’. Here’s how it works.

You’re sitting at home getting bombarded hourly with news of the world. Djokovic, COVID, Afghanistan. It’s like it never lets up [that’s coz it never lets up]. You pack your dive gear, jump on a plane and head on down to the time machine. A glass of champagne and you’re away… The news of the world fades west with the sun.

By dawn, it’s wind on the water, birds zooming, flying fish… well flying I guess. All the dark clouds that shrouded you on the plane are gone with a capital “G”. It’s days of sun and fun, nights of laughter and full bellies… Pretty soon you’ve forgotten all about the tennis player.
And so it goes. Tropical limbo, until the time comes to re-enter the known universe. Coming down the Cairns leads, all phones leap back to life. But here’s the thing. You’ve missed a week. Things have jumped forward. Things have moved on. While you were gone, everything changed. Even if only by a small increment, you jumped forward in time.

Okay… I’m drawing a bit of a long bow here, but it really is a thing. There’s no internet on board and that’s deliberate. We tried it once and disconnected it. Life was better. And I know; I hear ya…
‘That’s how the world goes round’… But, for a week at a time, we can go without. For a week at a time, we can all jump on the time machine and just… chill.

We can forget the world is a serious place, raise a glass to my
grade 6 teacher and just… stare out the window.

The post Have you been in a Time Machine? appeared first on Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.

Read More Go to Mike Ball Archive Mike Ball Dive Expeditions

On my desktop at work there is a quote from a newspaper, at least a century old. It reads thus:

“Crew Wanted. For Hazardous Journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger. Safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in event of success.” Ernest Shackleton 4 Burlington St

I love the sentiment of that newspaper ad. Written in the days when ‘ships were wood and men were iron’. It reminds us that it’s not that long ago we didn’t really know that much about our planet.
Of course, the days of true romantic adventure are mostly over, there’re not many places we haven’t been, seen, taken a selfie at…Or are there?…

Ashmore Reef… Where is it? What is it? What will we see there? Are there any ship wrecks, whale sharks, MEGALODONS?… Will we fall off the edge of the earth? Probably not. But suffice to say that when we go to Ashmore, it will be a Shakletonesque Expedition. We’ve got rough itinerary, a great plan, and we are looking for a group of divers who fancy a bit of YE OLDE world exploration. And who wouldn’t?

Now don’t get me wrong, we’ve got the latest technology, satellite imagery, navigation electronics and world class crew to keep it super safe. Mike Ball Dive Expeditions have spent 50 plus years getting divers to places no one has been before. But what’s under the water? Well that’s still to discover. And it could be YOU, that discovers it!

Ernest Shackleton and his crew went on to create what is arguably the greatest adventure story the world has ever known. Where this will differ, is that there won’t be any: bitter cold, complete darkness or constant danger. What there will be, for those spirited souls who join us, is the chance to emulate the same sense of discovery and adventure that drove those now legendary sailors to answer Shackleton’s call to arms. The chance to seek for the first time, what is still genuinely unknown. All that remains is for you is to ask yourself, am I up for it?

The post Fancy a bit of YE OLDE world exploration? appeared first on Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.

Read More Go to Mike Ball Archive Mike Ball Dive Expeditions

It’s one of the most remarkable natural phenomenon’s on our planet and ensures the future of our coral reefs. Only a small number of people have witnessed coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef which has been described as a spectacular, coordinated frenzy. And this year is even more special with a ‘spilt-spawning’ occurring at inshore reefs at Geoffrey Bay, Magnetic Island.

What is coral spawning?
Every year corals simultaneously reproduce by releasing millions of tiny egg and sperm bundles into the water. The egg or sperm bundles rise to the surface and must come into contact with the same species in order to fertilise and reproduce. Fertilised eggs develop into larvae which, once matured, settles on the ocean floor and grows into coral. By mass spawning it increases the likelihood of successful fertilisation between eggs and sperm of the same species. Not all coral larvae survives because it is eaten by other marine animals like fish and plankton or washed out to sea.

DID YOU KNOW?
This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the discovery of coral spawning. It was at Geoffrey Bay on Magnetic Island where Professor Peter Harrison witnessed the mass spawning, and from that moment forward it transformed scientist’s understanding of sexual reproduction of corals. The first records of multiple species spawning together dates back to October 18 – 21, 1981.

Image credit: Coral Sea Foundation

When does it happen?
Coral spawning relates to the cycle of the full moon, the tides and temperature of the water. It usually happens 2 – 5 days after the full moon in November, however, because the full moon is late in November 2021 and the shallow water close to the coast is already warmer than the waters offshore, the inshore coral reefs on Magnetic Island will spawn twice – this is what is called a ‘split-spawning’. They spawned in October (Saturday 23) and will spawn again in November, after the full moon (Friday 19). Coral spawning only happens at night and generally lasts a few days. According to the CSIRO multiple coral spawning could increase recovery and resilience of the Reef due to there being a more consistent supply of coral larvae in the water. 

Image credit: Coral Sea Foundation

Why is coral spawning important?
Coral spawning is incredibly important to the overall survival of reef ecosystems. It helps coral populations regenerate and secures the future of our coral reefs. Without spawning, corals would cease to exist, and because corals are immobile this process allows new individual corals to spread and grow in otherwise uninhabited areas of the ocean. In years where there are ‘spilt-spawning’ events (like this year off the coast of Townsville) it’s incredible news for future coral populations in the region because there’s more chance of reproduction and larvae maturing to the stage where it can grow on the ocean floor.

Want to witness coral spawning?
This awe-inspiring act of nature usually only happens once a year, so if you’re interested in witnessing it for yourself, join our 2022 coral spawning list and we’ll keep you updated on trips and how to book, as it gets closer. Email info@adrenalindive.com.au to register your interest for 2022 trips.

The post Coral spawning season is here! appeared first on Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive.

Read More Trips, Uncategorized Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive

I was at the checkout in Woolies a while back, getting frustrated. There was this woman in front of me unpacking her trolley at a pace that even the most patient amongst us would consider mind-numbingly slow. One can of peas… stop to consider, put it back, pick up a different can of peas… Yes this one first I think. She had on a bright red dress, silver-grey hair, pencil-thin wrists, bright red lipstick and PERFECT teeth. She seemed sweet enough and since I was in no rush I stood back and watched the scene unfold. About ten minutes went by until it was established that her total came to $62.90. Another few minutes rolled by while she fumbled with her change, in the end she had the EXACT money. Like she’d been adding it up with a calculator as she went around the store. I was becoming intrigued.

The cashier had now moved on to me, but the old lady’s bags were still sitting at the end of the checkout. I thought I might lend her a quick hand so I walked forward and asked … “Can I help you put these in your trolley?” She flashed me those teeth in agreeance and giggled as the big strong gorilla zipped up her chilly bag and flexed his young[ish] muscles in assistance.

“Lifting those can be quite hard at my age”, she quipped. “When I was born my father was off fighting in the war”… I was instantly besotted with her and asked if she needed me to help her to the bus or even give her a ride home. She waved me away as if to say ‘Don’t make a fuss’. As she turned to leave I asked her. ‘“Was your father off fighting the Germans or the Japanese?” For a moment she blushed, then her words stopped me where I stood… “Are you trying to flatter me young man, my father was off fighting the Turks!”, then added, “My name is Violet and I’m over 100 years old!”

So now I literally begged her to let me drive her home. We idled down to the car park and chatted about all the things she had seen in that remarkable century. We talked about her marriage, her kids, the moon landings, heck we even talked about COVID 19! Pulling up to the little bungalow she’d called home for 50 odd years, I felt compelled to ask : “Hey Violet, any regrets?” “Only one”, she responded, “I’ve lived almost my whole life in Queensland, and I’ve never seen the reef.” and with that, she was gone.

Her words hung in the car all the way home, “I’ve never seen the reef”.

Two weeks later, on the calmest day I’ve ever seen, with a besotted gorilla clutching her hand, Violet saw the reef. Don’t dream about it.

Life’s awesome. Be like Violet. See the reef!

The post Don’t dream about it. See the Reef. appeared first on Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.

Read More Go to Mike Ball Archive Mike Ball Dive Expeditions

Locals enticed to explore their own backyard with exclusive deal

We are all guilty of getting sucked into the monotony of everyday life. But with so many wonderful experiences to enjoy it is time we become tourists in our own town. In the spirit of helping North Queenslanders discover something different, we at Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive are offering locals $50 off all dive and snorkel trips – including tours to the world’s first underwater museum.

If there’s one thing we’re great at, it is welcoming people from near and far… Being a local means everyone in the northern half of our beautiful state – from Mackay to the Cape and west to Mount Isa! We’re encouraging North Queenslanders to dive into this unmissable deal.

What can you experience?

Coral Greenhouse – Museum of Underwater Art

Just 2 hours off the coast of Townsville is the Southern Hemisphere’s first underwater museum – the Coral Greenhouse, part of the Museum of Underwater Art project. We are one of only a handful of commercial operators who have exclusive access to the site. The Coral Greenhouse at John Brewer reef was installed just over 12 months ago, so the marine life has well and truly moved in. The site is on the fringe of expansive shallow coral reef, so once you’ve checked out the Museum of Underwater Art – with a dive, snorkel or introductory dive, there is a spectacular example of the Great Barrier Reef a mere 30m paddle away. The 160 tonne structure can be seen by snorkelling the site, but if you would prefer to explore its intricacies, we recommend a scuba dive to have a closer look – even with an introductory dive.

Not a diver? No problem!

All reef tours are available to snorkellers or introductory divers! If you don’t have your certification but have a keen interest in what goes on under the surface of the big blue, why not consider a dive training course? We offer courses for beginners to advanced open water training that will get you on your way to dive deeper.

SS Yongala shipwreck

One of the world’s best wreck dives is just off Cape Bowling Green, east of Townsville. The SS Yongala sunk during a tropical cyclone more than 100 years ago! It’s the largest and intact historic shipwreck in Australia and is home to turtles, sea snakes, giant trevally, Queensland gropers, eagle rays, manta rays, thousands of tropical fish species – and in the cooler months, even whales! Exploring this beauty is reserved for certified divers and if you’re a local diver, you can save $50 off guided trips.

Grab your partner or a group of friends and book a trip today and make memories to last a lifetime. Locals from the Townsville, Cairns, Mackay, North Western regions out to Mount Isa and everywhere in between can book using the code ‘LOCAL50’ at the time of booking. Proof of postcode will be required when boarding. T&Cs apply, you can read them here.

You can find all our day trips here. And all our courses here.

The post Adrenalin Snorkel and Dive ‘Locals Offer’ launches appeared first on Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive.

Read More Trips, Uncategorized Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive

The Museum of Underwater Art ‘Coral Greenhouse’ on John Brewer Reef has been thrown into the international spotlight again, with PADI’s own Scuba Diving Magazine writing a feature article on Jason deCaires Taylor’s work around the globe. And of course his Australian project the ‘Coral Greenhouse’ which can be found off the coast of Townsville received a special shout out.

Where can I find the article?

PADI’s Scuba Diving Magazine can easily be found online. It highlights insightful tips when it comes to everything scuba diving, including new gear, training for beginners and experts, stunning photos and videos, and must visit dive locations – that’s where we come in!

One of their contributors did a deep dive into Jason deCaires Taylor’s work and how he is transforming coral reefs around the world for the better, like John Brewer Reef where the ‘Coral Greenhouse’ proudly stands.

You can read the article here.

Experience it for yourself

The ‘Coral Greenhouse’ is a world of it’s own, dive below the surface and experience the Southern Hemisphere’s only Museum of Underwater Art, we run 3 trips a week.

And if you’ve already been to the site… it’s changing everyday, with fish species finding a home amongst the Coral Greenhouse, so it’s guaranteed to have evolved and changed since your last visit.

You can book a trip to the Museum of Underwater Art with Adrenalin Snorkel and Dive every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. We take snorkelling and scuba diving groups out for the whole day. Book your next trip here.

The post Adrenalin Snorkel and Dive featured in international magazine appeared first on Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive.

Read More Trips, Uncategorized Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive