Aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef, turquoise lagoon against deep blue water

Expedition · Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea · June to November

THE OUTER REEF
by private yacht

Cod Hole, the Ribbon Reefs, Osprey Reef and the Yongala. Two thousand kilometres of reef, dived from a crewed superyacht with the compressor, the gear and the chef aboard.

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Chapter 01Contents

THE EXPEDITION Diving by private yacht

The best diving on the Great Barrier Reef is a long way from the coast. The Ribbon Reefs begin 140 kilometres north of Cairns, Osprey Reef is more than 300 kilometres out in the Coral Sea, and the Yongala lies twelve miles off a beach near Ayr. A yacht is the only way to dive them without a liveaboard bunk.

A dive expedition by yacht runs on your timetable. The tender drops you on the bommie at the moment the current is right and collects you where it leaves you. The compressor fills tanks while you eat. The surface interval is a sun deck, the debrief is over dinner, and the night dive at Challenger Bay ends with a hot shower and a cabin rather than a shared head.

The northern reef is the reason to go. Cod Hole and the Ribbon Reef bommies for the marine life and the corals, Osprey Reef's North Horn for sharks in numbers on walls that drop a thousand metres, the dwarf minke whales that gather nowhere else on earth so predictably, and the Yongala further south for the wreck dive of a lifetime. In the Whitsundays the outer reef at Bait Reef and Hardy Reef is a day's run from the yacht's home berth.

The reef is 2,300 kilometres long, with close to 3,000 individual reefs, 900 islands, more than 1,500 species of fish and 400 types of coral, and it has been World Heritage listed since 1981. Coral cover on the northern and central reef rose again in 2026 and sits close to its forty year average, though the reef has been through six mass bleaching events since 2016 and condition varies from reef to reef. Your dive guide chooses the sites for the season.

01

The Ribbon Reefs

Ten shelf edge reefs from Cairns to Lizard Island. Cod Hole, Steve's Bommie, Pixie Pinnacle, Lighthouse Bommie, Challenger Bay.

02

The Coral Sea

Osprey, Bougainville, Holmes and Flinders. Isolated seamounts, walls to a thousand metres, visibility to sixty.

03

The Yongala

Australia's largest intact historic wreck, lost with all aboard in 1911. Advanced divers, slack tide only.

04

The Whitsundays

Bait Reef and Hardy Reef on the outer barrier, humpbacks May to October, a day from Airlie Beach.

M/Y Impulsive at anchor inside a reef, aerial

At anchor on the reef

Guests snorkelling from the swim platform

Snorkellers off the platform

The surface interval

Next chapter03 · The sites

Chapter 03The sites

Depths and conditions vary by season

THE SITES Cairns to the Coral Sea

Site	Where	Depth	What you see	Suits
Cod Hole	Ribbon Reef No. 10, twenty kilometres east of Lizard Island	10 to 30 m	Resident potato cod to 1.8 metres, coral trout, sweetlips, reef sharks, trevally	All levels
Steve's Bommie	Ribbon Reef No. 3	A pinnacle from 30 m to 5 m	Big eye trevally, barracuda, leafy scorpionfish, wobbegongs, nudibranchs, minkes in season	All levels
Pixie Pinnacle	Between Ribbon Reefs No. 9 and No. 10	30 m to the surface	A fifteen metre wide pinnacle of anthias, pipefish, mantis shrimp and macro life	All levels, current on some tides
Lighthouse Bommie	Ribbon Reefs	30 m to 5 m	Gorgonians, sea whips, eagle rays, mantas, turtles, the minke whale playground in June and July	All levels
Osprey Reef	Coral Sea, more than 300 km from Cairns	Walls to 1,000 m within a kilometre of the reef	North Horn shark amphitheatre: grey reef, whitetip and silvertip sharks, hammerheads in the cooler months, nautilus. Visibility 30 to 60 metres	Experienced divers
Bougainville Reef	Coral Sea, 230 km north east of Cairns	15 to 40 m walls	Bumphead parrotfish in schools, sharks, rays, tuna, turtles, the 1961 wreck of the Antonio Tarabocchia	All levels
Holmes and Flinders Reefs	Coral Sea, 240 km east of Cairns and 230 km north east of Townsville	5 to 40 m, walls beyond	Caves, canyons and swim throughs to the drop, silvertips, gorgonians over five metres at Cod Wall	Experienced divers
SS Yongala	Twelve nautical miles off Cape Bowling Green, near Ayr	14 to 30 m	Australia's largest intact historic wreck, lost in a cyclone in 1911. Giant groper, marble rays, eagle rays, bull sharks, barracuda, sea snakes	Experienced divers, slack tide
Bait Reef and Hardy Reef	Whitsundays outer reef, eighty kilometres from Airlie Beach	3 to 36 m	Stepping Stones pinnacles, the Manta Ray drop off, giant clams, turtles, reef sharks, humpbacks passing May to October	All levels

Depths are indicative ranges from published dive guides. Osprey Reef, the Coral Sea walls and the Yongala are for experienced divers; the nearest hyperbaric chamber is Townsville, so Coral Sea profiles are conservative and nitrox is recommended.

Next chapter04 · Seasons

Chapter 04Seasons

Best time to dive the Great Barrier Reef

JUNE TO NOVEMBER

The south east trades ease from June and visibility peaks from September to November, reaching thirty metres on the Ribbons and sixty in the Coral Sea. Dwarf minke whales gather on the northern Ribbon Reefs in June and July, humpbacks pass through from July to September, and the outer reef spawns after the November or December full moon in a few nights of the year that divers plan around.

Stinger season runs November to May inshore; the outer reef risk is low and lycra suits are carried year round. Summer brings warm water, some runoff inshore and the cyclone season from November to April.

MonthJFMAMJJASOND

Best visibility, Ribbons and Coral Sea

Dwarf minke whales

Humpback whales

Coral spawning

Stinger season, inshore

Cyclone season

June to November is the window. Water 22 to 24 degrees in winter, 27 to 29 in summer.

Next chapter05 · The Reef

Chapter 05The Reef

World Heritage since 1981

THE REEF by the numbers

2,300kilometres, Cape York to Bundaberg

2,900individual reefs

900islands and cays

1,500+species of fish

400types of coral

30+species of whale and dolphin

6 of 7of the world's marine turtles

1,000 mthe wall at Osprey Reef

The minke whales are the encounter no other reef can offer. Dwarf minkes, up to eight metres and six tonnes, gather on the northern Ribbon Reefs every June and July, the only known predictable aggregation of the species in the world.

Swims run under a code of practice developed with James Cook University's Minke Whale Project, which has studied the animals here for thirty seasons: swimmers hold a surface line, the whales choose the approach, and a small number of endorsed operators hold the permits. Encounter rates run above ninety percent in season, with two or three whales staying for an hour or more. The central agent arranges an endorsed operator to work alongside the yacht for the June and July dates.

The potato cod of Cod Hole are the other residents worth the passage: a dozen or so fish to 1.8 metres, habituated over decades, on a sandy bottom in ten to twenty metres twenty kilometres east of Lizard Island.

Next chapter06 · Itineraries

Chapter 06Itineraries

Seven nights · routing follows the weather and the whales

SAMPLE ITINERARIES Three ways north

RIBBON REEFS Cairns to Lizard Island

Cairns to AgincourtBoard at Cairns, run north to the outer Ribbons for a check dive on the walls of Agincourt Reef.
Ribbon No. 3Steve's Bommie morning and afternoon, a night dive on the pinnacle.
Ribbon No. 5 to No. 9Bommies and drift walls working north. Minke whales alongside in June and July.
Ribbon No. 10Cod Hole, Pixie Pinnacle, Dynamite Pass on the tide, Challenger Bay at night.
Lighthouse BommieThe minke playground and the mantas. Lizard Island lagoon for the evening.
Lizard IslandClam Gardens, the Snake Pit in good conditions, the walk to Cook's Look.
Lizard IslandA final morning on the reef before the charter flight to Cairns, or the cruise south.

CORAL SEA Osprey and beyond

Cairns to the RibbonsAn overnight run north with a warm up dive on the outer Ribbons.
Osprey ReefNorth Horn: the shark amphitheatre at twelve metres, the wall to a thousand.
Osprey ReefThe lagoon, the nautilus, a second day on the walls in sixty metre visibility.
Bougainville ReefBumphead parrotfish, the Tarabocchia wreck, the southern wall.
Holmes ReefNonki Bommie, the caves and swim throughs to the drop off.
Holmes to the RibbonsThe run back to the shelf, a bommie dive on arrival.
CairnsA last morning on the reef and the cruise into Cairns.

THE YONGALA and the Whitsundays

Airlie Beach to Bait ReefDepart the Whitsundays for the outer barrier. Stepping Stones in the afternoon.
Bait ReefThe Manta Ray drop off, the chimney, the corkscrew whips at thirty metres.
Hardy ReefThe lagoon for the newer divers, the drop offs for the rest. Heart Reef by helicopter.
North to Cape Bowling GreenA passage day. Humpbacks on the way from July to September.
SS YongalaTwo dives on the wreck at slack tide. Groper, marble rays, barracuda in the thousands.
SS YongalaA final morning dive, then south through the islands.
WhitsundaysWhitehaven Beach and Hill Inlet on the way home to Airlie Beach.

Indicative only. The captain and dive guide set the sites for the season, the tide and the group.

Next chapter07 · Diving from a yacht

Chapter 07Diving from a yacht

How it runs on board

DIVING from a yacht

Every dive from a CharterYacht.com yacht runs under Queensland's recreational diving code of practice: a dive supervisor at the surface, a dedicated lookout, double head counts, a dive log, oxygen and a written emergency plan aboard.

Certified divers show their card and a medical declaration. Newly certified and entry level divers are guided at the ratios the code sets. Courses from Open Water to Advanced and Nitrox can be run on board with an instructor for the charter, and the yacht carries lycra stinger suits year round.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park needs no permit for recreational diving from a private yacht; the crew handle zoning, public moorings, anchoring limits and the environmental management charge, and Coral Sea sites sit in national park zones where diving is free and fishing is not. The Yongala is a protected wreck with its own free permit and moorings, arranged ahead of the charter.

The nearest hyperbaric chamber is Townsville University Hospital. On the Coral Sea, ten hours from Cairns, profiles stay conservative and nitrox is recommended for repetitive diving.

01

Supervisor and lookout

At the surface for every dive, with head counts before departure and before the yacht leaves the site.

02

Oxygen and plan

Oxygen kit and a trained operator aboard, a written evacuation plan, Alpha flag flying.

03

Gear and fills

Compressor, tanks and gear on the yacht, nitrox by arrangement, guide and instructor for the charter.

04

Permits

Handled by the crew: marine park zoning and moorings, the environmental charge, the Yongala permit, minke operator bookings.

Next chapter08 · Questions

Chapter 08Questions

QUESTIONS Before you ask

When is the best time to dive the Great Barrier Reef

June to November. The south east trades ease, visibility peaks from September to November on the Ribbon Reefs and in the Coral Sea, dwarf minke whales visit in June and July, humpbacks pass through in August and September, and the coral spawns after the November or December full moon.

Can you swim with minke whales on the Great Barrier Reef

Yes, in June and July on the northern Ribbon Reefs. The northern Great Barrier Reef is the only known predictable aggregation of dwarf minke whales in the world, and swims run under a code of practice through a small number of endorsed operators, which the central agent arranges alongside the yacht.

Do I need to be an advanced diver

No. Cod Hole, the Ribbon Reef bommies and the Whitsundays outer reef suit newly certified divers. Osprey Reef, the Coral Sea walls and the SS Yongala are for experienced divers, and the Yongala is dived at slack tide only.

Is there a stinger season

November to May in tropical Queensland. Lycra stinger suits are carried year round, and the risk on the outer reef is low.

Which yacht carries dive gear

M/Y Lumir carries three sets of dive gear, a sport fishing arsenal and a Technohull chase tender. Compressor, tank fills and an instructor can be arranged for every yacht in the fleet.

Do we need a permit to dive from a private yacht

Recreational diving from a yacht needs no permit in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Commercial arrangements, moorings, anchoring zones and the environmental management charge are handled by the crew and the central agent.

Next chapter09 · How we make it possible

Sun loungers on the aft deck of M/Y Impulsive at dusk

Chapter 09How we make it possible

The fleet · Central agent

HOW WE MAKE IT possible

Four crewed yachts in the managed fleet run the Queensland coast through the dive season. Each carries the gear, the compressor and the tender, and each has a chef waiting when you surface.

A yacht changes what a dive trip is. The compressor runs while you eat, the tender drops you on the bommie and picks you up where the current leaves you, and the surface interval is a sun deck rather than a bench. Non-divers snorkel the lagoon, fish the reef edge or stay dry with a book.

Lumir carries three sets of dive gear and a Technohull chase tender and works the northern reef from July. Impulsive, Sunset and Sea Raes can each be fitted for a dive charter with a compressor, tanks, gear and an instructor arranged for the trip. Every dive runs under the Queensland recreational diving code of practice, with a dive supervisor, a surface lookout and oxygen aboard.

Pricing is the published rate plus the advance provisioning allowance for fuel, food and beverages. Dive guiding, gear, fills and nitrox are quoted per day, and minke whale swims are arranged with an endorsed operator for June and July.

Lumir37m · 10 guests · per week from AUD $120,000

Impulsive40.2m · 12 guests · per week from AUD $175,000

Sunset35m · 10 to 12 guests · per week from AUD $160,000

Sea Raes30.5m · 8 guests · per hour from AUD $2,000

What is included, what is quoted

Seven night reef expeditionYacht, crew and chef, tender, snorkelling gear. Published weekly rate plus APA.
Dive packageGuide, gear, tanks and fills for the charter. Quoted per day.
NitroxFor repetitive Coral Sea diving. Quoted per fill.
Minke whale swimJune and July, Ribbon Reefs, with an endorsed operator. Quoted per person.
Courses on boardOpen Water to Advanced with an instructor aboard. Quoted per course.
Helicopter transfersCairns or Hamilton Island to the yacht. Quoted per flight.

Every expedition is priced for its dates, its yacht and its group. Ask the central agent for the number.

Next chapter10 · Lumir

Chapter 10The fleet · III

M/Y

LUMIR

A Heesen, out of a 2026 refit. Thirty-one knots flat out, and the most serious fishing arsenal in the fleet

Brochure (PDF) Rate card (PDF)

M/Y Lumir

The ESSENTIALS

37mLength

HeesenBuilder

2005Year · Refit 2026

10Guests sleeping

4Cabins

6Crew

55Day capacity

Sydney · Airlie BeachHome berths

AUD $120,000per week

Lumir is the sport yacht. Dutch built, thirty-seven metres, six crew and a 2024 Technohull Omega 47 tender. Aboard are game rods, railguns and three sets of dive gear, all included. She is the yacht to put in front of a client who wants the season, not the marina.

Beam: 7.47m
Draft: 1.88m
Engines: 2 × MTU 16V 4000
Cruising: 13.5kn
Max speed: 31kn max
Tonnage: 245 GT
Flag: Australia
Home port: Airlie Beach, the Whitsundays
Cabin mix: Master, 2 VIP, Twin

GALLERY

Where she goes · Australia & the South Pacific

CRUISING GROUNDS

Sydney Harbour from November to June. From July she works the Whitsundays and Tropical North Queensland: the heavy-tackle black marlin grounds off Cairns and Lizard Island, and the ribbon reefs of the outer Great Barrier Reef.

Prime seasons 2026/27JFMAMJJASOND

Sydney

Whitsundays & Tropical North Queensland

Calendar for the 2026/27 season. Positions change year on year.

ACCOMMODATION

4 cabins · 10 guests sleeping

ON BOARD

Toys & tender

2024 Technohull Omega 47 tender
2 × Seadoo jetskis
Flite eFoil scooter & 2 × Fliteboards
Seascooter
Inflatable sea pool & Lilypad
Towing & lounge inflatables
2 × Stand-up paddleboards
Dive equipment, 3 sets
Deck jacuzzi & sundeck bar

Spearfishing

Rob Allen Tuna Pro 1200, double rubber & roller
Rob Allen Sniper 1300 / 1200 / 1100 railguns
Rob Allen Sparid Evo 1100 & Snapper 1100
Salvimar Nightmare & Hero 1250 railguns
Torelli Taipan 1000 & 2 × Beuchat Marlin

Fishing

2 × Shimano Tiagra game rods, 24kg
3 × Penn Squall trawling rods & combos
2 × Spinfisher SSM casting rods
4 × Shimano Tag'em / Spheros casting combos

RATES 2026/27

per week from AUD $120,000

Charter	Period	Rate	Terms
Weekly	7 nights, 8 days	AUD $120,000	Incl GST, + APA
Nightly	24 hours	AUD $22,000	Incl GST, + APA
Full day	8 hours	AUD $18,000	Incl GST, + APA
Half day	4 hours	AUD $14,000	Incl GST, + APA

Rate card (PDF) Hold dates on Lumir

Next chapter11 · Impulsive

Chapter 11The fleet · I

M/Y