Welcome to our Silversonic Dive Trip Review – Port Douglas Agincourt Reefs. Being the middle of JUNE normally the weather should be bold blue skies, sunshine and light sea breezes. Unfortunately, this was not the case the day we choose to dive on Silversonic Dive and Snorkel who operate from Port Douglas, the weather was terrible.

Surface conditions where rough, the wind was pushing 25 knots, it felt cold and we even had some rain. Not to worry we were scuba diving and we booked three certified dives for the day. This means we spent most of the day underwater blowing bubbles.

Check-in for the day is at the Port Douglas Super Yacht Marina at 7:45 am. There is a free large car park out the front of the Marina so you can leave your car there all day. If you are staying in Cairns allow 45 minutes to drive from Cairns to Port Douglas. If you do not have a car then bus transfers can be organized for a little over $30 per person this is a return ticket from a Cairns Hotel.

Silversonic Diving Port Douglas and the Agincourt Reef – Trip Review Video AUGUST 2024

Dive Site – 01: Castle Rock

We depart the Marina at 8:30 am and arrive at the first dive site of the day Castle Rock. The journey to the reef (1 hour 15 minutes) all divers are given a detailed dive briefing, we sign all paperwork and are put into buddy groups with fellow certified divers. As the boat prepares to Moore all certified divers are called to the dive deck to gear up. Certified divers are the first ones in the water. This is the same at all three reef sites that we visit on the day.

Dive times are around 50 minutes, visibility pushes out to around 18 meters. This is very surprising as the surface conditions where terrible. Underwater it was beautiful. (These can be the benefits of diving during the winter months from Cairns / Port Douglas. The cooler water generally gives way to fantastic underwater visibility). Although surface conditions were not favorable.

With water temperature sitting near 23/24 degrees Celsius we dove with our own wetsuits. 5mm long sleeve with a hood. This is my usual set up all year round. If you do not have your own gear, not to worry full dive gear is provided, i.e. wetsuit, snorkel, fins, mask, lycra suit, BCD, regulator and dive computer.

On Silversonic all dives are guided by professional dive instructors. We have 5 people in our little dive group including the dive instructor.

As the dive guides know the reefs we are very happy to spot a mantis shrimp, stingrays, white tip reef sharks, many colourful damselfish and tiny glassfish.  After a 45-minute surface interval, we are ready for dive two.

If you are interested to find out which place offers the best diving check our latest article; Is it better to dive from Cairns or Port Douglas?

Dive Site – 02: Turtle Bay

The boat moves a short 15-minute ride to our second dive site of the day, Turtle Bay. Now as the name suggest we were super excited to see lots of turtles. But as it turns out they were not around, instead, we run into a very large Malaba Cod. This guys were super friendly and really came in very close to check us out.  See the photos for a better idea.

Dive Site  – 03: Pavona

After the second dive its time for some lunch, a nice hot and cold buffet with hot soup, beef curry, prawns, rice dishes, sushi, fresh tropical fruits, desert and more.  Just as you finish eating the crew gives the last call for lunch before packing up. The boat moves off to the third dive site of the day. This will be last dive site of the before heading home back to Port Douglas.

Arriving at the third dive site of the day named Pavona the wind is still howling and surface conditions are as rough as can be. We pull on our cold wetsuits and get back in for the last dive of the day. What a beautiful site. Visibility is still pushing near 20+ meters and lots of beautiful vibrant soft and hard corals, anemonefish, glassfish and more large schools of sweetlips and bigeye trevally.

Returning to the boat at around 2:45 pm we get back on board, wash down our dive gear, the crew is busy preparing the boat for the return journey back to Port Douglas Marina. Docking back at the Marina (4:30 pm) we are happy to set foot on land to get away from the rough surface conditions. But one thing that stands out is the fantastic service from all of the crew and the fact this is was still a fantastic day of diving with great visibility.

Conclusion: