Key takeaways
- Snorkelling masks are provided, including prescription masks for anyone who normally wears glasses.
- A full lycra stinger suit is part of the gear, the standard cover worn against marine stingers on this coast.
- Wetsuits are supplied on a seasonal basis alongside the standard lycra suit and flotation devices.
- Fresh water showers are on board, so you can rinse off salt and sunscreen between the two reef visits.
Snorkelling gear, all included
Snorkelling gear is handed out as part of the cruise, not booked as an extra. A mask, a snorkel and a lycra suit are ready to collect once you're on board, and a marine guide is on hand to help with fit before the first swim of the day.
A flotation device is offered too, and it's worth taking even if you swim well. Between the two visits to Upolu Reef there's two and a half hours in the water each time, and not fighting to stay level makes it easier to actually look at the coral.
A marine guide leads a drift snorkel at both site visits, moving with the current along the reef rather than swimming back and forth against it. Having a mask and suit properly fitted before that starts saves working it out mid-swim, with the current already doing its job.
Prescription masks on board
The detail worth knowing if you wear glasses: prescription masks are part of the gear list. Normally a mask means a choice between blurred coral or swapping to contact lenses in a boat toilet, and this trip removes that choice.
It's a small thing that changes a lot underwater. The Wonder Wall, on the outer edge of Upolu Reef, has coral reaching to within about a metre of the surface, which is exactly the kind of detail a fogged or unfocused mask ruins.
It also means less faff before the first swim: no working out where to stash a lens case, and no listening to someone else describe a fish you couldn't quite make out yourself. Ask on board rather than assuming the option isn't there.
Gear fitted and stinger suits on before the first swim at Upolu Reef.
What a stinger suit is for
A stinger suit is a full lycra suit, arms and legs covered, and it's included with the rest of the gear rather than something to source yourself. Its job is to cover skin that would otherwise be exposed to marine stingers.
Box jellyfish and Irukandji are both present in tropical Queensland waters, and a lycra suit like this is the standard precaution snorkellers and divers take along this stretch of coast. Nobody needs to arrive already owning one.
It's the same routine followed on reef trips up and down this part of the coast, not a quirk of one boat or one operator. Putting one on is simply what people do here before getting in the water, whatever the forecast says.
Stinger season in Cairns
Stinger season in tropical Queensland is usually described as running roughly from November to May, though the exact start and end shift from year to year rather than falling on fixed dates.
Outside that rough window the risk is lower, but the suits are provided on every departure regardless of month, so there's no need to check a calendar before deciding whether to wear one. Weighing up the timing of a trip against a stinger calendar is effort better spent elsewhere.
6 hours
Six hours on the Great Barrier Reef across two visits to Upolu Reef, with all snorkelling gear supplied for the day.
Wetsuits, provided seasonally
Wetsuits are also on the gear list, supplied on a seasonal basis rather than year round. Whether one is out on the rack on a given day depends on conditions, so it isn't something to plan a trip around either way.
The practical approach is to dress for a swim in a lycra suit regardless, and treat a wetsuit as a bonus if it happens to be available that day rather than something to count on in advance.
Either way, the gear supplied is enough to be comfortable in the water for the two and a half hours spent at each of the two site visits, without needing to plan around what's issued on the day.
What to bring yourself
The operator's own list is short: sunglasses, swimwear, a towel, sunscreen and beachwear. Everything that goes in the water, mask, suit and flotation device, is supplied, so the packing list is mostly about the boat rather than the swim.
A reef-safe sunscreen, meaning one without oxybenzone or octinoxate, is worth packing on any reef trip as general good practice. It isn't something this cruise requires or hands out, just a sensible choice given where the water ends up. Putting it on before boarding rather than once you're already at the rail waiting to get in is the simplest way to make sure it actually happens.
Fresh water showers on board
Fresh water showers are fitted on the catamaran, which matters more than it sounds like it should after a morning in salt water and sunscreen. They're there to rinse off between the two visits to Upolu Reef and before the smorgasbord lunch.
With Danish pastry and fruit on boarding, tea and coffee through the day, and a full lunch spread moored between the two snorkel sessions, a rinse before sitting down to eat is the kind of ordinary comfort that's easy to overlook until it's missing.
The run back to Ports North takes around seventy-five minutes, much the same as the trip out, which is enough time to dry off in the sun and work through the platters of tropical fruit, cheese, crackers and cake put out for the way home.
