Odyssey Liveaboard, Australia

Well traveled diver loved Odyssey trip.

This dive trip to Rowley Shoals was on my bucket list for many years. We were lucky to be blessed with really great conditions. I did get a cabin to myself which was great. The crew were excellent - very experienced and happy to accommodate our needs. Remember to take your sea sickness meds, the toilets and showers are shared on the back deck. Water from all taps is drinkable from a desalinator. The team did their best to ensure we got the most dives possible and I was impressed that they assessed conditions before we got in. They called 2 dives off for safety reasons but added one on our last day when conditions had improved. All dives were on air which was clean. Extra snorkel activities were offered. Odyssey was a great experience for a well traveled diver. Obviously the excellent dive conditions helped to make this a fantastic trip.

Recommended for

The staff were amazing. The food was excellent. The boat seemed to be in great condition.

06 Nov, 2024

Dream trip, exceptional diving experience.

Abundance of marine life. Acquiring new dive buddies.

Recommended for

Pristine reef condition. Clear, warm water. Unplanned encounters with whales/dolphins

11 Nov, 2016

Beyond my dreams.

Horizontal Falls, fishing, wildlife.

Recommended for

Scenery, Fishing, food.

21 Aug, 2023

Pristine and healthy marine environmen at Rowley Shoals

I would rate the diving at Rowley Shoals 7/10 overall, with Mermaid Wall being the highlight dive site. Both hard and soft corals were very healthy with no sign of bleaching. Small fish life was abundant, with some larger fish species like milkfish, bump headed parrot fish, dogtooth tuna and a couple of mantas. Reef sharks, mainly white tips were seen on the majority of dives. I would have like to have seen more pelagics at Mermaid Reef, it being a complete no-take zone. Macro life was almost non-existent, saw only one of 2 nudibranchs across 6 days of diving. I did the one night dive that was offered, I rated it as one of the least interesting of my 1000+ dives. The boat itself was in good condition, the only drawback being the absence of ensuites in any of the cabins, all 4 toilets/ showers being situated at the dive deck at the stern of the boat. My lower deck cabin had a bar fridge but no sink / wash basin, & toilets were a steep climb up a flight of stairs. The boat itself is quite tall, as a result it is a bit rolly in sideswells & windy conditions. Boat and dive staff were very professional, with very high levels of attention to safety commensurate with the remoteness of the area. Food was good quality and plentiful, I gained a couple of kilos over the course of the week 🤭. My main suggestion for the operator would to provide information about rental gear on their website - they don’t stock their own hire gear but do have an arrangement with a sporting goods store in Broome - but I had to contact Odyssey by phone to get that info. Overall I’d rate Rowley Shoals as being good coral reef diving in a pristine but remote location.

Recommended for

Pristine marine environment of Rowley Shoals. Food was good quality and plentiful, soft drinks were free.. Very safe diving operations.

30 Oct, 2024

Fantastic trip

Great crew and guests made this a fun and relaxing trip. Reef is in great condition, seas were warm and calm. We had a fantastic trip with great diving, fishing and water sports

Recommended for

Staff, health of the reef, weather

09 Nov, 2020

A very enjoyable trip

Odyssey is usually used for trips up into the Kimberley so it is not primarily used as a dive boat. While she was more than adequate, on occasions it was obvious she hadn’t been designed as a dive boat. There are 4 bathrooms (each with hot shower & toilet) on the dive deck, used by punters & crew. None of the rooms have ensuites. The deluxe rooms have a sink, the standard rooms don’t. I had a standard room and it was fine. All have a fridge and separate aircon (although this doesn’t work when the compressor is in action), the mattress was comfortable & there was plenty of storage space. Soft drinks, juices & water provided, beer, wine & spirits extra. Diving is done from “Homer”, the tender. All of us dived from the one tender and while there was more than enough space, it took a while to pick everybody up / get everybody on board / into the water. An extra zodiac would improve efficiency significantly. There was no dedicated camera area on Odyssey, but a crate with fresh water to rinse cameras off in afterwards. Luckily, most of us just had GoPros but I think if anyone had a large camera / complex set up they may have found it annoying. There was a hose at the back of the boat to rinse of wetsuits etc after each dive but nothing to soak them in – I generally rinsed mine off in the shower. Nitrox was not available. We missed one dive as the compressor broke. Crew were easy going, friendly and efficient. Liam the chef kept the good food coming. Cooked breakfast every second day and on the days with no cooked breakfast you got dessert. I put on weight on the trip!! Plenty of snack food available – home baked cookies, fresh fruit…. It was about a 20 hour overnight steam to get to Rowley Shoals from Broome. Seasickness tablets were provided and I took my own concoction and felt fine. Others looked a little green about the gills. We boarded mid afternoon on the first day and our first 2 dives were the second day in the afternoon at Clerke atoll. Then 3-4 dives per day, with 2 on the last day before another overnight steam back to Broome. Fishing also available for those who were keen (I wasn’t but the fishermen in the group seemed pretty contented). The diving was good. We had one dive master for 15 punters… other crew members dived but they went off on their own rather than diving with the group. Max depth 30m, no deco diving. Briefings usually went along the lines of ‘descend to the wall, drift with the current and see what you see, follow the current, come up at 50 bar or 50 minutes, whichever comes first and set your SMB’(!!). Dive master kept an eye on us and pointed some things out but not outstanding at pointing things out but I guess she was busy enough keeping a watch on people which she seemed to do. Dives limited to 50 minutes or 50 bar (sigh, so not long dives) and then you set your SMB and were retrieved by Homer. Currents present but not strong. The diving – I was happy. The best thing for me was the stunning isolation, 360 degrees of horizon, turquoise waters (water temps 29-30 – most people dived in rash suits, I am cold blooded and even I was plenty warm enough in sharkskin!). The coral was pristine (I guess not often visited), colourful… Fish – plenty of white tipped reef sharks, grey reef sharks, saw some leopard sharks & a hammerhead was spotted. Turtles. Potato cod but the big cod promised at cod hole never eventuated. Schooling Trevally, the hugest Bumphead Parrot fish I have ever seen, coral trout, angel fish… many varieties of clown fish… We also had dolphins swimming at the bow of Odyssey and were lucky enough to see a Mama Humpback whale & her calf up close at Mermaid Atoll (this alone made the trip really!). We had 18 dives in the week long trip. Overall a fun trip with a good group of people.

Recommended for

isolation, stunning turquoise waters, great food

01 Nov, 2016