The first thing one notices about Golden Dawn is her sophisticated stabiliser system. While at anchor special paddles are suspended from booms on both sides of the boat. These minimise roll while in choppy seas and all but elimenate it at other times. While moving computer-aided gyroscopic stabilisers on the hull maintain an almost duckpond-like quality to her ride!!!

On the main deck Golden Dawn boasts a comfortable saloon with TV & VCR, where you can relax between dives and enjoy breakfast. Both lunch & supper are served buffet style on the upper deck. A large square table and benches under a shaded awning are the perfect place to enjoy a wonderful meal of freshly caught fish or a t-bone steak all the way from Australia! Aft of the eating area is a sunny deck with loungers. Forward is the captain's cabin and wheelhouse and more seating at the front. Forward of the saloon are two en suite cabins, each with queen sized bed below and single bunk above. Below decks there is another en suite cabin, again with double bed and single bunk. A twin-bedded cabin and a smaller twin bunked cabin, each with it's own basin make up the complement of only 5 cabins. A separate WC can also be found on the main deck.

Diving is easy! Most of the time you merely jump off the side of the boat, although in some cases a short ride in one of Golden Dawn's 2 tenders may be necessary. At the end of a dive merely walk up the strudy metal ladder suspended off the side of the boat! Nitrox blends and rebreathers are available at minimal additional cost.

Not only do we love Golden Dawn as a dive vessel, we love her crew. Craig de Wit, owner and skipper rotates a vast army of relief skippers, deckhands, divemasters, cooks and hostesses. As a consequence the crew are fresh and enthusiastic for every trip! Many of them are from the areas to which the boat travels, and so have intimate knowledge of the diving to be had.

Golden Dawn moves around PNG according to the seasons - she is always to be found in prime diving spots at any time of the year. Typically she starts the year based in Port Moresby, running out to Eastern Fields , massive oceanic reef systems in the PNG section of the Coral Sea. In late March she relocates to Milne Bay, home of muck diving, wrecks such as the B17 BomberBlackjack, and wonderful coral formations like Deacon's Reef. In June she then moves along the north coast, diving the "fjords" of Tufi, the S'Jacob and the Huon Gulf before arriving at Madang. From here she runs further northwards, diving the wreck of the Boston and others at Hansa Bay, Bagabag Island & Long Islands, before heading into Wewak. From Wewak Golden Dawn heads out into the most remote parts of PNG - the Hermit & Ningo Islands, incredible reef formations on the outer limits of diving! Here can be found huge schools of mobula rays, snapper, jacks, even grey reef sharks! Fresh ocean currents make for rip-roaring diving along channels chokced with giant sea fans and soft coral formations that put even the most brilliant of herbaceous borders to shame!