Latest News 
- Sail Ningaloo is pleased to announce it has just received its ADVANCED Eco-Tourism accreditation. A just reward for all the hard work on the boat and in the office. Keep up the good work Team !
“News from out on the water”
January 2012
The 2012 Ningaloo Reef season is fast approaching and because it was so popular last season we are extending our Bonus Night FREE offer again! So be sure to book your Sail Ningaloo getaway soon as spaces are limited.
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NEW for 2012 - we are extending our season and offering tours through to the end of December!
December 2011
Shore Thing Sailing Charters is ready to show you and your friends a great day out on the water departing Fremantle until the end of February!
July 2011
Sail Ningaloo is please to annouce that it is an authorised PADI Dive Boat member.
24th June 2011
This day will go down in history as the World Heritage Committee decided to inscribe the Ningaloo Coast on the World Heritage List, acknowledging it as one of the outstanding natural places in the world. Read more here
June 2011
The weather gods have been very kind over the last few weeks and Shore Thing and the merry crew having been making the most of the glorious conditions. A report just in from the past 15 days on the water (with another 20 days coming up!) has seen the record for turtles seen on one snorkel smashed and increased to over 50. Other worthwhile sightings in the last couple of weeks include some very friendly QLD groupers seen whilst diving and snorkeling and a couple of tiger shark sightings whilst diving providing the fortunate few who caught a glimpse a real buzz. As always the hosts Lannie and Leonie have been cooking up a gourmet feast on board with many guests requesting they start a restaurant in Coral Bay! Oh and did i mention the 6 Manta Rays seen for over an hour whilst diving, that was a dive to go down in the record books.
May 2011Sail Ningaloo on television! Last year the crew welcomed aboard the TV crew from the Channel Nine Postcards WA television program for 24 hours. During that time we managed to see whales and dolphins, swim with turtles, sharks and Manta Rays and as always eat some delicious gourmet food. You can see all the action over and over again right here (Video courtesy of Channel 9/WIN). In other news this month we just got back from a charter where we swam with a phenomenal 42 Turtles in one snorkel. They were all green turtles and so we have named the site "The Green Mile". |
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Easter 2011
Over the Easter long weekend, Sail Ningaloo was thrilled to be on the front cover of the West Australian's Weekend Travel Liftout. If you missed the paper that weekend you can read the article here courtesy of The West Australian.
April 2011
It just doesn't stop up here on the Ningaloo Reef, the full tourist season hasn't even started yet we are flat out...mainly swimming and diving with Manta Rays but geez it's tough ! This is a bit of a belated update but it's never too late. Earlier this year we had one of our article's published in 'Australasia Scuba Diver' magazine. It's a collectors edition and an article we'd written about the Ningaloo Reef and our little explorations are featured in it. If you can, you should try and get your hands on a copy but if not here is a little sneak peak. We hope you enjoy it. (just click on the image to download the article)
March 2011
Well what a start to the season! Having safely arrived up in Coral Bay from Fremantle, Shore Thing was hastily prepared for our first tours. Its an early start to this season but what a start it's been. We've already completed two trips back to back and guests have been over the moon with their Sail Ningaloo experiences, and rightly so because the Ningaloo Reef has been putting on an almighty show! Manta Rays have been seen in abundance with each trip swimming with over 10 different Manta Rays. Reef sharks are definitely still around and there have been plenty of turtle and stingray sightings too...even a few dugongs have been sighted. In other activity on the reef, Whale Sharks are being seen on a daily basis which is great news. And as we write this everyone is holding their breath for the upcoming Coral spawning (partly because it can really smell!), due any day now. It will be interesting to see what happens because over the summer the water temperatures have been quite high and some of the corals have been stressed. We'll do our best to keep you updated with what happens in the coming weeks as the whole Ningaloo Reef eco system steps up a gear.
News just to hand!
Just announced on 18th January, Qantas will operate 3 times per week to Exmouth (Learmonth) from 31st March 2011. This new service will greatly open up the options available to those visiting the World Heritage nominated Ningaloo Reef. Qantas regional gm WA/NT, Ian Gay, said the move was a “welcome addition to our operations in the north of the state, providing new air links for the local community and the business, tourism, mining and energy sectors”. Sail Ningaloo guests now have the option to fly with either Qantas of Skywest.
New Manta Ray Research Expedition
Sail Ningaloo is now offering a dedicated Manta Ray Research Expedition. Guests are able to join this 5 day expedition with renown Ningaloo Manta researcher Frazer McGregor. It will be a great trip on which you will learn as much as there is to know about manta rays and they way they use the Ningaloo Reef .... and have a great time too, swimming and photographing these graceful giants of the marine world. Contact us for more information and check out our Manta Ray page online.
The Sail Ningaloo Blog is up and running. Stay in touch with what Shore Thing & it's crew have been up to and things they have been seeing.
Check this out !Check out these tiger sharks feeding on the carcass of a Humpback Whale that washed in over the reef near Coral Bay, Western Australia. We saw this whilst out on "Shore Thing" returning from one of our trips. The feasting lasted about 3 days and all that was left in the end was a pile of bones. Some of these Tiger Sharks are probably four metres long and so full you can see there bellies bulging. There was up to 20 sharks visible in a small area that day and the footage captures up to 4 feeding on the carcass at any one time. These are amazing creatures and in an environment like the Ningaloo Reef, where there is so much food for them, the eco system is in balance and they cause no problems for humans. An awesome example of the life that exists on the Ningaloo Reef and some of the amazing things that are seen whilst out on Shore Thing. A day to remember for a long time! |
“News from out on the water”
January 2011
It's a new year and boy oh boy is it going to be a great year!
Whilst Shore Thing is still down in Fremantle cruising to and from Rottnest Island, we are already gearing up for what is going to be a great year up on Ningaloo Reef with our tours starting to fill up you better get in sooner rather than later to secure your place on Shore Thing.
We have just added a new option for our liveaboard trips and one that is going to create quite a lot of interest. We now offer liveaboard Manta Ray expeditions. Come and join Shore Thing and the crew along with local researcher Frazer McGregor, for 5 days exploring the Ningaloo Reef in search of as many Manta Rays as we can find. The ultimate goal is to gather as much information as we can in 5 days and identify as many individuals at the same time. Did you know that the only way to identify a Manta Ray is to take a photo? So it looks like we'll be spending alot of time swimming with manta rays this year! Hopefully we'll be able to spot some of our old Manta buddies such as Freckles, Whoopi and Ouch and add a few new friends to the Coral Bay Manta community at the same time. Check out more details under our Ningaloo Reef tours or contact us to find out more information. Places are limited so book early.
December 2010
Season's greeting from all the crew at Shore Thing Sailing Charters!
This year has just flown by and it's hard to believe that it's almost Christmas. Shore Thing has been out and about cruising over to Rottnest Island celebrating the end of the year with some corporate clients and also a few birthday celebrations of international and local guests. Although summer has just begun, you don't want to leave it too late to book a day out on Shore Thing because before you know it we'll be heading back up north to Coral Bay and the place we call home, the Ningaloo Reef.
To celebrate Christmas, Sail Ningaloo has a great new special on offer for all our 2011 Ningaloo Reef trips. Check out the "Specials Deals" page now and book early to secure your spot exploring the magical Ningaloo Reef on Shore Thing in 2011.
November 2010
Shore Thing is in Fremantle! The crew successfully completed the 500nm trip from Coral Bay to Fremantle early in November and is now ready to go for the summer season in Perth waters. Everything is ready to go for our tours and charters out to Rottnest and we can't wait!
October 2010
We've just finished our very last tour for the season and we are getting ready to head down to Perth & Fremantle to cruise around Rottnest. Check out our Summer Perth tours page see what is going on.
Little whisper around town is that there might be something special happening on Shore Thing before we leave for Perth. As soon as the secret is allowed out we'll let you know!
Happy Sailing.
September 2010
It's only just begun but on the 1st of September Shore Thing returned from an incredible trip out with our friends from Perth Scuba. We'd departed 3 days earlier and it was up to the crew to show these keen divers the best of Ningaloo. After 7 dives, a couple of night dives, some whale watching, freshly caught fish, swimming with sharks, manta rays, and turtles, not too mention all of the fresh gourmet food, the resounding response from the group was ...."Wow!"
A truly world class trip and almost too much to take in in 3 days and we're pretty confident we'll be able to show the guys from Perth Scuba even more when they come back for 5 days next year.
Just to Hand
Going back to our July news update, and also our blog article "The best family holiday ever!", we mentioned how good the whale watching had been and some of the great images we had captured and also some of the images our guests had captured. Well news just to hand is that one of our guests, David Hince, has just won an ABC radio competition with one of his images! Wow, great work David. You can read why his image won here. From all of the Sail Ningaloo crew we are over the moon for David and can't congratulate him enough! You can check out a few more of David's images in our Humpback Whale gallery and also some of the images the Shore Thing crew have taken over the last few months.
August 2010
Can you hear that?
It sounds likes wedding bells. Thats right the wedding bells have been ringing in Coral Bay and on Shore Thing. The crew are pleased to have completed their very first wedding celebration and what a hit it was. Although we had some bad weather in the few days leading up to it, the weekend was magical with clear blue skies and gentle breezes turning the Ningaloo Reef into a magical location for a wedding. With guests from all over the country onboard, they weren't dissappointed and had a memorable 2 days cruising the Ningaloo Reef and celebrating the wedding of Shannon & Vanessa. We all wish them every happiness for the future.
July 2010
Did i say Humpback whales are here ? I meant, Humpback Whales are definitely here! We have had some great weather in July and some even better Humpback Whale interactions along the Ningaloo Reef. Check out some of our latest images in the Humpback Whale gallery, with some great images of whales breaching captured by one of our guests, David Hince. There are also some great images of one of our favourite little whales spy hopping just before he settled down for a nap. Manta Ray activity has also increased with our best day all year reaching a total of 15 different Mantas.Luke was as giddy as a little school boy again after jumping in time and time agian to capture all important identification shots to aid the research conducted through the North West Research Association and the Coral Bay research facility.
June 2010
Humpback whales are here ! On our latest trip out we were witness to one of last years newborns showing off some of the skills he has been working on in the last year. Breaching 4 or 5 times alongside his mother, the young calf was making his way North to celebrate his birthday. On a dive we were also lucky enough to see not 1, but 2 Grey Nurse Sharks. Perfectly harmless, these very toothy sharks are actually listed as vulnerable to extinction and are a protected species in Western Australian waters, and recent news in the media of a breeding site along the Ningaloo Reef means every sighting is of importance.
May 2010
The Reef is truly alive. Manta Rays and Whale Sharks all over the place. Trips out saw us visit the Norwegian Bay Whaling station, where i think someone forgot to tell some toothy critters that the station isn't used anymore. A couple of sightings of Tiger Sharks (whilst from the safety of Shore Thing!) had the adrenalin pumping. Whilst sightings of Dugongs in
Norwegian Bay area was also a first for the crew.
Don't just keep up to date with the latest news from Ningaloo Reef, come out and join us Exploring the Ningaloo Reef In Style and help us make some news.
Check our Calendar of departures or make a Booking Enquiry