IMAGINE hopping on a catamaran, settling into a cosy double room with an ensuite, departing shore and spending the next seven days cruising around the Ningaloo reef and going for multiple dives a day.
If that sounds like a dream come true, you better get ready to pack your bags when Dive Ningaloo officially launches its new LiveAboard diving tour in 2021.
The week-long dive tour will be the first of its kind for the Exmouth region and is a lifelong dream for Dive Ningaloo owners Kirsten Sheppard and David Ross.
They started their diving business from nothing five years ago, using a small boat to take out four divers while they saved enough money to upgrade to something larger.
"It was something we both wanted to do for a long time, we loved diving, had both worked in the industry for many years and it was the next progression for us," Ms Sheppard said.
"We bought a boat from Kailis for a bargain price and proceeded to spend the next five months refitting her - it was a complete overhaul, she didn't even have a roof or sides to begin with, so we had to build toilets and dive decks.
"We were living on the boat at the time to save on costs and working 14-hour days to get the job done, after six months we were able to start proper diving tours, taking out decent numbers of people."
One year into operating, Dive Ningaloo was awarded the exclusive licence for the Exmouth Navy Pier by the Department of Defence, so all of a sudden the little business got a lot busier.
The pier is part of an active naval jetty and is one of the top 10 dives in Australia and one of the top shore dives in the world.
"Exmouth is not just about the whale sharks as so many people seem to think, there is a lot more to the region and having a top 10 dive site means people come to the area just to seek it out," Ms Sheppard said.
"Usually divers like going for either big or small stuff, but the pier has both - it's got large grey nurse sharks, big goliath gropers and giant moray eels, plus tiny little flat worms and shrimp, so it has something for everyone.
"Being a pier it's very much 3D, in that the pylons extend all the way up to the surface and have soft corals growing on them which means you can dive looking all around you, whereas normally you dive looking down on the seabed."
Having operated the Navy Pier tour for four years, Ms Sheppard and Mr Ross were looking for the next way to expand their business and over that time they did a couple of liveaboards in the Caribbean and Central America.
Serious divers tend to go towards the liveaboard option as it's comfortable and luxurious, plus a really great way to get a lot of dives in.
After going on a few of the week-long tours, the pair thought it was something that could work well in Ningaloo because there is such a huge area to explore.
While Ningaloo Reef on the west side of the peninsula is world renowned, there are also a load of beautiful islands nearby, which are surrounded by soft corals.
Ms Sheppard said the first step for them in starting the new venture was to get a boat, so at the end of 2019 they purchased another 'doer-upper'.
"Of course, the coronavirus then hit in March and we were very worried, we'd spent everything we'd saved on this new boat and then everything shut down," she said.
"We bought the boat in Queensland and for a while we couldn't even get over there to bring it back to WA, so it was a nerve-racking few months while we waited to see what happened."
With things starting to calm down, it was time for the pair to refit the new vessel and with that, they applied for a Regional Economic Development (RED) Grant from the State government to help with the cost.
They will use a $200,000 grant to get the 24-metre catamaran in operational order.
"We know a few other businesses in Exmouth that have applied for the RED Grants in previous years and received a lot of support, so we thought it was worthwhile applying ourselves," Ms Sheppard said.
"We asked for a decent sum of money, not expecting to be granted it, but thinking there was no harm in asking, so we were delighted when it was announced that we were successful."
Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan said Western Australians were out exploring the State like never before, with Exmouth top of the list.
"Through our RED Grant program, we're backing local tourism experiences on the reef," Ms MacTiernan said.
"Our grant to Dive Ningaloo will help this fantastic local business to refit a catamaran into the region's first LiveAboard dive boat - providing week-long dive tours for up to 18 people.
"It's a great addition to the local tourism product, creating local jobs and keeping people coming back to Exmouth year-on-year."
The refit of the boat has officially started with new running gear, engines, gensets, gearboxes and all the important machinery installed.
The next step is getting the cabins built and working on the aesthetics.
When completed, the 24-metre catamaran will have nine double or twin cabins, each with an ensuite, plus a hot tub, bar, sundeck, dining, lounge and living room, spread over three decks.
Once launched, the new tour offering from Dive Ningaloo will join the Aggressor liveaboards franchise, which is renowned for being high end week-long tours that operate in about 20 different spots around the world.
"Aggressor are very well established and have a great reputation with divers around the world, so for them to be keen to have us as part of their operation is fantastic and it means we will be the first Aggressor LiveAboard in Australia," Ms Sheppard said.
"We will operate under the Aggressor brand name and there is a general standard that is associated with that - it's a high end, luxury liveaboard with plated sit-down meals from a chef and other luxuries included.
"We'll be offering four dives a day with a wide variety, some deeper, some shallow, some night dives - the great thing about Ningaloo is the variety, we can travel half an hour to an hour and have some really different reefs and marine life."
While the finer details of the tour are still being worked out, it will likely cost between $4000 and $5000 for the week, which includes all meals, alcohol and dives.
The exact launch time is still up in the air as well due to coronavirus, but it will kick off towards the end of next year or the beginning of 2022.
The hope is that even if international travel isn't allowed at all next year, which is looking likely, by the end of the year the Ningaloo Aggressor will be ready to go for domestic clients.
Once operational, at least eight staff will be employed, including dive instructors, chef, engineer, skipper, general deckhands and administration workers.
Ms Sheppard said the liveaboard idea was something really new for the area, saying nothing on this scale was being offered.
"Being high end, it won't just offer a new tour to existing visitors to the area, but it will attract new tourists as well," she said.
"It's not sharing the same piece of the pie, but it will bring people in from America, the UK and Europe who wouldn't normally visit this area as there are people who travel the world doing liveaboard dive tours.
"We've got a couple hundred kilometres of reef to explore but it will also be weather dependent - we are a peninsula here at Exmouth, so we have a gulf as well as the open ocean side, so we have the ability to adjust the tour according to the weather."
Selfishly, Kirsten and David are excited for diving and all the new areas that will be available to them, but at a local level, they're hopeful for what it could mean for the community.
"It's going to be opportunistic for us to be able to explore more of the reef and discover new sites, with day dives you're limited to travelling a certain distance, but being out there for a whole week, we'll be able to travel further and do more exploration," Ms Sheppard said.
"However, I know there's a lot of people in tourism who are excited to have a different clientele to come to the region and the potential that can lead to."
